Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the proposed National Planning Policy Framework will enable councils to require fibre to home broadband to be installed on new developments.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published for consultation on 5 March 2018. The framework proposes that councils should put forward planning policies setting out how high quality digital infrastructure is expected to be delivered and upgraded over time, prioritising full fibre connections to existing and new developments. If this is taken forward as part of the finalised NPPF, it will be for councils to determine the scope of their policies.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to give local authorities the power to impose completion targets as a condition when granting planning consents for housing.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Government is clear that where sites have planning permission they should move ahead as quickly as possible. Over 1 million homes have been delivered since 2010, but we are taking forward a range of reforms to build even more homes more swiftly, including under the revised National Planning Policy Framework, and proposals to reform developer contributions, that were published on 5 March 2018.
Alongside the current reforms, my right hon friend the Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin), is leading a review to understand the main causes of the gap between housing completions and the amount of land allocated or granted permission in areas of high demand, which is due to report in time for the Budget 2018. A letter from Sir Oliver on the progress of his review into build out of planning permissions into homes was published on 13 March 2018.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will grant powers to local councils to set deadlines for the completion of roads in new developments.
Answered by Dominic Raab
It is right that developers are required to mitigate the impacts of development, and pay for the cumulative impacts of development on the infrastructure in their area.
Section 106 planning obligations (s278 in the case of highway requirements) are negotiated legal agreements between developers and local authorities. They are used to make development acceptable through delivery of affordable housing or infrastructure, or requiring development to be used in a particular way, and can be used to specify at what point in the development the infrastructure must be completed.
The planning reform package, which includes the revised draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the reforms to developer contributions, are fundamental to delivering the homes we need and set out a comprehensive approach to ensure that we get the right homes built in the right places of the right quality.
The reforms to developer contributions could provide a springboard for going further, and the Government will continue to explore options to create a clearer and more robust developer contribution system that really delivers for prospective homeowners and communities accommodating new development.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many properties there are in the private rented sector in each energy efficiency rating.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Information on the energy efficiency of dwellings is collected through the English Housing Survey. The latest figures (2014) on the number of privately rented properties in each energy efficiency band can be found in AT2.6, published online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/501070/2014-15_Section_2_Housing_Stock_tables_and_figures_FINAL.xlsx
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of his Department's invoices for goods and services supplied by (a) private companies and (b) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are completed on time; and what proportion of the (i) number and (ii) value of contracts between his Department and private companies are held by SMEs.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The proportion of the Department’s invoices for goods and services supplied by private companies and small and medium-sized enterprises cannot be reliably extrapolated from our current payment system as it doesn’t link or split payment performance in this way.
As of the last quarter, the Department paid 89% of invoices within 5 days. The Department’s prompt payment data can be accessed via this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dclg-and-pins-prompt-payment-data-2015
Of the Department’s current contracts, 33% are held by small and medium-sized enterprises. The Department’s annual spend on these as a proportion of our overall spend with suppliers is 25.4%.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of tenants in receipt of housing benefit in properties in the private rented sector with an energy efficiency rating of (a) A, (b) B, (c) C, (d) D, (e) E, (f) F and (g) G.
Answered by Stephen Williams
The table below provides our estimates of the breakdown of the housing stock in 2012-13:
A or B | C | D | E | F | G | |
Private rented sector on housing benefit | 0.5% | 15.2% | 49.5% | 26.5% | 6.6% | 1.7% |
All private rented sector | 1.0% | 18.9% | 46.2% | 24.5% | 7.0% | 2.5% |
Those on housing benefit are less likely to be in the most energy inefficient housing (F and G), compared to the generality of the private rented sector.
We do not hold figures on housing benefit payments by energy efficiency rating, nor do we hold specific figures on numbers of housing benefit properties by energy efficiency rating.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the amount of housing benefit paid to properties in the private rented sector with an energy efficiency rating of (a) A, (b) B, (c) C, (d) D, (e) E, (d) F and (g) G.
Answered by Stephen Williams
The table below provides our estimates of the breakdown of the housing stock in 2012-13:
A or B | C | D | E | F | G | |
Private rented sector on housing benefit | 0.5% | 15.2% | 49.5% | 26.5% | 6.6% | 1.7% |
All private rented sector | 1.0% | 18.9% | 46.2% | 24.5% | 7.0% | 2.5% |
Those on housing benefit are less likely to be in the most energy inefficient housing (F and G), compared to the generality of the private rented sector.
We do not hold figures on housing benefit payments by energy efficiency rating, nor do we hold specific figures on numbers of housing benefit properties by energy efficiency rating.