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Written Question
Second Homes: Council Tax
Monday 24th October 2022

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Policy Paper entitled Levelling Up and Regeneration: further information, published by his Department on 11 May 2022, what his timescale is for providing further information will be available on the proposed alignment test to replace the duty to co-operate.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The duty to cooperate is widely agreed not to have achieved this objective.  Therefore, the duty will be abolished by the current draft of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, and replaced by a more flexible requirement for authorities to align emerging plan proposals with neighbouring planning authorities and other public bodies and infrastructure providers where relevant.

The new policy requirement will be an important element of local plan examinations by a planning inspector, who can form a planning judgement on the proposals put forward.

This policy requirement is still being developed and is intended to be set out in a revised National Planning Policy Framework, which will be subject to further consultation in due course.  However, the important difference is that as a policy requirement, shortcomings in alignment can be capable of being rectified by the planning authority or inspector, whereas under the current duty to cooperate, failures result in the failure of the local plan.


Written Question
Housing Estates: Construction
Monday 25th July 2022

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate his Department has made of the proportion of new housing being built on estates where the roads, drainage and open spaces are to remain unadopted; what the recent trends are in that proportion; and what the reasons are for those trends.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

When a new development is granted planning permission, local authorities can use section 106 planning obligations to secure a commitment from developers to provide and maintain communal spaces and facilities. It is up to developers and local planning authorities to agree appropriate funding arrangements for developments with common areas or shared services.

Planning obligations may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms; directly related to the development; and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development.

Section 38 agreements facilitate the adoption of new roads built by developers to become highways maintained by the public purse. Whether a road is offered up for adoption is determined by the developer. Where a road is offered for adoption, the Highways Authority will assess whether the road has been constructed to the correct standard and will make a decision whether or not to adopt the road. This department does not hold data on unadopted roads.

In all cases, the Government believes that it should be clear to potential purchasers what the arrangements are for the maintenance of roads and upkeep of open space, public or otherwise. Where a road is not adopted by the local authority the responsibility for maintaining the road rests with third parties, which are usually the owners of properties that front onto it. Estate rent charges are one way that residents cover the unadopted road’s maintenance. However, it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.

That is why the Government intends to legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rent charges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services covered by estate charges.


Written Question
Housing: Planning Permission
Monday 25th July 2022

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of granting local planning authorities power to refuse the grant of planning permission for new housing until such time as it is known whether or not the roads, drainage and open spaces on the proposed development will be adopted.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

When a new development is granted planning permission, local authorities can use section 106 planning obligations to secure a commitment from developers to provide and maintain communal spaces and facilities. It is up to developers and local planning authorities to agree appropriate funding arrangements for developments with common areas or shared services.

Planning obligations may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms; directly related to the development; and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development.

Section 38 agreements facilitate the adoption of new roads built by developers to become highways maintained by the public purse. Whether a road is offered up for adoption is determined by the developer. Where a road is offered for adoption, the Highways Authority will assess whether the road has been constructed to the correct standard and will make a decision whether or not to adopt the road. This department does not hold data on unadopted roads.

In all cases, the Government believes that it should be clear to potential purchasers what the arrangements are for the maintenance of roads and upkeep of open space, public or otherwise. Where a road is not adopted by the local authority the responsibility for maintaining the road rests with third parties, which are usually the owners of properties that front onto it. Estate rent charges are one way that residents cover the unadopted road’s maintenance. However, it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.

That is why the Government intends to legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rent charges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services covered by estate charges.


Written Question
Housing Estates: Planning
Monday 25th July 2022

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact on residents of new housing estates of developers not offering roads, drainage or open spaces on those estates for adoption.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

When a new development is granted planning permission, local authorities can use section 106 planning obligations to secure a commitment from developers to provide and maintain communal spaces and facilities. It is up to developers and local planning authorities to agree appropriate funding arrangements for developments with common areas or shared services.

Planning obligations may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms; directly related to the development; and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development.

Section 38 agreements facilitate the adoption of new roads built by developers to become highways maintained by the public purse. Whether a road is offered up for adoption is determined by the developer. Where a road is offered for adoption, the Highways Authority will assess whether the road has been constructed to the correct standard and will make a decision whether or not to adopt the road. This department does not hold data on unadopted roads.

In all cases, the Government believes that it should be clear to potential purchasers what the arrangements are for the maintenance of roads and upkeep of open space, public or otherwise. Where a road is not adopted by the local authority the responsibility for maintaining the road rests with third parties, which are usually the owners of properties that front onto it. Estate rent charges are one way that residents cover the unadopted road’s maintenance. However, it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.

That is why the Government intends to legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rent charges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services covered by estate charges.


