Written questions by Stephenson.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that New Towns deliver beautiful (a) housing and (b) public realm.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 36088 on 14 March 2025.

Communities and Local Government, whether the New Towns Taskforce has consulted with specialist (a) arboriculturalists and (b) ecologists on the potential impact of the proposed new town locations on biodiversity.

The New Towns Programme aims to create environmentally resilient places that support the government’s net-zero agenda through sustainable design, nature enhancement, low-carbon infrastructure, and responsible development, including flood risk mitigation. In developing proposals for new towns, the Taskforce will work with local leaders and communities to consider the different impact of new towns, including any environmental impacts.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking with the Mayor of London to increase the level of construction of affordable housing in London.

On taking office in July 2024, the government acted quickly to agree changes to the Affordable Homes Programme to strengthen the delivery of affordable homes in London, including providing the GLA with flexibilities on completion deadlines and allowing the GLA to fund some intermediate rent homes.At the Spending Review the Chancellor announced £39 billion for a successor to the Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36; a 10-year rent settlement; an intention to implement a rent convergence mechanism; and £2.5bn in low interest loans to support new development (alongside commercial lending).These measures cover the main elements of our social and affordable housing investment strategy in this Parliament. Alongside other aspects of our reform programme, including forthcoming details on future quality and safety regulation, they will give Registered Providers, including those operating in London, the clarity and certainty they need to quickly ramp up investment in existing and new stock.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the number of planners employed by (a) local authorities and (b) developers who have a Level 7 apprenticeship qualification.

The Department does not currently hold detailed data on the number of planners employed by local authorities or developers who possess a Level 7 Chartered Town Planner Apprenticeship qualification.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the number of Level 7 apprenticeships offered by local authorities.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 58023 on 13 June 2025.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to strengthen protections for peatland from development in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

Safeguarding peatland plays an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as maintaining and enhancing biodiversity. The National Planning Policy Framework contains a very high level of protection against proposals which might affect peatlands. The Framework is clear that development plans should not identify proposals for new or extended sites for peat extraction, and that planning permission should not be granted for peat extraction from new or extended sites.In relation to other forms of development that could affect peatland, the Framework sets out that development resulting in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats, including habitats with peat soils such as blanket bog and lowland fen, should be refused, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and a suitable compensation strategy exists.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government during the Twelfth sitting of the Public Bill Committee on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on Tuesday 20 May 2025, Official Report, column 558, what her Department's planned timeline is for consideration of measures to improve the take up of SuDS.

The government is committed to requiring sustainable drainage systems in new development and we have already taken action to support that objective by setting out updated policy in the revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024. We are looking carefully at what additional steps might be taken to further improve the implementation of SuDS. A final decision will be made in the coming months.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to page 10 of the impact assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, published on 6 May 2025, how her Department calculated the £1.1 billion value for planning fees reforms.

I refer the hon. Member to Annex 11 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill Impact Assessment which can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to map grey belt land.

It is for individual local planning authorities to assess if land is grey belt and to determine whether and how to amend Green Belt boundaries through the preparation or updating of plans. On 27 February 2025, Planning Practice Guidance was published to assist local authorities and other decision-makers, and to support a consistent approach to determining whether land is grey belt. It can be found on gov.uk here. This new guidance will support authorities in producing Local Plans, while also making sure that planning applications and development on suitable grey belt land can proceed in the short-term in areas without an up-to-date plan. The government has also provided 133 local planning authorities with £70,000 of pump priming funding each to contribute towards the costs of carrying out Green Belt reviews in their areas. Any alteration to a Green Belt boundary is reported to the Department and the details published on gov.uk in our annual Green Belt statistical release. In addition, the Department publishes statistics on land use change, including estimates of new residential addresses created in Green Belt and other categories of land.

Communities and Local Government, whether the New Towns Taskforce has consulted with specialist flooding experts on the potential impact of the proposed new town locations on flooding.

The New Towns Programme aims to create environmentally resilient places that support the government’s net-zero agenda through sustainable design, nature enhancement, low-carbon infrastructure, and responsible development, including flood risk mitigation. In developing proposals for new towns, the Taskforce will work with local leaders and communities to consider the different impact of new towns, including any environmental impacts.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report entitled Brewing Communities: How we can create new towns that foster successful pubs, high-streets and flourishing neighbourhoods, published on 17 January 2025.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers to Question UIN 35940 on 13 March 2025, Question UIN 42674 on 7 April 2025, and Question UIN 36088 on 14 March 2025.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Bureaucratic burden lifted to speed up building in growth agenda, published on 10 March 2025, when she plans to publish the consultation on the removal of statutory consultees in the planning system.

