Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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.