Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
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 role professional freeholders play in managing building (a) safety, (b) fire and (c) structural risk.
Answered by Esther McVey
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the viability of the leasehold sector of (a) regulating professional freeholders and (b) removing the financial value of ground rents; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Esther McVey
For many years leasehold developments have existed with peppercorn ground rents. In line with usual practice, the government’s intention would be to publish an impact assessment on zero ground rents for future leases, as part of taking primary legislation through Parliament.
In addition, Lord Best’s working group advising government on the regulation of property agents, which reported on 18 July, proposed that government consider extending regulation to freeholders. We are carefully considering all the recommendations in the report and will announce next steps in due course.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with developers to encourage building on brownfield sites.
Answered by Esther McVey
This government has made its support for the re-use of brownfield sites abundantly clear. Our National Planning Policy Framework, re-issued February 2019, expects local authorities to give substantial weight to the re-use of suitable brownfield land. To assist redevelopment the government offers loans for site preparation and infrastructure, and tax relief for land remediation; and we introduced Permission in Principle to speed housing-led development on sites included in the registers of brownfield land which every local authority in England now produces. Published information suggests that that across England there are over 28,000 hectares of brownfield land suitable for housing. Green Belt land is only released for development in exceptional circumstances, and once all other options have been exhausted
While the Secretary of State has not held recent discussions with developers about specific policies related to brownfield land, we are continuing to emphasise the priority we attach to using brownfield sites.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with developers to encourage them to build on brownfield sites.
Answered by Esther McVey
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the proportion of home ownership was in (a) England, (b) Surrey and (c) Woking constituency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Esther McVey
The English Housing Survey collects data on home ownership in England, broken down by region. This information is detailed in Annex Table 1.2 of the most recent headline report. Figures for the whole of England are detailed in Annex Table 1.1. You can access both tables using this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2017-to-2018-headline-report
In summary, for the most recent three years of data, the proportion of households in England that were home owners was between 63-64 per cent. The proportion of home owners in the South East for the same period was 68 per cent
We do not hold data on home ownership rates by constituency.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
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 create new community land trusts.
Answered by Esther McVey
The government recognises that the community-led housing sector – of which community land trusts are an important part – offers significant potential for helping to meet housing need across England. In addition to helping increase the rate of delivery of new housing, it will help deliver a range of benefits including diversifying the house building sector, improving design and construction quality, developing modern methods of construction, and sustaining local communities and local economies. The support and close involvement of the local community enables the community-led approach to secure planning permission and deliver housing that could not be brought forward through speculative development.
The principal way in which the government supports the community-led housing sector is through the Community Housing Fund. The fund is administered in England (outside London) by Homes England and, within London, by the Greater London Authority. Capital and revenue grants are available to appropriately constituted community-based groups to help them develop house building projects.
£6 million has also been made available to Community Led Homes – a consortium of the leading community-led housing stakeholder organisations – to help develop the sector. Through Community Led Homes, revenue grants are available to groups wishing to establish themselves as community land trusts or any other legal form appropriate for taking forward a community-led housing project
The Community Housing Fund aims to support an increase in housing supply in England by increasing the number of additional homes delivered by the community-led housing sector; to provide housing that is affordable at local income levels and remains so in perpetuity; and to deliver a lasting legacy for the sector in the form of an effective and financially self-sustaining body of expertise within the house building industry in England.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to strengthen local authorities' powers to regulate private car parks.
Answered by Luke Hall
Local authorities do not currently have powers to regulate private parking. The private parking industry is self-regulating, though the Government has some concerns about the current system and is taking action to improve the situation for motorists. The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 will introduce a new independent code of practice and a single appeals service. We are currently considering options for implementing the Act and will make an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will increase the level of funding for citizens advice centres in (a) Woking and (b) the UK.
Answered by Luke Hall
Local authorities are free to spend non-ringfenced funding provided by central government as they see fit to meet local priorities, including citizens advice centres, and are accountable to their local electorate for their spending. We do not provide direct funding for local citizens advice centres.
Next year’s settlement for local government will respond to the pressures councils are facing by providing access to the largest increase in Core Spending Power (CSP) since 2015. CSP is expected to rise from £46.2 billion to £49.1 billion in 2020-21, an estimated increase of 4.3 per cent in real terms.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
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 create new community land trusts.
Answered by Esther McVey
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.