Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 78185 on Glenigan, what assessment has Glenigan made of the reasons for sites with planning permission not being (a) started and (b) completed.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Glenigan gathers data from the websites of local planning authorities. They supplement this with additional research tracking expected start and completion dates for the construction phase of larger sites.
Glenigan undertakes no systematic labelling of reasons why individual sites have not yet started or completed construction, and my Department is not aware of their publishing any assessments in relation to this specific matter.
Asked by: Alison Griffiths (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance the Environment Agency provides to local planning authorities on assessing the cumulative impact of development on surface water flood risk and drainage capacity in low-lying coastal areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) are the lead authority for managing surface water flooding. LLFAs are statutory consultees on major development, providing expert advice to local planning authorities. The Environment Agency (EA) has a strategic overview for all sources of flooding.
In December 2024 the EA published its updated National Assessment of Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk in England. This included an updated assessment of surface water flood risk.
The EA also supports consideration of surface water flood risk in decision making for new developments through the Flood Map for Planning and Check your long term flood risk services.
The EA is supporting implementation of the Government’s new flood and coastal erosion risk management funding policy, which made several improvements to aid investment in managing surface water flooding. The EA has produced guidance explaining how the new policy will work in practice.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the Restoration and Renewal Client Board, with reference to the proposed relocation and permanent reprovision of the Education Centre, what assessment the client board has made of the potential merits of relocating the Education Centre as part of the core Restoration and Renewal scope rather than retaining or upgrading its temporary arrangements; what the estimated capital and lifecycle costs of relocation are; whether alternative options involving refurbishment of existing facilities were costed; and how relocation contributes to (a) fire safety, (b) building services, (c) asbestos remediation and (d) fabric conservation.
Answered by Nick Smith
As set out in the Restoration and Renewal (R&R) Client Board’s recent report, Delivering restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster: the costed proposals (HC Paper 1576), the preferred scope for the R&R works will deliver a permanent Education Centre. Early designs propose that the centre is based within the Palace.
The current Education Centre on the Victoria Tower Gardens site was always intended to be a temporary facility and it is not sited on Parliamentary estate land. The land is owned by the Royal Parks and Parliament’s license for its use is with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The temporary planning and license agreements for the Victoria Gardens site expire at the end of 2030. The relevant statutory bodies have said that any further application for extension of the current Education Centre temporary permission and licence will not be granted. A new location for the centre is therefore required after this date.
The proposed Education Centre accounts for 0.3% of Palace construction costs under the full decant option and 1.6% under the enhanced maintenance and improvement plus (EMI+) option. This is based on the base construction costs for the Palace project set out in Annex 2, table 2 of the report, which exclude risk and inflation.
The net reduction in Palace lifecycle costs as a result of the renewal of the Palace does not isolate a specific change for the Education Centre. The cost of refurbishing existing facilities was not considered given their temporary nature and the known requirement to move the facility.
The location of the new education centre has been considered as part of the wider fire strategy, though its provision does not directly contribute to the fire safety, building services, asbestos remediation or fabric conservation outlined in the R&R Client Board’s report.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the planning use class is of a data centre; and whether change of use planning permission is required for an office to become a data centre.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
What use class any given proposal for a data centre will fall into will depend on the individual circumstances of the case.
An application for planning permission will generally be needed in order to change use of an office to a data centre.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 5 February 2026, to Question 108681, on Chinese Embassy: Planning Permission, if he will list each developer or applicant that has been given clarification meetings or pre-application engagement since July 2024.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Since July 2024, officials have undertaken pre-application engagement with:
Engagement in these instances related to prospective Crown or Urgent Crown applications, and carried out in accordance with planning propriety guidance.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 107987 on Planning Permission, whether his Department holds a list of (a) councils with Article 4 directions in force and (b) types of development Article 4 directions apply to.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
While Local Planning Authorities are required to send a copy of all Article 4 directions to the Secretary of State when made, my Department does not hold a record of those currently in force.
A full list of permitted development rights is set out in Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the evidential requirements applied to planning applicants claiming exemption from the mandatory biodiversity gain condition under Article 7 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Solicitor General has not had any such discussions.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential impact of proposed exemptions to Biodiversity Net Gain requirements on the Government’s statutory environmental targets.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Solicitor General has had no such discussions.
Asked by: Lord Banner (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for the backlog of cases in the Planning Court concerning challenges to planning permissions granted under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990; and what solutions they are considering to address the backlog.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There is no backlog of cases in the Planning Court concerning challenges to planning permissions granted under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This position has been confirmed by the Court.
Significant claims in the Planning Court are managed in accordance with the targets set out in the Practice Direction. Other cases in the Planning Court are managed in accordance with the arrangements which apply to claims in the Administrative Court. The Planning Liaison Judge oversees claims in the Planning Court and ensures these are progressed efficiently.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that reforms to planning permission are matched by improvements to the processes for acquiring land and rights over land, so that grid connection projects are not delayed by unresolved land rights issues.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
DESNZ has worked closely with stakeholders to understand the extent to which current land access, rights and consents processes delay and add costs to rollout of electricity network infrastructure required for delivering clean power by 2030 and accelerating the UK’s transition to Net zero.
This has included looking at where there might be opportunities to learn from approaches to other utilities.
Government’s assessment was set out in a consultation in Summer 2025 on proposed reforms to these processes. We expect to publish the response in the coming quarter.