As per the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 10 March 2025 (HCWS510), we intend to consult shortly on reform of the statutory consultee system. A publication date is yet to be confirmed.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of pubs on (a) community cohesion and (b) reducing loneliness in new towns.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers to Question UIN 35940 on 13 March 2025, Question UIN 42674 on 7 April 2025, and Question UIN 36088 on 14 March 2025.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to require new town masterplans to include designated sites for future pubs.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers to Question UIN 35940 on 13 March 2025, Question UIN 42674 on 7 April 2025, and Question UIN 36088 on 14 March 2025.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer to Question 47409 on Mayors: Taxation, whether the list of taxes is exhaustive.

The government keeps all tax policy, including local taxes, under review.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer to Question 48234 on Planning Permission, if she will set out her planned timeframe.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 53569 on 28 May 2025.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May to Question 49985 on Planning: Appeals, when he plans to publish the guidance.

Guidance on the costs that may be considered when calculating planning fees will be published at the earliest opportunity following Royal Assent of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's press release entitled, Experimental AI could help councils meet housing targets by digitising records, published on 19 April 2025, for how long after digitisation will local authorities be expected to retain paper records.

Local planning authorities should consider several factors in the retention of their records. These include compliance with statutory requirements such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Freedom of Information Act, the Environmental Information Regulations, the requirement to hold evidence until the threat of a legal challenge has passed under the Limitation Act 1980, operational purposes and historic interest. In general, digital and hard copy records have the same status. The 19 April 2025 press release is focused on the AI tool ‘Extract’ and its ability to help councils convert decades-old, handwritten planning documents and maps into data in minutes. On the 9 June 2025, as part of London Tech Week, the Prime Minister announced the government’s intention to roll Extract out across the country by Spring 2026. As part of this long-term transition to digital ways of working the Department will consider how paper records should be dealt with.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Planning Inspectorate Performance update – April 2025, published on 25 April 2025, what steps she is taking to reduce the median decision time.

The Planning Inspectorate's Strategic Plan commits to removing all casework backlogs and meeting all Ministerial targets by 2027. Casework including nationally significant infrastructure projects, local plan examinations, critical Secretary of State casework, appeals against refusal of planning permission and appeals against enforcement notices are currently being prioritised over casework of lower general intrinsic economic value. It is, for example:Meeting all statutory timeframes for national infrastructure applications;Increasingly deciding planning appeals by hearing and inquiry in around 26 weeks (the Ministerial measure), having already cleared a backlog of casework;Beginning to decide enforcement appeals by hearing and inquiry in around 26 weeks (the ministerial measure) for the first time in many years, as it clears a long standing backlog of casework; andReducing the total number of live planning appeals by written representations every month (the highest volume area of casework) The Inspectorate is implementing actions to maintain performance in these areas performing well and to improve end-to-end times for other casework including by:Focusing available capacity of both salaried and contract (non-salaried inspectors) on reducing the amount of open appeals. The number of open planning appeals by written representations has reduced significantly during 2024 and continues to reduce.Using contract (non-salaried) inspectors to the full extent of their availability and expanding the range of casework they determine. In addition, the Inspectorate has designed and developed a new digital Appeals Service currently in Beta phase. This new service improves the process for submitting appeals, including reducing the number of invalid appeals submitted. In turn, this reduces the number of validation checks required and is speeding up the time taken to validate appeals. The new service has been expanded to cover all local planning authority areas. In five pilot local authority areas the digital Appeals Service is now being used to progress the appeal from receipt through to decision. This provides an interface for Local Planning Authorities and appellants to manage appeals and automate notifications which are expected to save time for participants, improve their experience of the appeals service and be a foundation for further improvements. The Planning Inspectorate is an Arm's Length Government Body with responsibility for allocation of resources, prioritisation and overall operational performance. The Inspectorate publishes updates on its performance on its website regularly.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to page 70 of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s publication entitled Economic and Fiscal Outlook of March 2025, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential implications for its policies of the statement that much of the additional development in the next five years is assumed to take place on current green belt land.

The government is committed to preserving Green Belts which have served England's towns and cities well over many decades, not least in terms of checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas and preventing neighbouring towns merging into one another. However, we know that there are simply not enough sites on brownfield land registers to deliver the volume of homes that the country needs each year, let alone enough that are viable and in the right location. The government’s new approach to the Green Belt, including prioritising the release of lower quality grey belt land and introducing ‘golden rules’ to ensure development benefits communities and nature, is set out in the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published on 12 December. On 27 February, Planning Practice Guidance was published to assist local authorities and other decision-makers, and to support a consistent approach to determining whether land is grey belt. It can be found on gov.uk here. This new guidance will support authorities in producing Local Plans, while also making sure that planning applications and development on suitable grey belt land can proceed in the short-term in areas without an up-to-date plan. The government has also provided 133 local planning authorities with £70,000 of pump priming funding each to contribute towards the costs of carrying out Green Belt reviews in their areas.