Written Question
Housing Estates: Planning
Monday 25th July 2022

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring or incentivising developers to make an early commitment to seeking adoption for roads, drainage and open spaces on new housing estates, as part of the Government’s planning reform programme.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

When a new development is granted planning permission, local authorities can use section 106 planning obligations to secure a commitment from developers to provide and maintain communal spaces and facilities. It is up to developers and local planning authorities to agree appropriate funding arrangements for developments with common areas or shared services.

Planning obligations may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms; directly related to the development; and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development.

Section 38 agreements facilitate the adoption of new roads built by developers to become highways maintained by the public purse. Whether a road is offered up for adoption is determined by the developer. Where a road is offered for adoption, the Highways Authority will assess whether the road has been constructed to the correct standard and will make a decision whether or not to adopt the road. This department does not hold data on unadopted roads.

In all cases, the Government believes that it should be clear to potential purchasers what the arrangements are for the maintenance of roads and upkeep of open space, public or otherwise. Where a road is not adopted by the local authority the responsibility for maintaining the road rests with third parties, which are usually the owners of properties that front onto it. Estate rent charges are one way that residents cover the unadopted road’s maintenance. However, it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.

That is why the Government intends to legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rent charges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services covered by estate charges.


Written Question
Housing: South of England
Monday 12th July 2021

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of (a) an ageing population, (b) average household size, (c) net immigration and (d) other relevant factors on housing demand in the south of England.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

A number of different factors influence housing demand, and officials monitor a wide variety of indicators to assess trends in housing demand, both at a national and sub-national level. We have previously published analysis on the determinants of house price changes which shows the scale of the effect of, for example, household growth:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/699846/OFF_SEN_Ad_Hoc_SFR_House_prices_v_PDF.pdf

My officials regularly liaise with the Office for National Statistics, who provide estimates of population and household formation which take account of factors such as population demographics.


Written Question
Housing: Costs
Tuesday 21st January 2020

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information he holds on monthly housing costs as a proportion of income (a) in each region, (b) among different types of tenure and (c) in other categories; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of that proportion in those categories.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

MHCLG routinely reports housing costs as a proportion of income by tenure in the English Housing Survey (EHS) Headline Report. The most recent data are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2017-to-2018-headline-report (see Annex Table 1.13)

The latest assessment of housing costs as a proportion of income by region and other characteristics can be found in the following reports:


Written Question
Help to Buy Scheme: East Hampshire
Friday 4th October 2019

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many homes have been purchased through the Help to Buy scheme in the East Hampshire constituency in each of the last six years.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The number of homes purchased each year through Help to Buy: Equity Loan in the local authority district of East Hampshire are:

2013-14 52

2014-15 108

2015-16 98

2016-17 67

2017-18 216

2018-19 258

Total 799

These can be viewed in the government official statistics, published quarterly, at ‘Help to Buy Tables’ then ‘Table 1 – LA’ at line 208:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-statistics-april-2013-to-31-march-2019-england

The government’s official statistics published each quarter cover local authorities, but not constituencies.


Written Question
Empty Property
Thursday 10th July 2014

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of vacant residential properties in each region.

Answered by Stephen Williams

Under this Government, the number of empty homes in England has fallen to a 10 year low. The number of long-term empty homes has fallen by around a third from October 2009 to October 2013, and the overall number of empty homes has fallen by around a fifth over the same period.

Statistics on vacant dwellings at a national and local authority level are published in the Department's live table 615, which is available on the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants

My Department does not collect information centrally on the number of vacant residential properties awaiting occupation, derelict, for sale or in other categories. The Department does not hold information on the proportion of current net additional housing demand that could be met through bringing vacant properties back into use.

As outlined in the Written Ministerial Statement of 18 September 2012, Official Report, Column 29-31WS, my Department does not publish statistics by government office region.


Written Question
Empty Property
Thursday 10th July 2014

Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of vacant residential properties (a) awaiting occupation, (b) that are derelict, (c) that are for sale and (d) in other categories; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of current net additional housing demand that could be met through bringing vacant properites back into use.

Answered by Stephen Williams

Under this Government, the number of empty homes in England has fallen to a 10 year low. The number of long-term empty homes has fallen by around a third from October 2009 to October 2013, and the overall number of empty homes has fallen by around a fifth over the same period.

Statistics on vacant dwellings at a national and local authority level are published in the Department's live table 615, which is available on the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants

My Department does not collect information centrally on the number of vacant residential properties awaiting occupation, derelict, for sale or in other categories. The Department does not hold information on the proportion of current net additional housing demand that could be met through bringing vacant properties back into use.

As outlined in the Written Ministerial Statement of 18 September 2012, Official Report, Column 29-31WS, my Department does not publish statistics by government office region.