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Written Question
Planning
Tuesday 26th March 2019

Asked by: Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the Government plans to publish the outcome of its consultation entitled Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 13 March 2018, HCWS1408, we intend to implement an immediate package of permitted development right measures in the spring, with the more complex matters, including on upward extensions, covered in a further package of regulations in the autumn.


Written Question
Affordable Housing
Wednesday 25th March 2015

Asked by: Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much the Government has spent on affordable housing in (a) England, (b) the South East, (c) Surrey and (d) Elmbridge in each year since 2005.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

Affordable housing expenditure for England, Surrey and Elmbridge in each year since 2005 is set out below.

England

Surrey

Elmbridge

£m

£m

£m

2013-14

965

11

0.9

2012-13

1,083

14

1

2011-12

1,578

17

0.9

2010-11

2,660

34

4

2009-10

3,737

46

6

2008-09

2,612

45

2

2007-08

2,029

37

5

2006-07

1,921

45

2

2005-06

1,577

47

5

The budget for the supply of new affordable housing in 2014-15 is £1,239 million. However, this under-states the total level of affordable housing investment under this Government. Our Affordable Homes Programme is on track to deliver and surpass 170,000 new affordable homes between 2011 and 2015, and lever in £19.5 billion of public and private investment.

A further £38 billion of public and private investment will help ensure 275,000 new affordable homes are provided between 2015 and 2020. This means over the next Parliament we will build more new affordable homes than during any equivalent period in the last twenty years. Funding is allocated through competitive bidding and there are no top down targets for particular areas.

We do not publish regional statistics, nor does our housing or planning policy operate on the old Government Office Regions.


Written Question
Affordable Housing: South East
Wednesday 25th March 2015

Asked by: Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much the Government plans to invest in affordable housing in the South East of England between 2015 and 2020; and how many affordable homes he forecasts will be built in that region in that period.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

Affordable housing expenditure for England, Surrey and Elmbridge in each year since 2005 is set out below.

England

Surrey

Elmbridge

£m

£m

£m

2013-14

965

11

0.9

2012-13

1,083

14

1

2011-12

1,578

17

0.9

2010-11

2,660

34

4

2009-10

3,737

46

6

2008-09

2,612

45

2

2007-08

2,029

37

5

2006-07

1,921

45

2

2005-06

1,577

47

5


The budget for the supply of new affordable housing in 2014-15 is £1,239 million. However, this under-states the total level of affordable housing investment under this Government. Our Affordable Homes Programme is on track to deliver and surpass 170,000 new affordable homes between 2011 and 2015, and lever in £19.5 billion of public and private investment.

A further £38 billion of public and private investment will help ensure 275,000 new affordable homes are provided between 2015 and 2020. This means over the next Parliament we will build more new affordable homes than during any equivalent period in the last twenty years. Funding is allocated through competitive bidding and there are no top down targets for particular areas.

We do not publish regional statistics, nor does our housing or planning policy operate on the old Government Office Regions.


Written Question
Housing: Sales
Monday 5th January 2015

Asked by: Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many residential properties on brownfield land (a) in total and (b) as a proportion of all residential property sales were sold in each of the last five years.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The Department publishes data on residential property sales, based on Land Registry data. These are available in Live Tables 588 (annual) and 584 (quarterly) at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-housing-market-and-house-prices

The Department does not, however, collect data on the proportion of these properties that were built on brownfield land.


Written Question
Planning Permission
Monday 10th November 2014

Asked by: Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to increase local control over planning policy.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

This Government has abolished the Labour Government’s top-down Regional Strategies, such as the South East Plan, and closed down the unelected Regional Assemblies. We also stopped proposals, being implemented by the then Labour Government, to hand more planning power to the unelected Regional Development Agencies and Regional Assemblies.

The Localism Act has strengthened the role of Local Plans, allowing local councils – in consultation with local residents – to draw up plans and determine where new development should and should not go. 80 per cent of councils now have a published Local Plan, and we are working with the remaining local councils to help them deliver up to date plans.

In National policy, we have safeguarded environmental designations such as the Green Belt which were under threat of deletion from the Regional Strategies; given councils new powers to tackle unwanted garden grabbing; and allowed councils and neighbourhoods to introduce a new planning protection for valuable green local spaces.

Localism should involve decentralising power to the lowest appropriate level. So neighbourhood planning now allows local neighbourhoods and parishes to shape planning in their local area: over 1,200 communities are so far developing neighbourhood plans. We are funding a £63 million package of support to help local people take up community rights, and we have been consulting on practical ways we can strengthen the neighbourhood planning process based on the experience we have learnt to date.

Decentralisation also involves empowering individuals – so we have extended permitted development rights to allow households and local firms to make small changes (such as small extensions and change of use) without the need for full planning permission. We have been consulting on further common sense reforms in our consultation published in July.


Written Question
Fire Services
Tuesday 24th June 2014

Asked by: Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many firefighters there are per head of the population in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The latest numbers of full time equivalent whole-time, retained duty system and total firefighters per 10,000 head of population are shown in the table below.

2012-13

Wholetime firefighters

(full time equivalent)

per 10,000 population

Retained Duty System Firefighters

(full time equivalent)

per 10,000 population

Total firefighter

(full time equivalent)

per 10,000 population

England

5.09

2.12

7.21

Wales

4.94

4.63

9.57

Sources: ONS mid-2012 population estimates, DCLG 2012-13 Annual Returns, Wales 2012-13 Annual returns


Written Question
Fire and Rescue Services
Tuesday 24th June 2014

Asked by: Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many firefighters there are per head of the population in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The latest numbers of full time equivalent whole-time, retained duty system and total firefighters per 10,000 head of population are shown in the table below.

2012-13

Wholetime firefighters

(full time equivalent)

per 10,000 population

Retained Duty System Firefighters

(full time equivalent)

per 10,000 population

Total firefighter

(full time equivalent)

per 10,000 population

England

5.09

2.12

7.21

Wales

4.94

4.63

9.57

Sources: ONS mid-2012 population estimates, DCLG 2012-13 Annual Returns, Wales 2012-13 Annual returns