To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of making water companies statutory consultees in planning permission applications for new housing developments.

The Government committed during the passage of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 to consult on whether water companies should become statutory consultees on certain planning applications, and if so, how best to do this. The Secretary of State has since commissioned Sam Richards to undertake an independent review of statutory consultees within the planning system and the recommendations from this will be published in due course.

In the meantime, it is important that water companies engage local planning authorities on their applications at the right time so they can input effectively and not slow down the application process.