To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment her Department has made of the effect of planning policy guidance on the preservation of back-garden land and maintenance of bio-diversity in urban and suburban neighbourhoods. (225582)

It is for local planning authorities, in consultation with communities, to decide the priorities for housing development in their area within an overall national target that 60 per cent. of development should be on previously developed land.

If local authorities wish to preserve existing residential areas from over-development then they are able, under PPS3, to develop policies that set out the circumstances in which applications will and will not be considered.