Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had recent discussions with the Mayor of London on housebuilding targets in the Greater London Authority area.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department is looking at the barriers to housing delivery in London and will continue to work closely with the Greater London Authority on this and other areas of shared interest.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department holds on the (a) targets set in local plans and (b) number of starts there have been for (i) affordable and (ii) all housing in councils led by (A) Conservatives, (B) Liberal Democrats, (C) Labour, (D) Greens and (E) no overall control in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department publishes a quarterly release entitled ‘Housing supply: Indicators of New Supply, England’, which includes estimates of new build starts, by local authority, in each financial year and quarter, shown in Live Table 253 and 253a at the following link.
The number of affordable housing starts in 2022-23 in each local authority can be found in Live Table 1008S.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department holds on the (a) targets set in local plans and (b) number of starts there have been for (i) affordable and (ii) all housing in (A) Birmingham, (B) Coventry, (C) Manchester, (D) London, (E) Oxford and (F) Cambridge in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department publishes a quarterly release entitled ‘Housing supply: Indicators of New Supply, England’, which includes estimates of new build starts, by local authority, in each financial year and quarter, shown in Live Table 253 and 253a at the following link.
The number of affordable housing starts in 2022-23 in each local authority can be found in Live Table 1008S.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an estimate of the proportion of planning permissions for new homes granted to small and medium sized housebuilders in each year since 1997.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department does not collect data on the market share of new housing supply by size of housebuilder or to the proportion of such builders that receive planning permission for new homes each year. According to the Home Builders Federation, small developers delivered around 40% of new homes in 1988 compared to around 10% in 2020. The Government wishes to support a diverse and competitive housebuilding sector. Therefore, it has established a package of support for SMEs that includes the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund, which provides loans to SMEs to help build around 42,000 homes across the country. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act will also help SMEs by making the planning process easier to navigate, faster and more predictable.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an estimate of the proportion of new homes built by small and medium sized housebuilders (a) now, (b) in 2010 and (c) in 1997.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department does not collect data on the market share of new housing supply by size of housebuilder or to the proportion of such builders that receive planning permission for new homes each year. According to the Home Builders Federation, small developers delivered around 40% of new homes in 1988 compared to around 10% in 2020. The Government wishes to support a diverse and competitive housebuilding sector. Therefore, it has established a package of support for SMEs that includes the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund, which provides loans to SMEs to help build around 42,000 homes across the country. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act will also help SMEs by making the planning process easier to navigate, faster and more predictable.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress the Government has made on disposal for housebuilding of land owned by (a) the Ministry of Defence, (b) the Department of Health and Social Care, (c) NHS England, (d) the Department for Education and (e) the Department for Transport since 13 November 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is working to release public land for new housing, and I agree with my honourable friend on the importance of doing so. By the end of the Public Land for Housing programme(s) (2011-15 and 2015-20) in March 2020 over 60,000 homes had been brought to market on surplus government land disposed of through the programmes. DLUHC meets regularly with government departments to explore opportunities to release land and remains committed to bringing forward sites for development.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many full time equivalent staff work in the self and custom build unit in Homes England.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Self Commissioned Homes Delivery Unit was established within Homes England in 2022, it currently has three full time equivalent employees plus one full time equivalent graduate.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to help enable more community-led housing developments on rural exception sites.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is committed to supporting Community Land Trusts and other providers of community housing. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government's planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied, and was most recently revised in December 2023. The National Planning Policy Framework now includes several measures that will support the diversification of the housing market, including the growth of the community-led housing sector. These new measures include:
Community-based groups (or their partner organisations) who are registered as providers of social housing may apply for capital grant through the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).
In addition, in 2023, we provided £3 million to support a social finance fund to provide equity and loan finance for community-led housing schemes across England. This fund is expected to support the delivery of 1587 homes over ten years.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has taken recent steps to support the growth of community land trusts.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is committed to supporting Community Land Trusts and other providers of community housing. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government's planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied, and was most recently revised in December 2023. The National Planning Policy Framework now includes several measures that will support the diversification of the housing market, including the growth of the community-led housing sector. These new measures include:
Community-based groups (or their partner organisations) who are registered as providers of social housing may apply for capital grant through the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).
In addition, in 2023, we provided £3 million to support a social finance fund to provide equity and loan finance for community-led housing schemes across England. This fund is expected to support the delivery of 1587 homes over ten years.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Arts Council spent in Worcestershire (a) in each year of this Parliament and (b) since 2010.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Arts Council England has provided the below data pertaining to total funding in Worcestershire since 2010. Due to a change in the Arts Council’s grant management system in 2016, data from before that date are not reliably comparable with more recent data. For example, data on funding for “Regularly Funded Organisations” (the predecessors to National Portfolio Organisations) are not included in these figures in 2010-12. Noting this caveat, we have provided the figures nonetheless for completeness.
Arts Council England funding to Worcestershire | |
Year | Funding awarded |
2010/11 | £204,803 |
2011/12 | £223,088 |
2012/13 | £1,174,280 |
2013/14 | £1,254,008 |
2014/15 | £1,633,134 |
2015/16 | £1,203,109 |
2016/17 | £1,424,243 |
2017/18 | £1,587,323 |
2018/19 | £5,078,236 |
2019/20 | £1,610,429 |
2020/21 | £7,172,037 |
2021/22 | £2,651,172 |
2022/23 | £2,212,330 |
2023/24 | £2,183,777 |
Arts Council England’s open funding programmes (such as National Lottery Project Grants, and Develop Your Creative Practice) are open to organisations and people across the country to apply to, including those in Worcestershire.
Grants awarded from the Arts Council’s main funding streams within the last 5 financial years (2023/2024 inclusive) are published online and provide details of all organisations that receive funding.They are available in the following locations:
Developing Your Creative Practice
Investment Programme (2018-2022 NPO)
Investment Programme (2023-2026 NPO)