Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on local communities of the projects funded through the latest tranche of awards from the (a) Levelling Up Fund and (b) Community Ownership Fund.
Answered by Michael Gove - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Levelling Up Fund considers the impact of projects in local communities, by looking at how strongly each bid aligns and supports local need.
The Community Ownership Fund considers the impact of projects in local communities by assessing how an asset under community ownership will deliver benefits to a local community and bolster pride of place.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of high quality social housing including (a) bungalows for pensioners and (b) homes for young families.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and is investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, which will leverage up to £38 billion of private finance and will provide up to 180,000 new affordable homes across the country, should economic conditions allow.
Around half of the new programme will be for social and affordable rent, and it will deliver more than double for social rent than the current programme. 10% of delivery will be used to increase the supply of much needed specialist or supported housing, including housing for older people.
We will also be using the new Affordable Homes Programme to fund a First Homes pilot of 1500 homes. The First Homes scheme will help local first-time buyers onto the property ladder by offering homes at a discount of at least 30% compared to the market price. That same percentage will then be passed on with the sale of the property to future first-time buyers, meaning homes will always be sold below market value, benefiting future generations. On 4 June, we launched the first phase with further sites set to launch across the country in the coming weeks.
Whilst we do not set requirements for the types of affordable housing that are delivered, Registered Providers work closely with local authorities to ensure that delivery meets local housing need.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities prioritise the development of brown field sites over green belt and green field sites.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Planning Policy Framework expects local authorities to prioritise brownfield land for development wherever possible. Local authorities are best placed to assess the potential of individual sites, and each authority is required to publish a register of its developable brownfield suitable for new homes.
Brownfield redevelopment is supported by funding including the £4.1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund, the £400 million Brownfield Fund, and the Home Building Fund, which had a £450 million funding boost last year taking the total to £4.95 billion. In addition, details of the new Brownfield Land Release Fund, which will unlock brownfield sites and release serviced plots on local authority owned land, will be announced shortly.
Consultation on the White Paper Planning for the Future closed on 29 October 2020. My Department is undertaking further detailed policy development on individual elements of the reform proposals. However, we have made clear that local authorities would still have responsibility for protecting the Green Belt and other valued greenfield land.