To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his letter to the Residential Property Developer Industry dated 10 January 2022, if he will issue a circular to planning authorities that would enable them to refuse planning permission on grounds that an applicant had not (a) agreed to make appropriate financial contributions to a fund that would cover the full outstanding cost to remediate outstanding fire safety issues or (b) undertaken all necessary remediation of buildings that they had been involved in developing.
Answered on
1 March 2022
We have tabled amendments to the Building Safety Bill to give the Secretary of State the power to stop new planning permissions being developed by major residential developers who have not committed to act responsibly to resolve the building safety crisis.
If a qualifying developer does undertake development, this would be a breach of planning control and subject to enforcement action.
Any planning permission that is granted for land owned by these developers would remain valid; this would enable this land to be sold to responsible developers to be developed by them instead.