Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his Department is doing to ensure that brownfield land which may have been used by heavy industry is cleaned and prepared for house building in (a) Bolton West constituency and (b) England and Wales.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We are supporting the regeneration of brownfield land through a range of measures. This includes up to £400 million to help create Housing Zones which can be used to cover the costs of land remediation, and a £1 billion fund which we intend to create to focus on unlocking homes on brownfield land for additional housing.
We are also supporting development on brownfield sites through the existing Large Sites Programme, which provides long term loan finance and support to developers, and by releasing enough public sector land for over 150,000 homes by 2020.
In Bolton the Homes and Communities Agency have been working with the Council and the Joint Venture ‘Horwich Vision’ since 2008 to facilitate the redevelopment of a large contaminated site - the former Horwich Loco Works for housing.
Through the Housing and Planning Bill the Government will require local planning authorities in England to create and maintain registers of brownfield land that is suitable for housing.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support his Department provides to local authorities seeking a devolution deal.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
Officials in my Department as well as the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Her Majesty's Treasury are in regular dialogue with local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships about devolution deals. In addition, a large number of Government departments and agencies are providing more specialist policy expertise both in negotiating and implementing devolution deals.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of new residential addresses have been created on brownfield sites since 2010.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Statistics for 2013/14 were published in August 2015 and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-statistics-2013-to-2014
These statistics show that, in 2013/14, 60 per cent of new residential addresses, including conversions to residential use, were created on previously developed land.
The figures in the 2013/14 publication are the first in a new series. The Department holds no historical figures for the proportion of residential addresses on previously developed land prior to this.