Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what has been the current take-up of the Help to Buy scheme in (a) England and (b) Bradford.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
This Government is committed to supporting people’s aspirations to own their own home.
By 30 September, 54,520 families have bought a home with the assistance of the three Help to Buy schemes in England and 525 in the Bradford Metropolitan District Council area.
The Department’s official statistics on sales for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme in England, broken down by constituency, local authority and postcode, is available at: http://opendatacommunities.org/def/concept/folders/themes/housing-market.
The Department’s official statistics on sales for the Help to Buy: New Buy scheme is available at: http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/help-to-buy-equity-loan-and-newbuy-statistics. Figures are not available by constituency
The Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee scheme is managed by HM Treasury. The latest official statistics is available at: http://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantee-scheme-quarterly-statistics-october-2013-to-june-2014.This includes total numbers of sales at individual local authority level (Table 7).
The 525 Help to Buy Sales in Bradford comprises 387 equity loan sales, 22 Newbuy sales and 116 Mortgage Guarantee sales.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many planning applications to develop urban green space have been approved in each of the last five years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The information requested is not centrally held.
This Government has introduced a new Local Green Space planning designation to allow local communities to give special protection to valuable green or open areas of particular importance to them; we have increased councils’ powers to stop unwanted garden grabbing; and we have strengthened the role and primacy of Local Plans to shape where development should and should not go, complemented by new neighbourhood planning.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local planning authorities do not have an adopted local development framework in place.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Localism Act helped abolish the Labour Government’s top-down Regional Strategies and strengthened the role of Local Plans (complemented by neighbourhood planning) in determining where new development should and should not go. Our locally-led planning system now asks councils to have up-to-date plans in place, for elected councillors to take decisions, sometimes challenging, in consultation with local residents.
We have provided support for all local authorities in plan-making, both directly and in conjunction with the Planning Inspectorate and Planning Advisory Service. This includes engagement from expert officials to support authorities in resolving challenging issues and preparing effectively for examination, and by providing direct support on technical matters via the Planning Advisory Service.
The National Planning Policy Framework strongly encourages all areas to get Local Plans in place quickly as the best way of determining what development is appropriate and where; councils with a Local Plan are in a strong position to stop unwanted speculative development.
Plan production has increased significantly since 2010: 79% of local authorities have now published a Local Plan, and 59% have an adopted Local Plan. In addition, there are high numbers of Plans at examination. A breakdown by local authority can be found online at:
www.planningportal.gov.uk/planning/planningsystem/localplans
To place this in context, six years after the Labour Government's 2004 Planning Act, by May 2010, only one in six local planning authorities had an adopted Core Strategy, reflecting how the torturous regional planning process slowed down development and stymied local plan-making and local decision-making.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many local planning authorities do not have an adopted local development framework in place.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Localism Act helped abolish the Labour Government’s top-down Regional Strategies and strengthened the role of Local Plans (complemented by neighbourhood planning) in determining where new development should and should not go. Our locally-led planning system now asks councils to have up-to-date plans in place, for elected councillors to take decisions, sometimes challenging, in consultation with local residents.
We have provided support for all local authorities in plan-making, both directly and in conjunction with the Planning Inspectorate and Planning Advisory Service. This includes engagement from expert officials to support authorities in resolving challenging issues and preparing effectively for examination, and by providing direct support on technical matters via the Planning Advisory Service.
The National Planning Policy Framework strongly encourages all areas to get Local Plans in place quickly as the best way of determining what development is appropriate and where; councils with a Local Plan are in a strong position to stop unwanted speculative development.
Plan production has increased significantly since 2010: 79% of local authorities have now published a Local Plan, and 59% have an adopted Local Plan. In addition, there are high numbers of Plans at examination. A breakdown by local authority can be found online at:
www.planningportal.gov.uk/planning/planningsystem/localplans
To place this in context, six years after the Labour Government's 2004 Planning Act, by May 2010, only one in six local planning authorities had an adopted Core Strategy, reflecting how the torturous regional planning process slowed down development and stymied local plan-making and local decision-making.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many developments on designated urban green space have been approved under the National Planning Policy Framework, for which a local planning authority has not to set aside a five year supply of housing.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
This information is not centrally held.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to better protect the rights of private sector tenants from irresponsible landlords.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The Government is committed to a better private rented sector that offers security, stability and decency. We are already changing the law to require all letting agents to join Government approved redress schemes which will allow tenants to seek compensation where they are the victims of bad practice, such as being charged hidden fees.
To encourage greater understanding of tenants' rights, we will shortly publish a new How to Rent guide for tenants. We are also developing a model tenancy agreement to help tenants achieve greater security of tenure when needed, and a code of practice on property management.
The Government has provided £6.7 million to a number of local authorities to help them tackle rogue landlord activity.
We are also encouraging local authorities to use their existing powers to improve standards. They already have wide powers to tackle rogue landlord activity and poor property conditions and to encourage their use.
Through the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 the current £5,000 cap on fines for certain housing and planning offences will be removed and rogue landlords will be liable to potentially unlimited fines. Where the fine is currently capped at less than £5,000, the maximum fine will be quadrupled
Finally, we published a discussion document on 24 February, inviting views on how property conditions in the private rented sector could be improved. Closing date for comments was 28 March. We are now considering the proposals we have received. We will announce the outcome of our review in the summer.