Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
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 help ensure the continued operation of enabling hubs for community groups building their own houses following the closure of the Community Housing Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Through the Community Housing Fund, my department provided £6 million in grant funding over 2018/19 and 2019/20 to a consortium of leading community-led housing stakeholder groups to support the development of a national network of enabling hubs. These enabling hubs provide impartial advice and guidance to community-based organisations wishing to take forward local housebuilding schemes to help meet local housing needs. Part of the justification for providing grant funding to the hubs was to enable them to develop to the point where they become financially self-sustaining through the fees that they are able to charge community-based housebuilding groups.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has put arrangements in place for support for community groups building their own homes following the closure of the Community Housing Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Community Housing Fund closed at the end of March. Departmental budgets for 2021/22 have been confirmed at the recent Comprehensive Spending Review and my department is now undertaking a process of allocation of budgets to individual programmes. The needs of the community-led housing sector will be taken into consideration alongside the full range of the department’s priorities. In the meantime, organisations that are registered as providers of social housing may seek capital funding from the over £12 billion Affordable Homes Programme operated outside London by Homes England.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons the Community Housing Fund was not renewed.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Community Housing Fund closed at the end of March. Departmental budgets for 2021/22 have been confirmed at the recent Comprehensive Spending Review and my department is now undertaking a process of allocation of revenue budgets to individual programmes. The needs of the community-led housing sector will be taken into consideration alongside the full range of the department’s priorities. In the meantime, organisations that are registered as providers of social housing can seek capital funding from the over £12 billion Affordable Homes Programme operated outside London by Homes England.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to set zero carbon standards for new housing.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government remains committed to meeting its target of net zero emissions by 2050 and recognises the important contribution that the energy efficiency of buildings has to make in meeting it. We must ensure that the energy efficiency standards we set through the Building Regulations for new homes put us on track to meet the 2050 target.
In October 2019, we launched the first stage of a two-part consultation on Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations, which proposed an ambitious uplift in the energy efficiency of new homes through the introduction of a Future Homes Standard from 2025. We expect that homes built to the Future Homes Standard will have carbon dioxide emissions 75-80 per cent lower than those built to current Building Regulations standards, which means they will be fit for the future, with low carbon heating and very high fabric standards. These homes will be ‘zero carbon ready’, with the ability to become fully zero carbon homes over time as the electricity grid decarbonises, without the need for further costly retrofitting work.
We will be publishing the Government response to the Future Homes Standard interim uplift consultation as soon as possible. This will set out a roadmap to the Future Homes Standard.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has in place to support housing associations in retrofitting their older housing stock with energy efficient measures.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In the Charter for Social Housing Residents – Social Housing White Paper published on 17 November 2020, we committed to review the Decent Homes Standard. We will consider if it should be updated, including how it can better support the decarbonisation and energy efficiency of social homes.
At the Chancellor’s summer economic update, the Government announced a £50 million demonstrator project to start the decarbonisation of social housing during 2020/21. At the Spending Review 2020, The Chancellor announced £60 million of further funding for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, to continue upgrading the least efficient social housing.
The Prime Minister announced an extension to the Green Homes Grant which social landlords are eligible to bid for. This will fund up to two thirds of the cost of hiring tradespeople to upgrade the energy performance of homes.