Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to include protection for airfields in the National Planning Policy Framework.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The National Planning Policy Framework recognises the significant contribution that aviation makes to economic growth. It requires local authorities, when preparing their Local Plans, to take account of the role of airfields in meeting business, leisure, training and emergency service needs. Planning guidance supporting the Framework makes clear local authorities should consider the interconnectivity between airfields of different sizes and that they should have regard to the Aviation Policy Framework.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish and regularly renew guidance for the public on setting up (a) no cold-calling zones and (b) other local community action projects.
Answered by Marcus Jones
I refer my Rt Hon Friend to the answer given on 24 April 2017, by my Hon Friend the Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility, to Question UIN 69670.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential effect of a combination of more restrictive immigration controls and lower population growth on (a) housing and planning (i) mechanisms and (ii) policy and (b) the amount of building taking place on land in the green belt.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Housing White Paper sets out the government’s intentions to strengthen national planning policy to build more homes in the right places.
Current projections assume that net migration will fall. Nearly two thirds of the growth in households will come from natural change in the population, not net migration. Even if net migration fell by more than projected we would still face a significant housing challenge which requires us to make a step-change in housing delivery. We will be consulting on a standard approach to assessing housing requirement at the earliest opportunity.
The Housing White Paper also reaffirms the government’s commitment to Green Belt protection, and proposes amendments to national planning policy that would require greater transparency about what constitutes exceptional circumstances when amending Green Belt boundaries, so that communities can hold their local authorities to account.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will devolve additional fiscal powers to local councils to fund social care.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We currently have no plans to devolve additional fiscal powers to local councils.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of permitting the construction of 15 new garden city-style developments of 100,000 homes.
Answered by Lord Barwell
We are currently supporting twenty-four locally-led garden towns, cities and villages in places where communities want them. These have the potential to deliver over 200,000 homes.
We remain committed to supporting other places with ambitious proposals for new locally-led garden communities at scale.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations his Department has received on the levels of fines issued by local authorities to residents for litter-related offences.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We have been working with a range of key partners including councils and businesses to develop England’s first ever Litter Strategy. The Litter Strategy for England will focus on three key themes: education and awareness; improving enforcement; and better cleansing and litter infrastructure. These will be backed up by specific actions under each objective, including delivery of the Government's Manifesto commitment to “review the case for increasing fixed penalty notice (FPN) fines for littering”. We will consult on this soon.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the danger to wildlife of small airfields; and what his policy is on the weight that such data has in deciding planning applications.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that the planning system should promote sustainable development, contribute to the enhancement of the natural environment and minimise the impact of new development on biodiversity.
Planning law requires that applications for planning permission must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The weight to be given to other material considerations, which may include the effect on wildlife, or the role of airfields in serving business and other needs, is a matter for the decision maker to determine in each case.
My Department has no current plans to make an assessment of the danger to wildlife of small airfields.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the annual value of fines received by local authorities for litter-related offences.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Government does not collect this information.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of recent trends in buy-to-let cost rises; and what steps his Department is taking to mitigate against any adverse effect from significant changes in property prices.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Government recognises issues of affordability in the Private Rented Sector. The Housing White Paper launched on 7th February sets out how the Government will fix the broken housing market by boosting housing supply, thereby helping to improve affordability in the long term.
The Government also recognises the important role that buy-to-let landlords play in the UK housing market and economy.
At Summer Budget 2015, the Government set out a package of measures to reduce the budget deficit, rebalance the economy and make the tax system fairer.
HMRC’s analysis shows that only 1 in 5 landlords will be affected by the tax changes on property finance costs (such as mortgage interest or interest on loans to buy furnishings).
The Government does not expect this to have a large impact on house prices or rent levels due to the small overall proportion of the housing market affected. The Office of Budget Responsibility also expects any impact to be small.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on house-building projections.
Answered by Lord Barwell
My Department does not publish projections for house building.
Because of the decisions this Government has taken, the British economy is fundamentally strong and will continue to be strong as we negotiate our departure from the EU. The Bank of England expects the UK economy to grow this year 2 per cent, up on their previous prediction in November of 1.4 per cent.
The Housing White Paper recognises that there are challenges and opportunities ahead. In some parts of the country the house building industry draws heavily on migrant labour. So this is the moment for the industry to raise its game and invest in growing its own workforce, and in new and innovative methods of construction. We will continue to monitor any developments within the house building industry.