Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the cost of the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The estimated total cost for building the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is £102 million.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 rejuvenate town centres.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
This Government is fully committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and town centres successful as the nation responds to the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Government is working to deliver a package of long-term measures that support town centre regeneration. This includes the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, which will support an initial 101 places across England to secure Town Deals. It will support local areas to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that improves experience, drives growth and ensures future sustainability. In September 2020, we brought forward over £80 million funding in to support immediate improvements in 101 towns selected for deals to “build back better” in the wake of COVID-19.
On the 26 December 2020, the Secretary of State confirmed £255 million for fifteen areas from the Future High Streets Fund, with a further 57 areas receiving provisional funding offers totalling up to £576 million.
Further, the Government is launching a new Levelling Up Fund. This Fund will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery. We will publish a prospectus for the Fund soon.
We are providing support to local leadership in England with a High Streets Task Force, giving them expert advice to support their high streets and town centres to adapt and thrive. This is providing hands-on support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local areas to relevant experts, and will operate up to 2024.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 promote home ownership.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
First Homes, our new home ownership scheme, will be prioritised for first-time buyers and will allow them to buy a new home with a discount, at least 30 per cent under market value. In some areas, the discounts could be as high as 50 per cent. This will significantly reduce both deposit and mortgage requirements and open up the dream of home ownership to even more people.
Our new Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme from April 2021 to March 2023 will be targeted at helping first-time buyers to get a foot on the property ladder.
As set out in the Conservative manifesto of December 2019, the Government will encourage a market in long-term fixed rate mortgages with low deposits to promote home ownership. We stand ready to work with the sector to explore the possible options to bring these products to market.
The Government is committed to supporting the supply of new homes, delivering around 244,000 last year, the highest in over 30 years.
We are bringing forward an ambitious near £20 billion investment, including over £12 billion in Affordable Housing over 5 years, and over £7 billion to both unlock new land through the provision of infrastructure and diversify the market through our National Home Building Fund. Alongside our reforms to the planning system, this will deliver the new homes the country needs.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 placemaking is at the heart of the Government's strategic thinking about development.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Following our response to the report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, we are taking action to put beauty and placemaking at the heart of the planning and development process. We have outlined proposals for securing design quality in our White Paper, Planning for the Future and on 30 January, we published for consultation a revised National Planning Policy Framework to make beauty and placemaking strategic policies. The National Model Design Code provides guidance on creating local design codes and we are seeking views on this advice alongside the National Planning Policy Framework consultation. We also intend to create an Office for Place within the next year to champion design and beauty in the planning system and we have made a commitment to strengthen Homes England’s objectives to give greater weight to design quality.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 implement his policy of placing beauty at the heart of the built environment.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Following our response to the report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, we are taking action to put beauty and placemaking at the heart of the planning and development process. We have outlined proposals for securing design quality in our White Paper, Planning for the Future and on 30 January, we published for consultation a revised National Planning Policy Framework to make beauty and placemaking strategic policies. The National Model Design Code provides guidance on creating local design codes and we are seeking views on this advice alongside the National Planning Policy Framework consultation. We also intend to create an Office for Place within the next year to champion design and beauty in the planning system and we have made a commitment to strengthen Homes England’s objectives to give greater weight to design quality.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 discourage or prohibit edge of town or out of town development.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In order to support the vitality of town centres, the Government has made clear in the National Planning Policy Framework that in the first instance, main town centre uses such as retail should be located in town centres. In some circumstances it may not be possible to accommodate all forecast needs in a town centre, for example if there are physical or other constraints which make it inappropriate to do so. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to prohibit all development of this type outside of existing centres.
However, when assessing applications for town centre uses, such as retail, which are proposed in an edge of or out of town location, and those sites have not been identified in a local plan, the Framework sets out that a sequential test should be applied in order to help ensure that development that would have unacceptable implications on existing centres is not permitted.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of how the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in central London will help tackle anti-Semitism elsewhere in the country.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
In light of Holocaust denial, revisionism, the rise of antisemitism and indifference, it is more important than ever to ensure that the story of what happened during the Holocaust resonates with ordinary people and raises questions about Britain’s role at the time. The Memorial and Learning Centre will act as a national hub for commemoration and education, partnering with established organisations in the sector, so that it complements, signposts and amplifies existing educational resources.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using an alternative, larger site than Victoria Tower Gardens for the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Victoria Tower Gardens is the right site for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. The Memorial will stand as a reminder of the horrors of the past and will encourage reflection on their implications for British government and society, both at the time and subsequently. Full details of the proposed Memorial and Learning Centre, including the assessment of other sites, were provided at the recent public inquiry.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress the Government has made on the Towns Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
In September 2019, Government announced the initial 101 places invited to develop Town Deal proposals as part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund. In June 2020, as part of the Prime Minister’s commitment to bringing forward £5 billion of capital investment projects to support jobs and economic recovery, the Government brought forward over £80 million from the Towns Fund for investment in capital projects that would have an immediate impact across these 101 towns.
On 27 October, we announced the first seven Town Deal offers, worth almost £180 million, for Barrow-in-Furness, Blackpool, Darlington, Norwich, Peterborough, Torquay and Warrington. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-town-deals-worth-almost-180-million-announced
Announcements will be made in due course on further Town Deals.
Government is also committed to a future competitive round of the Towns Fund and we will publish further details of this in due course.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 incentivise the removal of dangerous materials from high-rise buildings.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon Member to my answer of Question UIN 74552, answered on 24 July.