“To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church is taking with developers and local authorities to ensure that residents in new towns and villages have access to places of worship.”
Asked by
Blake Stephenson
Answering Minister
the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners
Answer from Hansard
Marsha De Cordova
Local authorities are not currently required to consider the building of new places of worship, but under the national planning policy framework they are permitted to include places of worship among a range of community buildings in a development. Where local authorities include places of worship among community buildings, the Church Commissioners seek to promote these facilities.