Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his department has to publish a response to the Law Commission report on leasehold enfranchisement with reference to ground rent.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is looking to standardise the enfranchisement process and asked the Law Commission to review current arrangements to make them easier, faster, fairer and cheaper. The Law Commission has now published its first report to Government, on the valuation aspects of enfranchisement. The report, which follows a consultation by the Law Commission, sets out a number of options relating to valuation, including purchasing a freehold and extending the lease of a house or flat. We expect the Law Commission will report on the remaining aspects of enfranchisement later in the spring.??The Government will carefully consider the?proposals outlined in the Law Commission’s report and set out?its?preferred way forward in due course.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
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 implementing a requirement for assisted living spaces to be provided in new housing developments.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government recognises the importance of meeting the housing needs of disabled, older and other vulnerable people including those with autism, and we keep under regular review how we can achieve this.
We have strengthened the revised National Planning Policy Framework so that local planning authorities are expected to have planning policies which identify the size, type and tenure of homes required for different groups in the community including disabled and older people, and we will shortly be consulting on improving accessibility standards for new homes.
We are also working with the social housing sector to boost new supply of much needed supported accommodation for disabled and older people.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the effect of its decision to ban gas central heating for new-build houses from 2025 on the UK's carbon emissions.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking in conjunction with local authorities to ensure that eligible businesses benefit from the forthcoming reduction in business rates as soon as that reduction comes into force.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government is working closely with local authorities to implement the retail discount announced at the Budget. In November the Department issued guidance to local authorities and will be providing new burdens funding to meet the costs of implementation. MHCLG will shortly be writing to authorities to remind them of the need to grant the relief to eligible businesses from April 2019 and to do all they can to ensure that businesses are aware of the support available.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to tackle gazumping in the housing market.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government explored this in our consultation on improving the home buying and selling process during which the most common response to the question on gazumping was for buyers and sellers to commit earlier in the process.
Informed by this consultation, we are now working to increase the use of reservation agreements to support buyers and sellers to commit earlier in the home buying and selling process and reduce the rate of failed transactions, which currently stands at over 25 percent. In particular we are working with industry to develop a standardised reservation agreement and we are going to commission behavioural insight analysis to support their implementation.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking with local authorities to (a) reduce the number of retrospective planning applications caused by breaches of planning control and (b) encourage people to submit applications in advance of works commencing.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are clear that unauthorised development is unacceptable and unfair to those who abide by the rules. Where people have made a genuine mistake, they are able to rectify the situation through the retrospective planning application process.
Local authorities have strong enforcement powers at their disposal in the event that development takes place without the appropriate planning permission.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has undertaken an assessment of the changes to the planning system which would be required to tackle the rise of so-called trojan phone box applications.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are aware of concerns expressed about the impact of a proliferation of telephone kiosks with advertising panels in some areas. This raises a number of important issues, relating to permitted development rights, advertising consents, and the powers available to Electronic Communications Code Operators, which are being considered.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to (a) support and (b) incentivise local authorities to go further than their duty to hold a self-build register and actively bring forward sites for self-build properties.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Department has published comprehensive planning guidance to support authorities in taking forward their duties under the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding legislation. MHCLG is also providing a total of £95,850 new burdens funding to each relevant authority over 3 years to set up the register and deliver permissions suitable for self and custom build housing.
The Department is supporting the National Custom and Self Build Association’s Right to Build Task Force which aims to help local authorities, community groups and other organisations across the UK deliver large, affordable custom and self-build housing projects. Officials have also delivered a programme of regional workshops for local authorities to assist them in discharging their duties and we will continue to assess what more the Department can do in this area.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to encourage more short term and pop-up commercial leases for independent and start-up retailers and small businesses.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Government sees small and start-up businesses as a critical part of our changing town centres and high streets, and sees short-term leases as a valuable tool for local authorities to use. But we are also supporting small retailers and businesses through other policies and have established the Minister-led Future High Street Forum to help town centres adapt to changing consumer trends.
We also worked with the retail sector and local authorities on the recent draft revision of the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure planning policy supports greater diversification and change of uses where town centres are in decline.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing rights to light for solar generation.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Government has not assessed the potential merits of introducing rights to light for solar generation technology. The planning system can already take into account whether a proposed development would have an unreasonable impact on the light enjoyed by neighbouring properties, in terms of its impact on living conditions.
The Government believes that sufficient protection is already afforded to existing solar arrays by the planning system which can take into account whether a proposed development would have an unreasonable impact on the light enjoyed by neighbouring properties, in terms of its impact on living conditions.