Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 1 April 2026.
Neil Hudson
Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of approved planning permissions in England that have not yet been built out.
Matthew Pennycook
Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department does not collect data on the number of approved planning permissions that have not yet been built out.
In May 2025, we published a Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out inviting views on further action the government should take to speed up homes being built. It can be found on gov.uk here. The working paper drew on a range of independent research and market studies, including the Letwin Review and the Competition and Markets Authority’s October 2024 market study into housebuilding, exploring stalled sites and build out rates.
Alongside the working paper, we launched a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve the transparency of build rates from new residential developments, which includes proposals to implement provisions in Section 113 of the LURA on the power to decline to determine applications. That consultation can be found on gov.uk here.
We will set out our next steps in due course.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
