Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to the report commissioned by his Department entitled The impact of a change in the maximum park home sale commission, published in June 2022.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The report makes four recommendations which require more detailed consideration and further engagement with the sector to fully understand the impact of any change and ensure the long term viability of the sector.
We will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what means of redress are available to park home residents who have a complaint about the management of a park home site.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
If a site owner breaches any of their obligations set out in the resident’s written agreement, the resident can seek redress through the First Tier Tribunal.
If a park home resident has concerns about the suitability of a site owner to manage a site, or the maintenance and safety of the site, they should contact the relevant local authority.
Residents can get free independent advice about their rights from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE).
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
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 help ensure local authorities make sufficient land available for burials to take place locally.
Answered by Luke Hall
Decisions on local burial space are for local authorities as they are best placed to understand what is required for their local area. Government would not consider intervening at scale unless evidence suggested burial space became a national issue. In the event of a specific request for intervention from a local authority the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government would work with the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for burial law, to support the local authority as appropriate.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
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 has taken to ensure that new housing development plans do not overload with traffic existing roads that are unsuitable for heavy numbers of vehicle movements, such as Giantswood Lane in Congleton.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has set out clear policies in the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that when assessing sites for development in plans or for specific planning applications, any implications of the development for the transport network (in terms of capacity and congestion) or on highways safety can be cost effectively mitigated to an acceptable degree. All developments that will generate significant amounts of movement should be required to provide a travel plan, and the application should be supported by a transport statement or transport assessment so that the likely effects of the proposal can be assessed. Development should only be prevented or refused on highways grounds if there would be an unacceptable effect on highway safety, or the residual cumulative effects on the road network would be severe. Ultimately, it is the local planning authority's responsibility to consider whether a scheme or allocation meets these policy tests or whether it does not.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on bringing forward legislation to give freeholders the right to challenge the reasonableness of estate maintenance charges and management fees.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. We intend to legislate to ensure that freehold homeowners who pay estate rentcharges have the right to challenge their reasonableness and to go to the tribunal to appoint a new management company if necessary. This is part of a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market and on managed estates. We will bring forward legislation in the upcoming session to set future ground rents to zero. This will be the first part of seminal two-part legislation to implement reforms in this Parliament.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how the proposed new infrastructure levy to replace section 106 agreements will operate.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In the Planning for the Future White Paper we propose that the existing parallel regimes for securing developer contributions, the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and section 106 planning obligations, are replaced with a new, consolidated ‘Infrastructure Levy’.
The new Levy will raise at least as much value as is currently captured through CIL and section 106. We are exploring a number of different options for setting the Levy, including but not limited to a single national rate. The rate charged will depend on the approach taken. We will assess a number of different options for the setting of the Levy rates, in order to establish optimal approach.
The new Levy will be charged on the final value of a development and will include a value-based minimum threshold below which the levy is not charged, to prevent low viability development becoming unviable.