Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the increase in the period of notice required to be served on a tenant (private, domestic property) from three months to six months applies to notices served and effective before the increased period was announced.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The legislation requiring landlords to provide six months’ notice to their tenants in most circumstances, apart from the most egregious cases, will be in force from 29 August 2020 until 31 March 2021. Notices served on and before 28 August are not affected by these changes.
If a landlord serves a second notice of the same type under these new requirements, both notices will stand, but it is good practice to withdraw an earlier notice if a second notice is issued.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of regulations used by local authorities in relation to changing the classification of assets of community value.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Government has committed to improving the assets of community value scheme which was introduced through the Localism Act 2011. As part of this, we will assess the overall the effectiveness of the regulations for local authorities, asset owners and voluntary and community groups to ensure that any legislation the Government introduces will meet our objective of supporting communities to protect those assets that are under threat.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what (a) quantum and (b) proportion of greenbelt land in England has been built on in each year since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
a) The amounts of Green Belt land within England changing to developed use in each year from 2013-14 to 2017-18 are published in Live Table P381 within the '2017 to 2018 land use based change tables' at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-land-use-change-statistics. Figures for previous years exist only for 2011 and earlier years and are not on the same basis as those included within Table P381
b) Corresponding figures for the proportion of Green Belt land that has been developed in each year from 2013-14 to 2017-18 can be obtained by expressing the figures within Live Table P381 as a percentage of the total area of Green Belt land for the relevant year as shown in the 'Area since 1997 - England' table within the Accompanying tables at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-green-belt-statistics-for-england-2017-to-2018
The Government remains committed to protecting the Green Belt. Most types of new building are inappropriate there, and should be refused permission unless in very special circumstances. Only in exceptional circumstances may a Green Belt boundary be altered, using the Local Plan process of consultation of consultation, followed by rigorous examination of the revised Plan. By clarifying the exceptional circumstances test and increasing support for higher density and re-use of brownfield land, our revised National Planning Policy Framework gives local authorities more power to protect their Green Belts and manage the allocation of land for development.