Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 19 December 2024

Debate

Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement

Contribution

I thank the noble Lord for his kind comments. I do understand that a few issues arose in recent years, but an awful lot of money seemed to be wasted during Covid that might have been better spent delivering local services. On funding for planning, we announced alongside the NPPF announcement that additional funding is available to support local authorities’ capacity for planners. We recognise that, with an absolutely key mission on growth, the planning capacity in local authorities needs to be strengthened. Our colleagues in the Department for Education are working on skills and repurposing the apprenticeship levy into a skills and growth levy, and there is some direct funding support for local authorities. We hope that will attract around 300 new planners. I know you cannot go and pick them off trees, but that will help to support the planning that will need to be done to support the growth we need in our country.

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