PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Planning: Sustainable Development (26 January 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changes to the planning system on achieving the National Planning Policy Framework's policies on sustainable development.

Asked by:
Helen Hayes (Labour)

The National Planning Policy Framework is very clear that sustainable development should be at the heart of planning, and should be pursued in a positive and integrated way. Alongside our planning reforms and locally-led planning system, the Framework has since 2012 achieved the right balance between encouraging growth and retaining environmental safeguards. The forthcoming Housing White Paper will propose further reforms to make the planning system more effective, but nothing that would undermine the principles of sustainability set out in the Framework.

Answered by:
Lord Barwell (Conservative)
2 February 2017