Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to require local authorities in England to obtain guarantees, backed up by financial penalties, from water and sewerage providers that a new housing development can be served before they can grant planning permission.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is adequate water and wastewater capacity to support growth.
It is the responsibility of water and wastewater service providers to plan for and deliver sufficient levels of infrastructure capacity to accommodate planned growth. The majority of water companies have now published their water resources management plans which set out how they will continue to provide secure water supplies in the long term.
The government has created a new duty for water companies in England to produce Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans, which set out how a water company intends to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, to accommodate growth and mitigate issues related to insufficient capacity.
When granting planning permission, local authorities can seek a section 106 planning obligation from a developer to mitigate the impact of a development to make it acceptable in planning terms. The obligation may, for example, require certain infrastructure or infrastructure contributions to be provided and specify the periods at which they must be provided. Local authorities have enforcement powers to ensure compliance with any such provisions.
I also refer the noble Lord to the answer given to Question UIN 26106 on 05 February 2025.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government by what date they expect the work to remove dangerous cladding from high rise residential buildings in England to have been completed.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
No leaseholder in a high-rise residential building should wait a day longer for remediation than necessary. The Remediation Acceleration Plan published last December states that by the end of 2029 all high rise buildings (18 metres and over) with unsafe cladding in a government funded scheme will have been remediated. The joint plan with developers published alongside the Remediation Acceleration Plan established targets for developers to start or complete remedial works on all their buildings by the end of July 2027.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken since 4 July to reduce the number of people sleeping rough in cities in England.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government recognises that homelessness levels are far too high and this can have a devastating impact on those affected. We will consider all these issues as we develop our long-term cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country, to get us back on track to ending homelessness.
We are already taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness. As announced at the Budget, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year (2024/25). This increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping. This brings total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26.
This is on top of a £10 million fund announced in November to protect people sleeping rough from cold weather this winter.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of flats in London which are (1) unoccupied, or (2) occupied by owners or other residents at less than 40 per cent of available capacity.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
While the Department publishes data through the English Housing Survey (EHS) on whether dwellings are underoccupied (according to the bedroom standard) or vacant, its sample size means it does not have reliable estimates for flats in London. The department also publishes statistics on vacant dwellings, as reported for the purposes of council tax, but does not disaggregate by type of property.
More information on the EHS can be found at English Housing Survey - GOV.UK., while statistics on vacant dwellings can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-taxbase-statistics.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the final payments to be made to beneficiaries of the Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Whilst many projects have progressed at pace, we are aware that others have faced difficult delivery conditions which may make it hard to deliver by the original programme end date of March 2026.
With this in mind, we are looking at whether there is scope for places to move some spending into future years. This is dependent on Departmental budgets which will be agreed as part of the Spending Review process for 2026-2029. We will communicate the outcome to grant recipients following Spring Budget.
We still encourage projects to deliver as quickly as they can, so that the positive impacts of this investment can be felt by communities more quickly.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, for each of the past 10 years, what was the total monetary value of land sold, either on a freehold or leasehold basis, in (1) England, (2) Wales, and (3) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
His Majesty’s Government does not hold the information in the format requested to answer question and it could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the percentage turnout of voters in the May county council elections in England, by county.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Electoral Commission is the independent electoral regulator and will be providing their analysis of the running of the May polls 2024. This will include data on turnout.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many refugees from Ukraine have been settled in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As of 5 March 2024, 201,400 people have arrived in the UK under the Ukraine visa schemes, rather than as refugees. 144,400 of them have been sponsored under the Homes for Ukraine scheme with 108,601 being in England, 1,500 in Northern Ireland, 5,847 in Scotland and 4,200 in Wales.
In addition to this, 20,882 Ukrainians have been sponsored by the Scottish Government and another 3,291 by the Welsh Government. Further information including a full breakdown of the data has been published on Gov.UK and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-visa-data-by-country-upper-and-lower-tier-local-authority.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish a table showing, for the most recent period for which figures are available, the 15 local authorities with the lowest percentage of dwellings which have an EPC energy efficiency rating of 'C' or above.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Data tables showing numbers of energy certificates lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Registers and energy efficiency ratings are published online here. The tables were last updated on 27 April 2023.
Local authority level data on Energy Performance certificates is published and available from the Open Data Community.
The Energy Performance of Buildings Register ('the scheme') runs on a cost neutral basis.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish a table showing the number of homes assessed by their energy efficiency scheme in each of the past 10 years and the total cost of that scheme in each of those years.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Data tables showing numbers of energy certificates lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Registers and energy efficiency ratings are published online here. The tables were last updated on 27 April 2023.
Local authority level data on Energy Performance certificates is published and available from the Open Data Community.
The Energy Performance of Buildings Register ('the scheme') runs on a cost neutral basis.