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 a recent assessment of the adequacy of the Help to Build scheme; and whether he plans to improve that scheme.
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.
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 assessment of the adequacy of the support provide by Homes England's (a) grant funding schemes and (b) support workers and professional staff to (i) small and medium sized and (b) self and custom builders.
Answered by Lee Rowley
My Honourable friend is absolutely right to point out that small and medium sized (SME) housebuilders and self and custom builders (S&CB) are an indispensable part of our housebuilding sector and the Government is committed to providing them with support.
This is why we established the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund, which provides financial support to SMEs and innovative housebuilders – including self and custom builders – to help build around 42,000 homes, and the £1 billion ENABLE Build Guarantee scheme.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act will also help SMEs by making the planning process easier to navigate, faster and more predictable. The Government regularly assesses its support package for SMEs and S&CB.
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 a recent assessment of the adequacy of (a) support schemes for loans, (b) mortgage support and (c) grants for (i) self and custom and (ii) small builders.
Answered by Lee Rowley
My Honourable friend is absolutely right to point out that small and medium sized (SME) housebuilders and self and custom builders (S&CB) are an indispensable part of our housebuilding sector and the Government is committed to providing them with support.
This is why we established the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund, which provides financial support to SMEs and innovative housebuilders – including self and custom builders – to help build around 42,000 homes, and the £1 billion ENABLE Build Guarantee scheme.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act will also help SMEs by making the planning process easier to navigate, faster and more predictable. The Government regularly assesses its support package for SMEs and S&CB.
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 encourage Homes England to (a) work more closely with and (b) deliver more houses built by small builders.
Answered by Lee Rowley
My Honourable friend is absolutely right to point out that small and medium sized (SME) housebuilders and self and custom builders (S&CB) are an indispensable part of our housebuilding sector and the Government is committed to providing them with support.
This is why we established the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund, which provides financial support to SMEs and innovative housebuilders – including self and custom builders – to help build around 42,000 homes, and the £1 billion ENABLE Build Guarantee scheme.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act will also help SMEs by making the planning process easier to navigate, faster and more predictable. The Government regularly assesses its support package for SMEs and S&CB.
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 encourage Homes England to bring forward more small sites for housebuilding.
Answered by Lee Rowley
My Honourable friend is absolutely right to point out that small and medium sized (SME) housebuilders and self and custom builders (S&CB) are an indispensable part of our housebuilding sector and the Government is committed to providing them with support.
This is why we established the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund, which provides financial support to SMEs and innovative housebuilders – including self and custom builders – to help build around 42,000 homes, and the £1 billion ENABLE Build Guarantee scheme.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act will also help SMEs by making the planning process easier to navigate, faster and more predictable. The Government regularly assesses its support package for SMEs and S&CB.
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 small and medium sized builders.
Answered by Lee Rowley
My Honourable friend is absolutely right to point out that small and medium sized (SME) housebuilders and self and custom builders (S&CB) are an indispensable part of our housebuilding sector and the Government is committed to providing them with support.
This is why we established the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund, which provides financial support to SMEs and innovative housebuilders – including self and custom builders – to help build around 42,000 homes, and the £1 billion ENABLE Build Guarantee scheme.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act will also help SMEs by making the planning process easier to navigate, faster and more predictable. The Government regularly assesses its support package for SMEs and S&CB.
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 assessment of the impact of the increase in planning fees under the Levelling up and Regeneration Act 2023 on the speed of granting planning permissions by local planning authorities.
Answered by Lee Rowley
Planning fees were increased on 6 December 2023. The Department has and I have made it clear that we expect local planning authorities to use the additional income generated by the fee increase in their planning services, so that the planning service benefits from more resources. This investment should lead to an improvement in the speed of decision-making in time.
The performance of all local planning authorities in relation to the speed and quality of decision-making is continuously monitored and reported quarterly through the Department’s live tables on planning application statistics. These can be viewed here.
We will use this information to assess the impact of the increase in planning fees, and will be very carefully monitoring in the months ahead.
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 guidance he has issued to providers of domestic violence refuges regarding the provision of single-sex facilities.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
DLUHC have not issued any guidance to providers of domestic abuse refuges with regard to the provision of single sex facilities.
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 the legal requirements are for including surface water flooding risks in solar farm applications.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is clear that all sources of flood risk, now and in the future, need to be considered in planning applications, including the risk of surface water flooding. This is to ensure that new development is safe for its lifetime without increasing the risk of flooding elsewhere.
Where appropriate, for example if the application is classed as major development, applications should be supported by a site-specific flood-risk assessment and sustainable drainage strategy. Lead Local Flood Authorities must be consulted on surface water drainage considerations in applications for such developments. The Environment Agency are a statutory consultee on planning applications in any area which has been notified to the local planning authority by the Agency as having critical drainage problems.
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 assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Whole Housing Approach pilot, which was funded by the Department from 2018 – March 2021.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Whole Housing Approach pilot was an innovative and transformative partnership project bringing together Stockton on Tees, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and three West London Boroughs - Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham and the domestic abuse sector which helped ensure that victims of domestic abuse lived in accommodation that is safe and get the right support.
An independent evaluation report commissioned by the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance after the first year found that “for every £1 invested the cost benefit ratio ranged from £3.39 to £59.27. This provided potential total savings of £68,545.80 to the public purse”.