Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) creating an Investment Zone at Charnwood Campus and Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park and (b) extending his plans for an Investment Zone for the proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority to include Charnwood Campus and Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
At the Spring Budget on 15 March 2023, the Chancellor announced 12 Investment Zones (IZs) across the UK. We have invited eight areas in England to co-develop proposals with the Government. We will keep the list of Investments Zones under review subject to the overall fiscal envelope of the programme.
Places invited to co-develop an Investment Zone proposal with government have been selected based on a transparent and robust methodology, published in full on gov.uk. Further guidance on the co-development process was published in the Technical Document in July.
Investment Zones are locally led and, recognising local leaders know their areas best, all stages of co-development has allowed flexibility and autonomy for each place to identify and select the best mix of interventions for their proposal - and where that funding is spent. Decision making regarding how and where to spend this envelope ultimately resides with the proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority (EMMCCA).
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans for High Street Rental Auctions to come into effect.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
High Street Rental Auctions policy will come into effect as soon as possible after Royal Assent of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of requiring all new build domestic properties to be fitted with rainwater harvesting tanks.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Following DEFRA’s consultation ‘measures to reduce personal water consumption’, Government made a commitment to develop a roadmap towards greater water efficiency in new developments and retrofits, including the exploration of revised building regulations and how the development of new technologies can contribute to meeting these standards. We will ensure that the underlying legislation can, where appropriate, accommodate any potential future expansion of rainwater harvesting, water re-use and storage options. The full written ministerial statement by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs can be found here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-01/hcws140
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of new homes.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We are driving up the supply of new homes by diversifying the market, investing in affordable housing, and increasing land supply for new homes by investing in infrastructure.
We have announced £10 billion investment in housing supply since the start of this Parliament, with our supply interventions due to unlock over 1 million new homes over the Spending Review period and beyond.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans to publish its response to the Future of the New Homes Bonus consultation.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We are considering the responses to the consultation and expect to publish the Government response shortly.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of whether the eligibility criteria of 25 or more flooded households for the Community Recovery Grant could be extended to 25 or more flooded households or businesses, in line with the eligibility criteria for the Property Flood Resilience Scheme.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
MHCLG is currently conducting a cross-government review of the Flood Recovery Framework, the mechanism by which the government provides support to people, communities and businesses, helping them to recovery from serious flooding incidents. As part of the review, the Government will consider the eligibility criteria used for activating the Community Recovery Grant scheme.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that housing developers build on land allocated through local plans.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that strategic policies within local plans should set out an overall strategy for the pattern, scale and quality of development, and make sufficient provision for housing. Such policies should, as a minimum, provide for objectively assessed needs for housing (and other uses). In addition, local planning authorities should identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ worth of housing against their housing requirement set out in adopted strategic policies. Up to date plans and a five-year supply of housing land provide the best protection for local communities against speculative planning applications. The Government has set a deadline of December 2023 for all authorities to have up-to-date Local Plans in place.
The Government wants to see homes built faster and expects house builders to deliver more homes, more quickly and to a high-quality standard. New homes should be built out as soon as possible once planning permission is granted. We are clear that where sites are stalled or experiencing delays to delivery, it is for local authorities and developers to work closely together at a local level to overcome these barriers. The Planning for the Future White Paper also proposes that growth areas in local plans would benefit from an automatic grant of outline consent. This will ensure that developers, authorities and communities can have greater clarity at an early stage of the process about the expectations for development and reduce unnecessary delays as those developments progress.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the temporary regulations permitting local authorities to hold public meetings virtually beyond 7 May 2021.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government keeps all policy under review. To extend the facility for councils to continue to meet remotely, or in hybrid form after 7 May 2021 would require primary legislation. We have received representations from local authorities and sector representative organisations making the case for the continuation of remote meetings beyond 7 May 2021 and are carefully considering next steps in this area.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of current legislation in ensuring enforcement action can be taken against private landlords who reside overseas and who are not fulfilling their legal obligations to tenants.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Housing Act 2004 gives powers to local authorities to regulate and enforce standards in the private rented sector. The Housing and Planning Act 2016 further introduced civil penalties of up to £30,000 and banning orders for use against the worst and most persistent offenders. Legislation also extended rent repayment orders which require a landlord to repay rent when they have not complied with the law.
We have also given local authorities strong powers to undertake urgent repairs where they identify health and safety hazards or poor conditions. If landlords do not comply, or if the risk is high enough, local authorities can carry out the remedial works themselves and recover the costs.
Enforcement action to ensure a property is safe for a tenant to live in can be taken when the landlord resides overseas. For example, absent landlords, including those overseas, may be subject to prosecutions and Banning Orders.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of planning policy on encouraging development of brownfield land.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is for local authorities to identify brownfield land suitable for housing in their published registers, and to assess and plan how all brownfield land might best be used, in line with chapter 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)
It is too soon to calculate the effects of the revised NPPF
Our Land Use Change statistical release provides data on the proportion of new residential addresses created on previously developed land and on other individual land uses as well. In 2017-18, 53 per cent of new residential addresses were created on previously developed land. The proportion of new residential addresses created on previously developed land has remained above 50 per cent since the data was first collected in 2013-14. Statistics for 2018-19 will be published in due course.