Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of amending the planning rules on new accesses to the highway.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is already clear that transport issues should be considered from the earliest stage of plan-making and development proposals. This enables potential impact of development on transport networks to be addressed, including access. Local Plans should be prepared with the active involvement of local highways authorities. When determining a planning application for development which involves access to or from a trunk road the local planning authority must consult the local highways authority. They will provide expert advice, based on technical standards and on any adopted local transport plan policies, relating to highways safety and impacts on the transport network as a whole.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the level of demand for new homes in Birmingham City Council area.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The National Planning Policy Framework expects local planning authorities to use the standard method to assess their own local housing needs, as a starting point to inform the preparation of their local plans. The standard method was amended in 2020 to add a 35% ‘urban uplift’ to the twenty largest towns and cities in England, including Birmingham. Councils then determine how many homes to actually plan for in their area, once they have considered their ability to meet those needs, having taken into account local constraints and circumstances.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the ability of local authorities to design local waste disposal services.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Subject to compliance with regulations and having regard to any statutory guidance, local authorities currently have the ability to design their local waste disposal services.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of lead emissions from (a) petrol use, (b) tyre and break wear and (c) other types of use of road vehicles in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Lead emissions are estimated in the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. The latest data available is for 2021. Data for 2023 will be published in February 2025.
Across the UK there were 34.5 tonnes of lead emissions from road transport in 2021, of which 34.1 tonnes were from tyre and brake wear, 0.36 tonnes were from petrol use, and 0.01 tonnes were from other sources in road transport (including diesel engines, lubricant use and natural gas).
Lead emissions from road transport have declined over the long term, largely due to a decline in emissions from the combustion of petrol (falling 99.9% since 1970).
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help support households to buy their (a) council and (b) housing association homes in areas with high property costs.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is strongly supportive of helping people to own their own homes, those who rent their homes and those who wish to buy them, and remains committed to the Right to Buy, which has helped over 2 million social housing tenants to become homeowners.
The maximum Right to Buy discounts were raised in 2012 and increase each year in line with CPI. This annual increase in the discount assists tenants, including those in areas with high property costs, to purchase their homes, which has resulted in over 155,000 since this reinvigoration.
The Right to Buy discount also specifically recognises the higher property prices in London where the maximum available discount is £127,900 compared with £96,000 in the rest of England.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department's waste policies for supporting (a) reuse, (b) prevention and c) recycling of waste materials.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Alongside our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy, the Government’s ambitions to minimise waste were outlined earlier this year in Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste , our new Waste Prevention Programme for England. This sets out our priorities for action to manage resources and waste in accordance with the waste hierarchy across key sectors. It also embeds our circular economy approach by retaining materials and goods in circulation for as long as possible and at their highest value, including through increasing reuse, repair and remanufacture. The final chapter of the Programme sets out our plans to monitor and evaluate progress. We have indicators in place to capture changes and we will monitor trends over an extended period of time. In addition, through the National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research programme, experts will support Defra in exploring the metrics and data requirements needed to support a circular economy.
We are also introducing our Simpler Recycling reforms which will ensure that across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, no longer needing to check what their council will accept for recycling. This policy will make recycling easier and ensure there is a comprehensive, consistent service across England. This will reduce confusion with recycling to improve recycling rates, ensuring there is more recycled material in the products we buy, and the UK recycling industry grows.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle hostile state activity.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Home Office has an important role in the cross-government response to state threats. Through the National Security Act 2023, we have brought together vital new measures to protect our national security, which will enable our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to deter, detect and disrupt the full range of modern-day state threats.
I also lead the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which seeks to protect the democratic integrity of the UK from threats of foreign interference
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the oral answer of 14 September 2023 by the Leader of the House, Official Report column 1023, whether he has made an assessment of the cost to the economy in London of a majority of roads having a speed limit of 20mph.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport has not made an assessment of the impact of the cost to the economy of 20mph speed limits in London.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of centralising in his Department control of roads in London.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have no plans to increase the size and role of central government by taking control of local roads in London.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the national funding formula for schools and high needs.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Funding Formula (NFF) replaced a system which was unfair, lacked transparency and was out of date. Schools and local areas received very different levels of funding, with little or no justification. By comparison, the NFF distributes funding fairly, based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics.
Moving to a ‘direct’ NFF, where all schools’ budgets are determined directly by the national formula, will ultimately ensure that mainstream schools in England are funded on a fair and equitable basis. This will complete the reforms started in 2018 when the department first introduced the NFF to ensure all schools were funded on a consistent assessment of need.
The department keeps the formula under review and will consider further whether and when additional changes might be necessary to ensure that our funding system is kept up to date in a way that is fair and is allocating funding where it is needed most.