The planning system has a vital role to play in our response to the climate emergency and in delivering the homes and infrastructure needed to end the housing crisis. It should be a framework for fairness, ensuring that new development is focused on meeting the needs of local communities and not the profits of developers.

The Tories’ plans to reform the planning system will shut local communities and local councils out of planning decisions and do nothing to deliver the genuinely affordable, zero-carbon homes we desperately need. Yesterday I urged the Government to think again and put the climate emergency and delivering genuinely affordable housing at the heart of planning policy, and people at the heart of the planning process.