Speeches by Pennycook.

“That is a useful point that we should mention. The New Towns Taskforce has been asked to come up with a prospectus for how these things are taken forward. The finance is one part, but taking this back to design and quality, we want these new large-scale communities to be examples of exemplary development. Again, the ta…”

“It happens already, so it would not be something new. If a particular local authority or groups of local authorities under the strategic planning framework that we want to introduce were to come forward and say, “X location is in a sustainable place and has good transport links, etc. We want to build a large-scale deve…”

“That is a really good question. This is a really important part of the Government’s plan on housing and planning more generally, because we have been clear that this has been a severe constraint over recent years. We cannot meet housing need across England purely on a local level. There is a missing tier of planning at…”

“No, whatever system we come up with, we are clear that we are going to require universal strategic plan coverage across England, whether it is in devolved areas or non-devolved areas. It is a key part of the solution to getting house building right and getting housing growth in the most appropriate and sustainable plac…”

“A regional strategic plan. Yes, we have been very clear about that.”

“I am confident we can roll it out. We have been very clear that we will roll it out. We will take the necessary powers to do so in the planning and infrastructure Bill that will come forward next year. It is a bit too early to say precisely how it would work in non‑devolved areas. As I said, we have not alighted on the…”

“It is a good question. I am going to be quite careful in the words I choose, because we have not alighted on a final proposition. We absolutely need to take account of that scenario, where the non-devolved authority boundaries do not necessarily match the most appropriate spatial development strategy area, if we go wit…”

“On the NPPF, it is very simple. The consultation closed on 24 September. We received over 10,000 responses. Officials have been working through those responses at real pace. We are determined to provide a Government response and publish the revised NPPF before the end of the year. We are on track to do so. In terms of …”

“There are a couple of parts to this question. I might bring Jo in on it. One is that 300 planners is not the only thing that is in there. It is important to understand that the Department already has a dedicated planning capacity and capability team under the chief planner in MHCLG. That already does a lot of work. You…”

“It will partly be through the actions we have taken. At the Budget we secured a significant amount of money that can be used to provide capacity and capability support for local planning authorities. An important bit comes through planning fees and looking at localising those planning fees, so that local authorities ca…”

“NDMPs are something progressed by the last Government through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act. We are committed to consulting on those and taking them forward. I will give you more details next year.”

“We have not announced a timeline at present. It will be next year in terms of going out to consult on them. It is important for the Committee to know that that will lead to a situation where NDMPs deal with the development control aspects of the planning system and the NPPF is left as essentially a plan-making document…”

“It is a good question. I know you have many leaseholders in your constituency, Mr Powell, as have I. We have an incredible number of new-build blocks that have gone up along the river in recent years, so I get this on a constituency level as well as a ministerial level. I know there is a frustration, it would be fair t…”

“You are absolutely right. Managing agents already play a crucial role. In a world in which commonhold is the default tenure, they will play an important role, and we have to ensure they are properly regulated. The Government are looking at how we strengthen regulation of managing agents to ensure they provide a profess…”

“Some are.”

“It will become very clear to the Committee why we have taken time to set out precisely how we intend to proceed at the point that we make an announcement in this area.”

“Not months, I would say, Mr Forster.”

“If Jo finds it, I am more than happy to read out the email. It was taken completely out of context. What the current chief executive was referring to when he said it was a two-Parliament job was the wider reform agenda around house building. If the Committee wants to take the time to go and read the precise wording of …”

“Yes, the email from the chief executive. It was taken out of context, but he is right that some of the reforms we are taking forward are long term and over multiple Parliaments. That is why next year we are going to set out a long-term housing strategy that takes that longer view, but it is clear from the email that he…”

“Since the 2012-13 financial year, local authorities, fire authorities, and police and crime commissioners have been required to determine whether the amount of council tax they plan to raise is excessive. The Secretary of State sets thresholds on excessiveness and knows the referendum principles for different classes o…”