Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the factors allowing housing estate developers not to comply with planning requirements to install swift and bat bricks.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are no current planning requirements to install swift and bat bricks. The government has committed to consult on changes which require swift bricks to be incorporated into new buildings unless there are compelling reasons which preclude their use, or which would make them ineffective.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government in which cases work on new estates being built on flood plains has been held up by a lack of inspection partners.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Local authorities are best placed to determine in their Local Plan whether building on flood plains is suitable, as this is a complex issue that involves balancing development needs with environmental and safety concerns.
The government is strengthening the planning system to reduce flood risk in new developments. Updates to the National Planning Policy Framework require sustainable drainage systems in all developments and reinforce the use of the sequential test to avoid high-risk areas.
We are also improving flood risk assessment tools and aligning planning guidance with the Flood Ready Action Plan to embed resilience early in the planning process.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what statistical source and metric they used for the basis that the £2 billion investment to support social and affordable housebuilding is the biggest in a generation; and what length of time that generation time period covers.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer given to Question UIN 41449 on 3 April 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many homes were built in (1) England, and (2) the UK, in each of the past 15 years.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Department publishes an annual release entitled ‘Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England’, which is the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply. This includes estimates of housing supply in each financial year to 2023-24; is shown in the table below; and can be found in Live Table 120 on gov.uk here.
Table 1: Trends in net additional dwellings, England, 2009-10 to 2023-24 | |
|
|
Financial Year | Net additional dwellings |
2009-10 | 144,870 |
2010-11 | 137,394 |
2011-12 | 140,785 |
2012-13 | 130,611 |
2013-14 | 142,494 |
2014-15 | 176,582 |
2015-16 | 195,534 |
2016-17 | 223,234 |
2017-18 | 228,170 |
2018-19 | 247,766 |
2019-20 | 248,591 |
2020-21 | 217,754 |
2021-22 | 234,462 |
2022-23 | 234,292 |
2023-24 | 221,071 |
Net additional dwellings in the devolved regions of the United Kingdom and aggregate figures for the UK are not held centrally by MHCLG.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of recent reforms to permitted development upon the relative distribution of (1) retrofit or reuse of buildings and (2) the development of new-build properties.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We have not carried out such an assessment. However the Department publishes data on how many new homes have been delivered, including through which planning mechanism, across England. This is available at:
Housing supply: net additional dwellings - GOV.UK
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, what consideration they have given to replacing the annual finance settlement for local authorities in England with a multi-year settlement.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to supporting local government and recognises the challenges it faces. To give councils the stability and certainty they need to plan for the long-term, and flexibility to spend their funding where it’s needed most, we will provide multi-year funding settlements and end wasteful competitive bidding. We will share further detail on our plans in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the ring-fencing of grants to local authorities to allow for greater financial flexibility for local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to supporting local government and recognises the challenges it faces. To give councils the stability and certainty they need to plan for the long-term, and flexibility to spend their funding where it’s needed most, we will provide multi-year funding settlements and end wasteful competitive bidding. We will share further detail on our plans in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Swinburne on 25 September (HL10097), what steps they have taken to ensure that local authorities have up to date local plans in place; and how many authorities are yet to submit their plans.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states that up-to-date local plans should provide a framework for addressing housing needs and other economic, social and environmental priorities.
As of the end of October 2023, 326 local planning authorities have an adopted local plan (under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004). 219 local planning authorities have an adopted local plan that is over five years old, of which 91 have begun a consultation on a new plan and 43 have submitted a new local plan for examination. 12 have no adopted local plan, of which 5 have submitted their first local plan for examination.
The Government’s priority for getting up to date plans in place has not changed and we have been clear that local planning authorities should continue to progress their plans.
The Government funds the Planning Advisory Service which has a team of planning specialists who can give advice and support to local planning authorities on the local plan process.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of local authorities who have up to date local plans; and what steps they plan to take to encourage local authorities who have not yet submitted their local plans to do so.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne
Information on the status of Local Plans is published by the Planning Inspectorate at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-plan-monitoring-progress.
The Government has been very clear that all local authorities should have a plan in place.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Local Housing Allowance rates on the supply of affordable housing.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer to Question UIN to 117908 (attached) on 16 January.