Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of businesses that were eligible for business rates relief in the 2023-24 financial year are no longer eligible in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Simon Hoare
The department does not hold the data required to answer this question. Information on the number of hereditaments eligible for business rates relief is available here.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential economic impact of the South Yorkshire Investment Zone on Rother Valley constituency.
Answered by Jacob Young
Communities across South Yorkshire, including your constituents in Rother Valley, all stand to benefit from the estimated 8,000 new jobs and £1.2 billion of private funding by 2030, this Investment Zone will help to deliver.
People from Rother Valley will see blockers to growth in their area, such as challenges attracting finance and investment, supporting business growth, and clear pathways to higher skilled jobs, reduced. This could be through potential support for specialist training programmes tailored to industry and support for local businesses in the sector’s supply chains, helping drive more business activity and productivity.
This Government is continuing to work with South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and local partners to co-develop the plans for their Advanced Manufacturing Investment Zone, including agreeing priority development sites and specific interventions to drive cluster growth, ahead of final confirmation of plans.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the impact of the South Yorkshire Investment Zone on the creation of skilled jobs and businesses in Rother Valley Constituency.
Answered by Jacob Young
Communities across South Yorkshire, including your constituents in Rother Valley, all stand to benefit from the estimated 8,000 new jobs and £1.2 billion of private funding by 2030, this Investment Zone will help to deliver.
People from Rother Valley will see blockers to growth in their area, such as challenges attracting finance and investment, supporting business growth, and clear pathways to higher skilled jobs, reduced. This could be through potential support for specialist training programmes tailored to industry and support for local businesses in the sector’s supply chains, helping drive more business activity and productivity.
This Government is continuing to work with South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and local partners to co-develop the plans for their Advanced Manufacturing Investment Zone, including agreeing priority development sites and specific interventions to drive cluster growth, ahead of final confirmation of plans.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the economic impact of the South Yorkshire Investment Zone on the local economy of Rother Valley.
Answered by Jacob Young
Communities across South Yorkshire, including your constituents in Rother Valley, all stand to benefit from the estimated 8,000 new jobs and £1.2 billion of private funding by 2030, this Investment Zone will help to deliver.
People from Rother Valley will see blockers to growth in their area, such as challenges attracting finance and investment, supporting business growth, and clear pathways to higher skilled jobs, reduced. This could be through potential support for specialist training programmes tailored to industry and support for local businesses in the sector’s supply chains, helping drive more business activity and productivity.
This Government is continuing to work with South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and local partners to co-develop the plans for their Advanced Manufacturing Investment Zone, including agreeing priority development sites and specific interventions to drive cluster growth, ahead of final confirmation of plans.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that Meals on Wheels services are adequately resourced to meet the (a) nutritional needs and (b) social well-being of (i) older and (ii) disabled people.
Answered by Simon Hoare
The provision of Meals on Wheels is an important public service and Councils are best placed to make decisions about their provision alongside other local services.
To enable this, final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion or 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23. This includes around £2 billion in additional grant for social care through the Settlement for 2023/24.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what advice his Department provides to local councils on planning applications for potentially noisy sites.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that the planning system should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by preventing both new and existing development from contributing to unacceptable levels of noise pollution. Local authorities should consider the use of planning conditions to mitigate and reduce to a minimum adverse impact on health and quality of life arising from noise from new development.
Government officials have been working to address potential safety and environmental impacts of battery energy storage system (BESS) sites. This includes recent updates to planning practice guidance, which encourages battery storage developers to engage with local fire and rescue services and local planning authorities to refer to the guidance published by the National Chiefs Fire Council. This ensures that matters relating to the siting and location of battery energy storage systems can be considered before an application is made.
With regard to any meetings between the Secretary of State and Rotheram Metropolitan Borough Council, I hope that you will appreciate that the Secretary of State's role in the planning system means that he cannot comment on any development proposal and neither can I comment on his behalf.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of locating high-capacity batteries near residential communities on the adequacy of levels of (a) noise pollution and (b) community safety.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that the planning system should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by preventing both new and existing development from contributing to unacceptable levels of noise pollution. Local authorities should consider the use of planning conditions to mitigate and reduce to a minimum adverse impact on health and quality of life arising from noise from new development.
Government officials have been working to address potential safety and environmental impacts of battery energy storage system (BESS) sites. This includes recent updates to planning practice guidance, which encourages battery storage developers to engage with local fire and rescue services and local planning authorities to refer to the guidance published by the National Chiefs Fire Council. This ensures that matters relating to the siting and location of battery energy storage systems can be considered before an application is made.
With regard to any meetings between the Secretary of State and Rotheram Metropolitan Borough Council, I hope that you will appreciate that the Secretary of State's role in the planning system means that he cannot comment on any development proposal and neither can I comment on his behalf.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what advice his Department provides to local councils on balancing community concerns with developer proposals.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that the planning system should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by preventing both new and existing development from contributing to unacceptable levels of noise pollution. Local authorities should consider the use of planning conditions to mitigate and reduce to a minimum adverse impact on health and quality of life arising from noise from new development.
Government officials have been working to address potential safety and environmental impacts of battery energy storage system (BESS) sites. This includes recent updates to planning practice guidance, which encourages battery storage developers to engage with local fire and rescue services and local planning authorities to refer to the guidance published by the National Chiefs Fire Council. This ensures that matters relating to the siting and location of battery energy storage systems can be considered before an application is made.
With regard to any meetings between the Secretary of State and Rotheram Metropolitan Borough Council, I hope that you will appreciate that the Secretary of State's role in the planning system means that he cannot comment on any development proposal and neither can I comment on his behalf.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had recent discussions with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council on planning applications for high-capacity battery storage.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that the planning system should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by preventing both new and existing development from contributing to unacceptable levels of noise pollution. Local authorities should consider the use of planning conditions to mitigate and reduce to a minimum adverse impact on health and quality of life arising from noise from new development.
Government officials have been working to address potential safety and environmental impacts of battery energy storage system (BESS) sites. This includes recent updates to planning practice guidance, which encourages battery storage developers to engage with local fire and rescue services and local planning authorities to refer to the guidance published by the National Chiefs Fire Council. This ensures that matters relating to the siting and location of battery energy storage systems can be considered before an application is made.
With regard to any meetings between the Secretary of State and Rotheram Metropolitan Borough Council, I hope that you will appreciate that the Secretary of State's role in the planning system means that he cannot comment on any development proposal and neither can I comment on his behalf.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many local plans were rejected by the Planning Inspectorate for not meeting his Department's energy efficiency requirements since 2019.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The information requested is not held centrally.