Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to CPRE, the countryside charity’s report entitled Shout from the rooftops: delivering a common sense solar revolution, published in May 2023, whether he plans to ensure that the Future Homes Standard requires roof space-mounted solar arrays to be installed on new homes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Renewable energy, such as that generated from solar panels, is a key part of our strategy to get to net zero.
Not all homes are suitable for solar panels. For instance, some homes are heavily shaded due to nearby buildings or trees.
Under the Future Homes Standard, the Building Regulations will continue to set performance-based standards. Our approach to achieving higher standards will remain technology-neutral, to provide flexibility to choose the most appropriate and cost-effective solutions.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Building Safety Act 2022, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of capping the cost that construction companies can charge for building work.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department has a robust cost framework in place using earlier tender price data, industry benchmarks and modelling to drive best value for grant funded remediations. It would be difficult in practice to establish price caps given the wide range of building types and materials. Price ceilings also risk distorting the market and industry practice, as well as reducing the appetite of suppliers to participate in remediation projects.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the £1.5 billion fund announced in March 2021 to support businesses that were not able to benefit from business rates relief during the covid-19 outbreak, when he plans to publish indicative criteria as to which businesses are eligible to receive assistance via that fund.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The £1.5 billion fund will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area whose sectors have been affected by COVID-19 and are ineligible for existing support linked to business rates
My Department will publish guidance to help local authorities set up their local schemes once the legislation relating to COVID-19 Material Change of Circumstances provisions has passed. This will include the eligibility criteria for the scheme and individual local authority allocations. Decisions on the award of relief will ultimately be for local authorities, having regard to the guidance.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the £1.5 billion fund announced in March 2021 to support businesses that were not able to benefit from business rates relief during the covid-19 outbreak, whether he plans to give local authorities information on the amounts that they are likely to receive for the purposes of assisting with their financial planning.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The £1.5 billion fund will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area whose sectors have been affected by COVID-19 and are ineligible for existing support linked to business rates
My Department will publish guidance to help local authorities set up their local schemes once the legislation relating to COVID-19 Material Change of Circumstances provisions has passed. This will include the eligibility criteria for the scheme and individual local authority allocations. Decisions on the award of relief will ultimately be for local authorities, having regard to the guidance.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with local government leaders on the safety of elected representatives when carrying out their democratic duties.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Secretary of State recently attended a Local Government Forum where this issue was raised.
To protect elected members' safety, the Government is reviewing proposals to remove the requirement to publish home addresses on registers of interests and has already changed the law to remove the requirement for people standing as local councillors to have their home addresses published on ballot papers.
The LGA provides comprehensive guidance and advice for councillors on personal safety on their website and is considering developing a further training offer and bespoke advice.