English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendments 89B and 89C

The Commons voted on 27 April 2026 to reject two Lords amendments, numbered 89B and 89C, to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. The motion passed by 273 votes to 167, with the government supporting rejection and urging the Commons to restore its original text. This was one of several votes on the same day as part of the back-and-forth process between the two chambers known as ping-pong, where each House seeks to resolve remaining differences before a bill becomes law. The debate in the Commons indicates that Lords amendments 89B and 89C concerned the prioritisation of brownfield sites for housing development. Opposition MPs argued that without a firm brownfield-first requirement embedded in the bill, the new powers granted to mayors to drive forward development could in practice lead to developers choosing greenfield sites as the easier option, undermining cross-party commitments to build on previously used land first. The government's position, in rejecting these Lords amendments, was to revert to the Commons version of the bill without that specific requirement. The vote divided along clear party lines. All 270 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted backed the government's position. All 95 Conservatives who voted, all 57 Liberal Democrats, all 5 Greens, and 3 Democratic Unionist Party members voted to retain the Lords amendments. Four independents voted to retain them while two voted with the government. No cross-party rebellion was recorded. The vote sits within a broader Conservative critique of the bill as a centralising measure, with shadow minister David Simmonds arguing that the combination of this bill's mayoral powers and wider planning changes from the government created a real risk of greenfield development outpacing brownfield delivery.