Call for Evidence

The Committee is seeking evidence on the following points:

The experiences of children and young people of their built environment

• How do children and young people experience outdoor spaces in towns, cities and rural areas across the country? For example, their streets, estates, villages, neighbourhoods and parks?  
• How do these experiences vary across income, race, gender, age?  
• How easily can children and young people travel to outdoor spaces and schools? How has this changed over the years? 

The planning system

• How well are children and young people’s needs currently met by the planning process in terms of policy and guidance? 
• How are children and young people’s views and voices heard, considered and acted upon in the planning system if at all? 

Best practice and evaluation 

• Where are the examples of policy and good practice that are improving children and young people’s experiences in the built environment, either directly or indirectly, in the UK or internationally? 
• How are these outcomes measured? For example, through economic or health and wellbeing indicators? 

Cross Government working

• How does the relationship of children and young people with the built environment overlap with policy areas beyond the work of DLUHC, such as public health, transport, policing and net zero? 
• Are government departments working together to address children and young people’s needs in this respect? 

Submissions should not be longer than 3000 words where possible.

We want our inquiries to be informed by a diverse range of voices. Our committee team are happy to help if you require a reasonable adjustment, such as an extension to the deadline, or submitting evidence in an alternative format: please get in touch at luhccom@parliament.uk.

Please note: The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee examines policy issues relating to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and its associated bodies. In line with the general practice of select committees the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee is not able to take up individual cases. If you would like political support or advice you may wish to contact your local Member of Parliament.

Written evidence must address the terms of reference as set out above, but please note that submissions do not have to address every point. Guidance on giving evidence to a select committee of the House of Commons is available here.

The Committee will decide whether to accept each submission. If your submission is accepted by the Committee, it will usually be published online. It will then be available permanently for anyone to view. It can’t be changed or removed. If you have included your name or any personal information in your submission, that will normally be published too. Please consider how much personal information you want or need to share. If you include personal information about other people in your submission, the Committee may decide not to publish it. Your contact details will never be published.

Decisions about publishing evidence anonymously, or about accepting but not publishing evidence, are made by the Committee. If you would like to ask the Committee to accept your submission anonymously or confidentially, please indicate this when submitting evidence, and tell us why. This lets the Committee know what you would like but the final decision will be taken by the Committee. Anonymous submissions are typically not published by the Committee.

The Committee has discretion over which submissions it accepts as evidence, and which of those it then publishes on its website. We may anonymise or redact some of your submission if it is published. The Committee may decide to accept evidence on a confidential basis. Confidential submissions remain available to the Committee but are not published or referred to in public. All written evidence will be considered by the Committee, whether or not it is published.