Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether local authorities are able to use the New Homes Bonus to fund refuse services; and how many local authorities use the New Homes Bonus for revenue spending.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The New Homes Bonus is an unringfenced grant, this allows local authorities to use the funding as they see fit, as the Government recognises that authorities are in the best position to make decisions about local priorities. Authorities are expected to engage with their local community to decide how the money is spent. The Department does not monitor how individual authorities spend their allocations.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the response of Homes England to freedom of information request reference RFI2673, whether his Department plans to reopen the ballot for the Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands Pilot for Housing Association tenants as a result of the low take-up in that ballot.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Over 9,000 people entered the ballot for the Midlands pilot of the Voluntary Right to Buy, and 6,000 of these received Unique Reference Numbers to move forward with their purchase. The Government is closely monitoring the progress of the pilot, the number of Unique Reference Numbers that are resulting in applications to buy, and the spending of the budget. There are no plans to run a second ballot – if this position changes, the Government will make an announcement.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the revised definition of affordable housing in the National Planning Policy Framework will ensure that privately funded affordable rent to buy housing products are included within the definition in addition to the Government's rent to buy programme.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Government consulted in the housing White Paper Fixing Our Broken Housing Market on a revised national planning policy definition of affordable housing. Consultation closed on 2 May and we are analysing responses. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, we envisage affordable rent to buy housing, where it meets the criteria in this definition and whether privately or publicly funded, would be included in the definition of affordable housing.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support institutional investment into the affordable rent to buy housing tenure.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Our Housing White Paper encourages institutional investors to invest more widely in housing, both private and affordable housing. The Government is offering a clear and stable long-term framework for investment and is encouraging lenders and investors to back developers and social landlords to build more homes of all tenures.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the White Paper, Fixing our broken housing market, what privately funded affordable rent to buy housing products will count towards the (a) minimum 10 per cent affordable home ownership units on new housing sites and (b) requirement for new affordable home ownership products on Starter Homes Land Fund sites.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Subject to the outcome of the White Paper consultation, we envisage that affordable rent to buy housing which meets the criteria set out in the Paper, would count towards the proposed minimum 10 per cent affordable home ownership units and affordable home ownership products on starter homes land fund sites. The proposed affordable housing definition includes intermediate housing that is provided for sale and rent at a cost above social rent, but below market levels, and can include rent to buy housing.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will increase transitional thresholds for business rate relief.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The rateable value threshold for a small property in the 2017 transitional relief scheme was increased from £25,500 to £28,000 in Greater London and from £18,000 to £20,000 elsewhere, compared to the 2010 scheme. This increase was in line with the overall effect of the business rates revaluation on rateable values, and helps to maintain the support the scheme provides to small businesses.
The Government announced this as part of the consultation on the 2017 transitional relief scheme. The Department regularly has discussions with representative bodies for the small business sector on a range of issues, including changes to the business rates system.
At Budget 2016, the Government announced that the threshold for Small Business Rate Relief Scheme would double from April 2017, from £6000 to £12,000. As a result of this change over 600,000 small businesses will pay no rates at all.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions his Department has had with small businesses ahead of the introduction of proposed changes to business rate rateable values on the definition of a small business.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The rateable value threshold for a small property in the 2017 transitional relief scheme was increased from £25,500 to £28,000 in Greater London and from £18,000 to £20,000 elsewhere, compared to the 2010 scheme. This increase was in line with the overall effect of the business rates revaluation on rateable values, and helps to maintain the support the scheme provides to small businesses.
The Government announced this as part of the consultation on the 2017 transitional relief scheme. The Department regularly has discussions with representative bodies for the small business sector on a range of issues, including changes to the business rates system.
At Budget 2016, the Government announced that the threshold for Small Business Rate Relief Scheme would double from April 2017, from £6000 to £12,000. As a result of this change over 600,000 small businesses will pay no rates at all.