Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Planning Reform

Monday 20 January 2025 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Mary Glindon inquired about the accessibility of civil law for constituents facing restrictive covenant issues, noting high legal costs.
  • Dame Caroline Dinenage questioned the prioritization of development on green spaces and raised concerns about air quality and infrastructure strain.
  • The Minister emphasized a "brownfield first" approach to development, highlighting recent measures to prioritize the use of brownfield sites over green spaces.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Mary Glindon Lab Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend
Parliamentary Procedure
Context

A constituent is facing high legal costs to prevent a neighbour from building an extension that would affect her rights under a restrictive covenant.

Question

My constituent is trying to prevent her neighbour from building an extension that would impact her restrictive covenant. She was quoted £80,000 to £100,000 for legal action against the neighbour. These costs make civil law inaccessible to ordinary people. Will the Minister consider bringing restrictive covenants into the planning process as a material consideration?

Answer from The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)

Legal restrictions on properties are not usually treated as material planning considerations; the planning process only addresses whether the development is acceptable in planning terms. Material considerations must relate to a planning purpose such as the character or use of the land. If the hon. Member wishes to write with further details, I will endeavour to explore it further.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not provide any commitment to consider restrictive covenants in the planning process and instead referred the MP to write for further exploration.

How: Referencing Writing With Further Details

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Q2 Caroline Dinenage Con Gosport
Housing Environment
Context

The area faces a massive increase in housing numbers and developers are seeking to build on the last remaining green spaces, which have air quality issues and overstretched infrastructure. There is an abundance of disused military sites.

Question

We are facing a massive increase in our housing numbers, with planners putting in applications to build across the very last green spaces, causing air quality issues and overstretching local infrastructure. We do have an abundance of disused military sites. What priority is given by the Minister to encourage development on brownfield sites rather than using the last remaining green fields?

Answer from The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)

We have a “brownfield first” approach to development. We strengthened this in the recently revised national planning policy framework. Last year, we published a working paper exploring ways to prioritise brownfield land release. Local authorities are asked to take a sequential approach—brownfield first, densify those sites if possible and work cross-boundary where feasible; only then explore grey belt release and greenfield release in extremis.

Answered
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