Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to implement the recommendation of the Bacon review into scaling up self-build and custom housebuilding to create a new Custom and Self-Build Housing Delivery Unit within Homes England.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Government has taken forward a number of interventions to support self and custom build in line with our response to the Bacon Review published in June 2022. This includes: continuing to make loan funding available to custom build developers through the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund; funding the release of plots for self and custom build through the Brownfield Land Release Fund; launching the Help to Build: Equity Loan scheme for people who want to build their own homes; amending the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 to improve the implementation of the 2015 Act and increase the amount of land granted planning permission for self and custom build; and establishing the Self Commissioned Homes Delivery Unit within Homes England to accelerate and maximise the delivery of self-commissioned homes - which include self and custom build and community led homes - within existing programmes.
In December 2023, the Government updated the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) further to support self and custom build and we will consult shortly, on further regulations to ensure that only planning permission specifically for self and custom build housing will count against an authority’s duties under the 2015 Act. We are working to ensure that the Help to Build scheme serves its intended purpose to widen access to self and custom build for those without substantial cash reserves.