Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Greenhalgh on 16 September (HL7638), what assessment they have made of the letter sent by the Rural Services Network to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 18 August which stated that the definition of “designated rural areas” in section 157 of the Housing Act 1985 and subsequently used in their consultation Changes to the current planning system, published on 6 August, does not apply to 70 per cent of smaller rural communities.
The Government is currently consulting on this matter and will take all responses to the consultation into consideration.