Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with Birmingham City Council on the devolution of the management of Sutton Park to the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Ministers meet regularly with external stakeholders. Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly on GOV.UK.
MHCLG is working closely with Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council on the Pride in Place Programme. Through this process, it has been made clear that Sutton Park is a vital and valued local asset. We will continue to work closely with both the Town Council and Birmingham City Council to support the delivery of the programme over the coming years.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help support economic growth in Sutton Coldfield town centre.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Sutton Coldfield is receiving up to £20 million of funding and support over the next decade through the Plan for Neighbourhoods. This initiative aims to transform the area by unleashing its full potential, investing in improved community services such as education, health, and employment, and tackling local issues like crime. The transformation will be holistic, long-term, and sustainable, delivering meaningful change in the day-to-day lives of local people, led by a Neighbourhood Board made up of local people and independently chaired.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions her Department has had with Birmingham City Council on the potential impact of proposed changes to green belt protections on (a) access to green space and (b) biodiversity.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear about the importance of conserving and enhancing the natural and environment
Planning policies and decisions should contribute to, and enhance, the natural and local environment by minimising impacts on and providing net gains for biodiversity, including by establishing coherent ecological networks that are more resilient to current and future pressures and incorporating features which support priority or threatened species such as swifts, bats, and hedgehogs.
The revised Framework published on 12 December 2024 makes clear that ‘Golden Rules’ should apply to major development including the provision of housing on land released from the Green Belt through plan preparation or review, or on sites in the Green Belt subject to a planning application. These ‘Golden Rules’ include necessary improvements to local or national infrastructure.
It is for local planning authorities to apply national policy when preparing local development plans or determining planning applications, including in relation to the Green Belt.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she has taken to help support the regeneration of town centres in the West Midlands.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
In December 2024, the government announced that the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will receive £46,463,600 in UKSPF funding for the 2025/26 financial year. This includes £13,727,835 in capital funding and £32,735,765 in revenue funding. The UKSPF funding will be part of the WMCA's broader Integrated Settlement award. Additionally, six areas in the West Midlands will receive £120 million towards regeneration and community support. Bedworth in Warwickshire, Bilston, Darlaston, Dudley, and Smethwick in the Black Country, and Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham will each receive £20 million over the next 10 years. The funding, available since April, comes from the government's Plan for Neighbourhoods programme, which is releasing £1.5 billion to 75 areas in the UK based on criteria such as deprivation, life expectancy, and investment needs.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to tackle rough sleeping in the Birmingham City Council area.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
For 2025/26, the department has allocated over £3.6 million to Birmingham City Council across rough sleeping grants.
The Government will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to take steps to ensure that planning guidance issued by her Department includes measures on preserving (a) biodiversity and (b) habitats for pollinators.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy framework is clear that planning policies and decisions should conserve and enhance the natural environment by minimising impacts on, and providing net gains for, biodiversity, including by establishing coherent ecological networks that are more resilient to current and future pressures and incorporating features which support priority or threatened species. Planning Practice Guidance on the Natural Environment provides further detail on how users of the planning system can implement these policies.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 likelihood that trailblazer deeper devolution deals being negotiated with West Midlands Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Combined Authority will be followed by other mayoral combined authorities.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
In our Levelling Up White Paper, Government announced it's intention to negotiate Trailblazer deals with the West Midlands Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Combined Authority which will deepen the areas' devolution settlements.
Since publishing the Levelling Up White Paper we have already begun negotiations with both Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the West Midlands Combined Authority, which will provide a blueprint for other MCAs and the GLA to follow.
Government welcomes proposals from the existing MCAs and the GLA to deepen devolution arrangements, in line with the devolution framework.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 tackle rough sleeping in the Birmingham City Council area.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
In 2020/21, we are providing over £700 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping across England.
Birmingham City Council have been allocated more than £2.5 million through rough sleeping programmes in 2020/21. This includes:
Birmingham City Council have been closely supported by our MHCLG Rough Sleeping Initiative and homelessness advisers. These expert advisers are pro-actively working with local areas as they adapt to the new restrictions and will continue to support these authorities beyond COVID-19.
This Government is committed to ending rough sleeping and we have taken unprecedented steps to protect rough sleepers during the pandemic. This work has not stopped, and through Everyone In, by November we had supported around 33,000 people with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and over 23,000 already moved on into longer-term accommodation.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to ensure that planning guidance issued by her Department takes into account the need to preserve biodiversity.
Answered by Esther McVey
The Government’s support for biodiversity is made clear in the National Planning Policy Framework and accompanying planning guidance. The Framework says that to protect and enhance biodiversity, planning policies and decisions should minimise impacts on and provide net gains for biodiversity, and it contains a number of policies in support of this. The accompanying planning guidance was updated on 21 July 2019 and provides advice on how development can achieve biodiversity net gains. The Environment Bill will take biodiversity net gain a stage further by making it a mandatory requirement for development.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether, when making the decision to withdraw the direction for Birmingham City Council not to take any step in connection with the adoption of the Birmingham Development Plan 2031, his Department (a) received any submissions, whether oral or in writing, from third parties, (b) received any submissions from parties interested in or connected to the Peddimore Employment Site and Langley Sustainable Urban Extension and (c) held any meetings with third parties in relation to the decision to withdraw the Holding Direction.
Answered by Lord Barwell
In relation to your request at (a) and (b) the information requested is held by the Department and I will place a copy of these documents in the Library of the House. No oral submissions were made to the Department.
In relation to your request at (c), officials from the Department met with Birmingham City Council on 23 June 2016 at which the Council delivered a presentation and I will also place a copy of this document in the Library of the House.
Some information has been redacted. The information is the personal data, as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), of another individual.