Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department has allocated for the building of new social housing.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of social housing and has made £9 billion available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022.
This funding is delegated to Homes England and the GLA to deliver 250,000 new affordable homes across the country, with a wide range of tenures, including social rent. Homes England will deliver at least 12,500 social rent homes in areas of high affordability pressure, outside of London.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many social houses have been purchased by the tenants of those homes in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The following numbers of social tenants bought their homes in the last three years. These figures include the Statutory Right to Buy, the Preserved Right to Buy, the Right to Acquire and the initial Voluntary Right to Buy pilot where appropriate.
2014/15: 16,899
2015/16: 16,623
2016/17: 18,690
Comparable figures for 2017/18 are not yet available as we are still awaiting figures on the Preserved Right to Buy and Right to Acquire.
These figures are taken from tables 677 (for the Right to Acquire) and 678 (for all Right to Buy schemes), viewable online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales
Please note that figures for the Right to Acquire are rounded to the nearest 10.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people have bought social housing properties since 2012.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The number of social housing sales since 2012 is available in live table 678 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales
These are figures for sales of social housing in England only, figures on the sales of social housing in Northern Ireland are a matter for the devolved administration.
Our record on the provision of affordable housing is a strong one with over 357,000 affordable homes delivered since 2010. This included 257,000 homes for rent. Whilst 69,000 local authority homes have been sold since 2010, there have been 127,000 new homes provided for social rent during the same period.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure there are no derelict houses in the UK.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
Housing is a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Government is committed to reducing the number of long-term empty homes to increase the supply of housing.
In England, the number of long-term empty homes is down by nearly a third since 2010. At May 2010 over 300,000 homes had been standing empty for longer than 6 months. As of October 2017 the number of long term empty properties had fallen to 205,293.
Local authorities in England have powers and strong incentives to tackle empty homes, and through the New Homes Bonus they earn the same financial reward for bringing an empty home back into use as building a new one.
The Rating (Property in Common Occupation) and Council Tax (Empty Dwellings) Bill, which was introduced on 28 March, proposes to strengthen the powers available to local authorities to tackle empty homes in England. Local authorities will be able to charge a 100 per cent council tax premium (currently 50 per cent) to homes that have been empty for at least two years.
Local authorities in England also have a discretionary power under Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to deal with derelict land and buildings.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that High Street stores are not empty.
Answered by Jake Berry
Issues about individual high streets are for the relevant local authority to address. They are best placed to determine how to help their local high streets, ensuring that their high streets meet the needs of the local community and maximise local growth in their areas. Ultimately, if a high street is to flourish, then local people, businesses and councils in an area need to work together to develop their own unique offer for the high street that resonates with the local community.
However, this Government is committed to supporting diverse high streets with a broad range of retail, service businesses, leisure and residential. High streets are a crucial part of our local and regional economies, and we want to see vibrant hubs where people live, shop, use services, and spend their leisure time, and that includes a welcoming and safe night-time economy. Since 2010, the Government has helped create over 360 town teams, and given over £18 million to towns, funding successful initiatives such as “Love your Local Market” and the “Great British High Street”.
The Government does recognise that this is a difficult time for high streets and has taken significant actions to help them adapt and thrive. In England, these include introducing permitted development rights to allow certain changes of use without the need for a planning application, enabling businesses to respond quickly to changing market demands, and avoiding premises being left vacant. Separately the Government is consulting in England on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework that will require local planning authorities to plan proactively for retail centres in a way that can support their continuing vitality and viability.
Earlier this month the Government announced the creation of a Retail Sector Council. Through the Council, the Government and retailers will work together to contribute to the retail sector’s future direction, and to boost its productivity and economic health.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that High Street stores are not empty.
Answered by Jake Berry
Issues about individual high streets are for the relevant local authority to address. They are best placed to determine how to help their local high streets, ensuring that their high streets meet the needs of the local community and maximise local growth in their areas. Ultimately, if a high street is to flourish, then local people, businesses and councils in an area need to work together to develop their own unique offer for the high street that resonates with the local community.
However, this Government is committed to supporting diverse high streets with a broad range of retail, service businesses, leisure and residential. High streets are a crucial part of our local and regional economies, and we want to see vibrant hubs where people live, shop, use services, and spend their leisure time, and that includes a welcoming and safe night-time economy. Since 2010, the Government has helped create over 360 town teams, and given over £18 million to towns, funding successful initiatives such as “Love your Local Market” and the “Great British High Street”.
The Government does recognise that this is a difficult time for high streets and has taken significant actions to help them adapt and thrive. In England, these include introducing permitted development rights to allow certain changes of use without the need for a planning application, enabling businesses to respond quickly to changing market demands, and avoiding premises being left vacant. Separately the Government is consulting in England on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework that will require local planning authorities to plan proactively for retail centres in a way that can support their continuing vitality and viability.
Earlier this month the Government announced the creation of a Retail Sector Council. Through the Council, the Government and retailers will work together to contribute to the retail sector’s future direction, and to boost its productivity and economic health.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on tackling homelessness.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
This Government remains clear that one person without a home is one too many and we are committed to preventing and reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. To achieve this we have taken a number of important actions such as implementing the most ambitious legislative reform in decades, the Homelessness Reduction Act which commences in April 2018.
We have established the Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce that will design and drive forward the implementation of a cross Government strategy to achieve our commitment of halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it altogether by 2027. Supporting the Taskforce is the expert Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel.
The Department has allocated over £1 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping through to 2020.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the number of people who receive emergency housing as a result of violence, threats or abuse.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Department does not hold direct information on the number of people who receive emergency housing on account of violence, threats or abuse in the UK. We do hold figures for households who have been accepted as statutorily homeless by their local authority as a result of violence or harassment. We also hold figures for the numbers of households who have had their homelessness prevented by use of sanctuary scheme measures for domestic violence. These figures are published in live tables 773 and 789 respectively, here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness
In addition, the numbers of homeless households temporarily accommodated in women’s refuges can be found in section 6 of the detailed local authority homelessness tables here:
This information applies to England only. As housing is devolved, information in relation to Wales and Scotland is a matter for the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Government.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria will determine allocation of the £1 billion being made available for short-term loans under the Home Building Fund.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The criteria for allocating the £1 billion of short-term loan finance available through the Home Building Fund is available in the fund prospectus which can be found here:
As housing is a devolved matter, the Fund is only available in England. However, £176.4 million was made available for Northern Ireland through Barnett consequentials as a result of the £3 billion Short and Long Term Home Building Fund allocations for the UK.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to support young people living at home with their parents in finding their own accommodation.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
This government is supporting young people into homeownership, including delivering 200,000 Starter Homes exclusively for young first-time buyers with at least a 20% discount.
We have a introduced the Help to Buy ISA which provide a 25% saving bonus for first time buyers aged 16 and over who are saving up for a deposit.
At last year’s Autumn Statement we committed £4.1 billion towards delivering 135,000 new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership properties by 2021.
Our Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme has so far delivered 73,000 sales with 81% of those going to first time buyers.