Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure local plans are in line with national housing targets.
The government have implemented a new mandatory standard method for assessing housing needs which aligns with our ambition to build 1.5 million new homes in this parliament.Delivering on that ambitious milestone requires local planning authorities to plan for sufficient homes, as well as commercial development and wider infrastructure, through their local development plans.Local plans clearly spell out to developers and communities where development will and will not take place, bringing certainty to all parties. They are also the mechanism through which local communities can have their say in how homes are built.The government inherited a planning system in which only 31% of local planning authorities have adopted plans in the last five years. That is not sustainable, and I am clear that it is unacceptable for local planning authorities to not make a local plan.We are determined to drive local plans to adoption as quickly as possible, to progress towards our ambition of achieving universal plan coverage and ensure plans contribute positively to our ambition of delivering 1.5 million homes. To that end, we have implemented transitional arrangements and have committed to providing funding to authorities that are at advanced stages of plan making but who will need to revise their draft plans.We want to work in partnership with local planning authorities to deliver for their communities, but where they fail to do so the Deputy Prime Minister will make use of the intervention powers available to her to get local plans in place.