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Written Question
Early Years Healthy Development Review and Family Hubs
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits for the levelling up agenda of implementing the recommendations of the (a) Early Years Healthy Development Review and (b) Vision for the Best Start for Life.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

My Right Honourable friend is an extraordinary champion on these issues and has long campaigned for babies and children to get the best start in life. This government recognises the importance of the 1001 critical days.

Investing over £300 million to transform Start for Life and Family Hub services, in 75 local authorities in England, with high levels of deprivation, directly supports the levelling up agenda.


Written Question
Planning Permission
Thursday 23rd June 2022

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to ensure that local planning authorities are able to manage the planning demands of large scale developments and their impact on communities effectively.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Local planning authorities need to have the right skills to deliver for their communities. We have committed to developing a comprehensive skills strategy for the planning sector to set out solutions for training and capacity-building. We have also announced that we will consult on increasing planning fees for major and minor applications, by 35% and 25% respectively.


Written Question
Landlords: Coronavirus
Thursday 12th November 2020

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support landlords who rely on income from less than three rental properties during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Government is supporting landlords by helping tenants to pay their rent and has brought forward a significant economic response, including support for businesses to pay staff salaries through the furlough scheme, which has been extended to March.

As made clear in our COVID renting guidance to tenants and landlords, tenants who?are able to pay rent must continue to do so. Where landlords find themselves in coronavirus-related hardship, mortgage lenders have agreed to offer payment holidays of up to six months, with applications now open until 31 January 2021.

Housing possession claims can be actioned through the courts and we have worked with the judiciary to introduce new court arrangements to ensure appropriate protection for all parties

While we have asked bailiffs not to carry out evictions during the national restrictions in England (from 5 November), there will be a number of serious circumstances which will be exempt. This we hope can serve as reassurance to landlords. These serious circumstances are cases of illegal occupation, anti-social behaviour, fraud, eviction of a perpetrator of domestic abuse in social housing and where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant. We also intend to introduce an exemption for extreme pre-Covid rent arrears. Together with the pause on enforcement of evictions over the Christmas period, this means bailiffs have been asked not to enforce evictions in England until the 11 January at the earliest, except in the most serious circumstances.

The Government believes this strikes the right balance between prioritising public health and supporting the most vulnerable renters, whilst ensuring landlords can access and exercise their right to justice for the most serious cases.


Written Question
Help to Buy Scheme
Monday 2nd November 2020

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the help to buy scheme in its current format will be extended until April 2022.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Government recognises that there have been delays caused by Covid-19. That is why on 31 July a two-month extension was announced to the building completion deadline from 31 December 2020 to 28 February 2021. The legal completion deadline for the purchase remains 31 March 2021.

The Government also announced an extra measure to protect existing customers who have experienced severe delays as a result of coronavirus. Homes England, who administer Help to Buy, will work with those who had a reservation in place before 30 June to assess their situation and look to provide an extension where necessary. In which case, they will have until 31 May 2021 to legally complete. More information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/help-to-buy-scheme-extended.

We believe these measures provide sufficient time for developers to build out homes delayed by COVID 19 and protect customers whose purchases have been significantly delayed. There are no plans to extend the current scheme further.

Meanwhile the Government’s new Help to Buy scheme, which will replace the current scheme and is for first time buyers only, will commence on 1 April 2021 and run until March 2023. More information can be found at: https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/equity-loan/help-to-buy-equity-loan-2021-2023/.


Written Question
Motorcycles: Coronavirus
Monday 19th October 2020

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that motorbike scrambling is subject to covid-19 legislation with no change in planning permission.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

All activities are subject to the relevant Covid restrictions. To support businesses and communities during this time we have provided a further 14 days during which time land can temporarily be used for motorsports until 31 December 2020. This is in addition to the existing allowance of 14 days.


Written Question
Caravan Sites: Coronavirus
Thursday 8th October 2020

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to review the regulations on the occupation of caravan sites during the winter months in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

There are no specific planning regulations controlling the occupation of caravan sites during the winter months. Occupation during these months may be subject to planning conditions as part of the planning permission for the site. The Government issued a Written Ministerial Statement on 14 July which says that local planning authorities should prioritise planning applications which vary conditions to extend the operation of caravan sites beyond the usual summer season. In doing so, they should have regard to any advice from the Environment Agency where there may be a risk of flooding on a site, whilst considering the benefits of longer opening season times to local economies as they recover from the impact of Covid-19.


Written Question
Housing: Social Services
Thursday 25th July 2019

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including adult social care provision within housing development plans.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

Provision of Adult Social Care is a Government priority, which is why this Government has given councils access to £10 billion dedicated funding that can be used for adult social care in the three year period to 2019-20.

Government has continued to subsidise the supply of new supported and sheltered housing as well as investing more than £2.7 billion into the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) between 2012-13 and 2019-20. The DFG has been funded through the Better Care Fund since 2015 in in recognition of the crucial role which home adaptations can play in supporting the integration of housing, health and social care.

The Department has also strengthened the revised National Planning Policy Framework so that local planning authorities are expected to have policies which identify the size, type and tenure of homes required for different groups in the community.


Written Question
Unitary Councils: Northamptonshire
Wednesday 24th July 2019

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to (a) ensure that local authorities in Northamptonshire transition successfully to the two new unitary authorities on time and on budget and (b) prepare for the proposed new unitary authorities not being operational on time and on budget.

Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

The Secretary of State made his decision to implement the Northamptonshire councils’ unitary proposal with one modification. This modification was to extend the period for implementing the new arrangements so the new councils are operational from 1 April 2021. We took this step to ensure a successful transition to the two new unitary authorities and that there would be confidence locally about a safe and effective transition to all the new service delivery arrangements across the whole of the area, including for those crucial services supporting the most vulnerable.


Written Question
Health Services and Social Services: Northamptonshire
Wednesday 24th July 2019

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions his Department has had with the Department of Health and Social Care on the proposed pilot scheme merger of the provision of social care and health care in Northamptonshire under one new organisation.

Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, together with my officials, met Hon Friends from Northamptonshire on 22 July to discuss the integration between health and social care services in Northamptonshire. It was agreed that local leaders from across health and social care in Northamptonshire should be invited to set out clearly their ambitions for integration including formalised ways of working together. I and my fellow Ministers look forward to hearing more from Northamptonshire health bodies and councils when their plans are further developed.


Written Question
Owner Occupation: Service Charges
Wednesday 24th July 2019

Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to protect freeholders and leaseholders from high service charges.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

We have committed to protecting leaseholders who are suffering at the hands of rogue managing agents every day from unexpected costs or excessive fees for poor quality repairs.

We set up a working group, chaired by Lord Best, to look at regulating and professionalising property agents. This included reviewing the standards around the transparency of service charges and other fees and charges, how they are presented to consumers and putting them into a statutory code for managing agents. The working group has now completed their considerations and made recommendations to ministers. The working group’s final report was published on 18 July.

The Government will consider the recommendations set out in the report and will respond in due course

We are also looking at the future use of charges and restrictions beyond service charges – such as permission fees, administration charges and other restrictions and covenants faced by leaseholders and resident freeholders, and consider whether they should be capped or banned, and will consider this alongside the working group’s proposals.

The Government has committed to ensuring that residential freeholders who pay charges for the maintenance of communal areas and facilities on a private or mixed tenure estate can access equivalent rights to those of leaseholders to challenge their reasonableness. This will include a right to change the provider of maintenance services by applying to the tribunal for the appointment of a new manager.