Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
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 potential merits of including the construction of low-level tree houses within permitted development rights.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In determining whether planning permission would be required for a particular treehouse the first consideration for the local planning authority would be to determine whether it constituted ‘development’ as defined under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act. If the proposed treehouse did not constitute such development, no planning permission would be required.
The householder permitted development rights enable homeowners to extend their homes and erect outbuildings without the need to apply for specific planning permission. To protect the privacy of neighbours the rights do not enable the construction of verandas, balconies or raised platforms over 0.3 metres without planning permission.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the increase in hate crimes committed against people of the Jewish faith.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our society, which is why we are taking a strong lead in tackling it in all its forms. We are clear that victims should be supported and the individuals who carry out these heinous attacks must be brought to justice. The Government is providing £14 million this year for the Protective Security Grant to protect Jewish schools and community buildings and we have encouraged the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism across universities and local authorities.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of requiring new commercial warehousing to be fitted with solar panels.
Answered by Luke Hall
Mandating a particular renewable technology, such as solar panels, may not be appropriate for all commercial warehousing in all areas. This for reasons such as building orientation and other reasons such as structural strength of the roof. National planning policy encourages the use of renewables without requiring any particular technology. In the case of the Building Regulations, the Government sets minimum energy performance standards for non-domestic buildings and new homes. These are expressed in performance terms and do not prescribe the technologies, materials or fuels to be used This allows builders and warehouse owners the flexibility to innovate and select the most practical and cost-effective solutions appropriate in a development. A new permitted development right was introduced in April 2015 to encourage solar panel take-up on non-domestic buildings. This right allows solar PV developments of up to 1 megawatt. This replaces a previous right and provides for a 20-fold increase in the amount of solar technology that can go onto the roofs of buildings such as warehouses without having to submit a full planning application, subject to strict safeguards to protect local amenity.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to support leaseholders who will be required to pay costs towards new building cladding under proposals in the draft Building Safety Bill.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The new building safety regime will systematically address historical structural defects to buildings by requiring safety case reviews and reasonable improvements. It is unacceptable for leaseholders to have to worry about the cost of fixing these historic safety defects in their buildings that they did not cause. Government has repeatedly said that building owners should step up and not pass these costs on to leaseholders, where possible.
Where developers or building owners have been unable or unwilling to pay, we have introduced funding schemes providing £1.6 billion to?accelerate the pace of work and?meet?the costs of remediating the highest risk and most expensive defects – Aluminium Composite Material cladding and other unsafe cladding systems like High Pressure Laminates.
The department is working on proposals to protect leaseholders from unaffordable costs caused by historic building safety defects. We will provide an update before the Building Safety Bill returns to Parliament.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to ensure the (a) transparency and (b) integrity of the planning system.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to ensuring the transparency and integrity of the planning system.
The Planning for the Future White Paper published on 6 August sets out our proposals for a reformed planning system. Central to that vision is a transparent system where local authorities, communities and developers can engage in an open and transparent way with the planning system, and where there is more certainty about where development is going to take place. By having a simple, clear, more rules based system, which has democracy and community engagement at its core, we will guarantee the integrity of the planning system.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities seeing to obtain High Court injunctions in planning disputes.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Planning injunctions are one of the tools available to local planning authorities to address breaches of planning control. We recently funded the National Association of Planning Enforcement Officers to update their planning enforcement handbook which provides information about these tools to enforcement officers.
We will also, as part of our planning reforms set out in the Planning for the Future White Paper, be reviewing and strengthening the existing planning enforcement powers and sanctions available to local planning authorities to ensure they support the new planning system.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities to tackle any backlog of planning applications resulting from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Government has introduced a number of measures to prevent delays and to ensure the planning system has remained open during the Covid-19 pandemic. Guidance for local authorities is published here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-planning-update
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that hospitals are able to access Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy contributions from developers.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Contributions from developers play an important role in delivering the infrastructure that new homes require. Local authorities can use funds secured through the Community Infrastructure Levy and section 106 planning obligations to fund hospitals and other health and social care facilities where appropriate. They will need to balance this against other funding priorities, including affordable housing. We will continue to work closely with local authorities and the sector to understand any issues around the use of developer contributions in the current context.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of resources available to local authorities who are housing homeless people during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Government has announced that councils across England will receive another £1.6 billion in additional funding as they continue to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. With this funding councils can provide support to those who need it most, including rough sleepers. This takes the total funding to support councils to respond to the pandemic to over £3.2 billion and follows on from the announcement of £3.2 million in targeted funding to ensure that we minimise the risk to those currently unable to self-isolate.
The Government has made clear that no one should be without a roof over their head, and this funding further demonstrates our commitment to assist the most vulnerable in society.