Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote housebuilding in Stoke-on-Trent.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to PQ 129146 on 21 December 2020.
On a National level, further funding to support housebuilding via the National House Building Fund (NHBF) will be confirmed at the next multi-year Spending Review, delivering on the Government’s commitment to provide £10 billion to unlock homes through provision of infrastructure.
As announced in December 2020, we are also planning to launch a new £100 million Brownfield Land Release fund this month to support brownfield development, estates regeneration, development on public sector land and self and custom-build serviced plots in coming forward. This will be open to councils across England, apart from those Mayoral Combined Authority areas that recently benefited from our £400 million brownfield fund. Stoke on Trent City Council are welcome to bid for this funding and we invite councils to use the time between now and the prospectus launch to start to consider and prepare their bids.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to increase council budgets for (a) Stoke-on-Trent City Council, (b) Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and (c) Staffordshire County Council.
Answered by Luke Hall
The provisional local government finance settlement for 2021-22 proposes making an extra £2.2 billion available to fund the provision of critical public services including adult and children’s social care. On average, across England councils will see a 4.5 per cent cash terms increase in Core Spending Power, an increase in real terms.
In addition to this, this Government has provided in excess of £10 billion to local councils in support of Covid-19 pressures, this year and next, including over £7.2 billion of additional expenditure funding in 2020-21.
As part of this:
Stoke-on-Trent City Council will receive £8.7 million in non-ringfenced Covid-19 funding next year, on top of over £25 million this year. This is in addition to a proposed increase in their Core Spending Power of over £10 million in 2021-22.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council will receive nearly £700,000 in non-ringfenced Covid-19 funding next year, on top of almost £2 million this year. This is in addition to a proposed increase in their Core Spending Power of over £200,000 in 2021-22.
Staffordshire County Council will receive over £16 million in non-ringfenced Covid-19 funding next year, on top of over £47.5 million this year. This is in addition to a proposed increase in their Core Spending Power of over £29 million in 2021-22.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote housebuilding on brownfield land in Stoke-on-Trent.
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. Nationally, we are providing significant practical support for regeneration, including:
The Government has now published its response to the consultation on assessing Local Housing Need and outlined a broader strategy to ensure we build more homes people can afford and to regenerate urban centres. Stoke-on-Trent is among the places where we will increase the indicative Local Housing Need number from the standard method by 35 per cent. We have already provided £10 million of Housing Infrastructure Fund Marginal Viability Funding to transform nine long-vacant brownfield sites in Burslem and Middleport, helping to breathe new life into the city.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support regeneration (a) Burslem and (b) Tunstall.
Answered by Luke Hall
This Government is committed to driving the regeneration of towns across the country and particularly so in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We have an ongoing programme of interventions. The Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is already benefiting from £121 million of Local Growth Funding which is funding projects such as Etruria Valley.
In July we announced that Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire LEP would receive £23.7 million from the Getting Building Fund. This will support a number of projects, including £120,000 for a Digital and Construction Skills Project at Stoke College and £2.8 million for the Powering Up Enterprise project, which will see the creation of modern, digitally enhanced workspace in Stoke-on-Trent through re-purposing and refurbishing underused and vacant floor space.
The Government-backed Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone is making a big impact, enabling redundant and long-neglected brownfield sites to be re-developed, including Chatterley Valley East, Highgate / Ravensdale and Tunstall Arrow, in Tunstall.
We have provided £10 million of Housing Infrastructure Fund Marginal Viability Funding to transform nine long-standing vacant sites in the Burslem and Middleport areas, helping to breathe new life in the town.
The £3.6 billion Towns Fund aims to deliver long-term economic and productivity growth to towns and high streets. In September 2019, we announced the initial 101 towns Government would work with to agree Town Deals. A further Towns Fund competitive round will be announced in due course.
In addition, the High Streets Task Force has launched a range of online resources to provide support to places across the country, which can be found here: https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk/products-and-services/support-for-all-high-streets/.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to make a decision and publish his next steps on banning (a) laminated glass and (b) other combustible materials.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 20 January 2020 we launched a public consultation including proposals to expand the scope of the in-effect ban of combustible materials in and on the external walls, this also included proposals with regards to laminated glass as well as other exemptions. The consultation closed on the 25 May 2020. We are currently analysing responses and will publish the government response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what fiscal steps he is taking to support (a) Stoke-on-Trent, (b) Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and (c) Staffordshire County Council during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We have now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an un-ringfenced grant so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.? Of this Stoke-on-Trent has received £16.06 million, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has received £1.36 million and Staffordshire County Council has received £37.76 million in additional funding across the two tranches.
In total, the Government has committed over £27 billion to local areas to support councils and their communities. This also includes: £300 million to support the new test and trace service, £600 million to support providers through a new Infection Control Fund and £12.3 billion of support through the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Grants.
Alongside this funding, the Government has provided over £5 billion of cashflow support including the deferral of local authority payments of the Central Share of retained business rates, valued at £2.6 billion, as well as up-front payments of £1.8 billion of business rates reliefs and £850 million of social care grant.
Furthermore, as I set out to the House on Monday 15 June, we are working closely with colleagues across government on a comprehensive plan to ensure councils’ financial sustainability over the financial year ahead. Ministers will continue to keep the House informed as these plans develop.