Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 review legislation that allows landowners to use their farmland for (a) motocross and (b) other non-agricultural activities.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Under nationally set permitted development rights, land may be used for any purpose and moveable structures be set up on the land for up to 28 days per calendar year, of which up to 14 days can be used for motor car and motorcycle racing.
Where it is considered necessary to protect the local amenity or wellbeing of an area the local planning authority can consult the local community on removing a permitted development right by making an Article 4 direction.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department or the predecessor Department has issued guidance to owners who (a) were former social tenants and (b) are renting out a Right to Buy property that they have purchased within the first five years of ownership.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government provides guidance on the Right to Buy scheme for tenants and local authorities in England. See for example Page 43 of the guidance for local authorities: Right to Buy: a guide for local authorities - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reallocating any underspend from the (a) Waking Watch Relief Fund and (b) Waking Watch Replacement Funds to support (i) sprinkler installation and (ii) other relevant steps where professional risk assessments deem them to be essential to mitigate life safety risks.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department regularly engages with all fund applicants, local and regional authorities, where they are responsible for administering awarded grant funding, and local Fire and Rescue Services following a successful application to the fund, to drive pace on the installation of fire alarms and the subsequent standing down of a waking watch.
Over £80 million has been made available to applications to install alarms. The schemes have operated on a first come first served basis, and all successful applications have been awarded grant funding.
Of the 25 residential buildings that have received funding under the Waking Watch Relief Fund that are yet to install alarms, all of these are being administered by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and they have the lead responsibility for resolving these issues. On 17 of these 25, we have been advised by Greater Manchester Combined Authority that installations have been completed but we are awaiting further assurance before we can formally update the application status. For a further seven, we are waiting updates of the exact status despite departmental officials seeking an update. On the final case, we are working alongside the Authority to resolve a specific situation.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of funding is un-allocated from the (a) the Waking Watch Relief Fund 2021, (b) Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2022 and (c) Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2023, as of 12 April 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department regularly engages with all fund applicants, local and regional authorities, where they are responsible for administering awarded grant funding, and local Fire and Rescue Services following a successful application to the fund, to drive pace on the installation of fire alarms and the subsequent standing down of a waking watch.
Over £80 million has been made available to applications to install alarms. The schemes have operated on a first come first served basis, and all successful applications have been awarded grant funding.
Of the 25 residential buildings that have received funding under the Waking Watch Relief Fund that are yet to install alarms, all of these are being administered by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and they have the lead responsibility for resolving these issues. On 17 of these 25, we have been advised by Greater Manchester Combined Authority that installations have been completed but we are awaiting further assurance before we can formally update the application status. For a further seven, we are waiting updates of the exact status despite departmental officials seeking an update. On the final case, we are working alongside the Authority to resolve a specific situation.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the oral contribution of 26 March 2024 by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Building Safety, Official Report, column 1415, whether remediation contribution orders taken out by his Department will (a) recover and (b) reimburse funds paid by leaseholders.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department has applied for remediation contribution orders relating to building safety works against three companies, specifically:
The aim of these orders is to recoup as much of the costs related to building remediation as possible, regardless of the organisation or individual who made the original payment. This could include, for example, the cost of waking watch, replacement of balconies or associated enabling works.
Where costs are recovered through the First Tier Tribunal decision, be they all or part of those requested, the intention is they are refunded to whichever organisation or individual paid for them, whether taxpayer, leaseholder or otherwise. The action also aims to prevent leaseholders from having to pay costs for works not yet completed, including where leaseholders are non-qualifying.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions his Department has had with manufacturers of (a) cladding and (b) insulation on financial contributions to building safety remediation works.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In early 2022 the Secretary of State opened industry wide discussions with cladding and insulation manufacturers. To date, no cladding or insulation manufacturer has come forward with a financial contribution for their part in this. We are continuing to press the industry on this issue.
The department’s Recovery Strategy Unit continues to actively pursue organisations, including manufacturers, responsible for unsafe buildings to force them to contribute to the costs of remediation.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many staff working on Levelling Up have left his Department since its creation.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Table 42 in the annual Civil Service statistics includes information on the number of leavers for the period in question and this information can be found at the following link for the years in question: Civil Service statistics - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of its plans to address water scarcity in Greater Cambridge on the water bills of Anglian Water customers in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is committed to supporting the growth of Greater Cambridge in a sustainable way, supporting its economic potential, protecting and enhancing the quality of life for residents, habitats and the environment.
At Spring Budget 2024, the government published a policy paper setting out its ambition to address water scarcity in Greater Cambridge. Customer water bills are set every five years by Ofwat through its ‘price review’ process which includes controlling the prices that companies can charge customers whilst allowing companies to finance improvements to their infrastructure.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 2 April 2024 to Question 19958 on Flats: Fire Prevention, if he will make it his policy to commit to quality assurance measures equivalent to the Self Remediation Terms including a post-remediation Qualifying Assessment.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As the answer provided on 2 April indicates, only three buildings under 11m have been found to require some form of remediation to date. The Department expects the developers of any unsafe buildings under 11m to take responsibility for remediating them in accordance with the appropriate standard and deal with the risks identified in the Fire Risk Assessment and Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls as soon as reasonably practicable.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department have made an assessment of the impact of the local government finance settlement on Havering Council.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 makes available up to £64.7 billion, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion or 7.5% in cash terms on 2023-24. This above-inflation increase demonstrates how the Government stands behind councils up and down the country.
For Havering Council, this Settlement represents an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £15.82 million (7.2%) – making available a total of up to £236.4 million in 2024-25. We have also published details of support agreed with a small number of councils, including Havering Council, that have requested financial support on an exceptional basis due to specific local issues that they are unable to manage themselves.