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 the mechanisms by which housing associations that provide inadequate maintenance and repair services are held to account.
Answered by Esther McVey
Nothing is more important than ensuring people are safe in their homes. Residents’ voices need to be heard to ensure proper standards are maintained and that where things are going wrong they are picked up and addressed. We want to ensure that there is a coherent and consistent approach to regulation to deliver these objectives, and achieve the best deal for tenants and landlords. Our review of social housing regulation is exploring the most appropriate way of doing so, and we will publish the results of that review 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 steps his Department is taking to require local authorities to identify brownfield rather than green belt sites for development.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
In our revised National Planning Policy Framework we ask local authorities to give substantial weight to the value of re-using brownfield land, and to prioritise its redevelopment wherever possible. To assist redevelopment the Government offers loans for site preparation and infrastructure, and tax relief for land remediation; and we have introduced Permission in Principle to speed housing-led development at sites on local Registers of brownfield land.
By contrast, the Framework provides strong discouragement for needless loss of Green Belt. It makes clear that most types of new building are inappropriate in the Green Belt and should be refused planning permission. It also states that a Green Belt boundary may be adjusted only in exceptional circumstances, by means of the Local Plan revision process. At examination of a draft Plan the planning inspector will now look for evidenced justification of any Green Belt boundary change, to ensure that all other reasonable options for accommodating the development have been explored.
Because each brownfield site is different, each often requires a tailored solution. The land may be in an unsustainable or unviable location for residential use, or unavailable, or in need of complicated remediation. It would be impracticable to prevent local authorities building the homes we need until all their brownfield is used up.
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 steps his Department has taken to protect the green belt from housing developments.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
In our National Planning Policy Framework, reissued in February 2019, we ask local authorities to protect their Green Belts, making clear that most types of new buildings are inappropriate there, and should be refused planning permission. The revised Framework now also states that a local authority can propose to alter a Green Belt boundary only in exceptional circumstances and only if it can show that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting its identified development needs. A local authority should therefore make as much use as possible of suitable brownfield and under-used land; optimise density of development; and discuss with neighbouring authorities whether they could take some of the necessary development, as agreed in a Statement of Common Ground. As part of the rigorous examination of a draft Plan, the planning inspector will look for evidenced justification of any proposed change to a Green Belt, to check that reasonable alternatives have been explored.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote the development of brownfield land.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We are creating a £2 billion long term housing development fund to unlock housing on brownfield land. We will also require local authorities in England to maintain registers of brownfield land that is suitable for housing. In addition we are consulting on whether it would be beneficial to strengthen national planning policy on the development of brownfield land for housing. The consultation closes on 22 February.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote Help to Buy.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department promotes awareness of Help to Buy through the two Government websites Help to Buy and Own Your Home, through regular updates on the Help to Buy Twitter and Facebook accounts and through press advertising to promote Help to Buy: Equity Loan and London Help to Buy.
Over 62,500 homes have been purchased through Help to Buy: Equity Loan, to end September 2015. On 1 February, we launched London Help to Buy which will enable people to purchase a home with up to 40% equity loan of the purchase price and a deposit as low as 5%. It could potentially help over 10,000 households to purchase a home in London over the next five years.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote shared ownership.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Shared Ownership has an important role to play in helping those who aspire to home ownership but may be otherwise unable to afford it. The Autumn Statement confirmed £4.1 billion for 135,000 new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership starts by 2021 and we have relaxed restrictions on who can buy Shared Ownership homes. A new prospectus for the Affordable Homes Programme will be published in the spring.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many affordable housing units were built in (a) Woking constituency and (b) Surrey in each of the last two years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Statistics on additional affordable housing provided in each local authority area in England are published in the Department’s live table 1008, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
These figures include both newly built housing and acquisitions. They are not available at a parliamentary constituency level.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) house buyers and (b) first-time buyers have been supported under the Government's Help to Buy scheme in Woking constituency.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
This Government is committed to supporting people’s aspirations to own their own home.
Over 50,000 households have been supported by the Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee and Equity Loan schemes and around 80% of these are first-time buyers. The Department does not collect data on the number of first time buyers supported by Help to Buy: NewBuy. The Department does not publish data on the number of first-time buyers supported by the Help to Buy schemes at local authority or constituency level.
Data at constituency level is only available for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme.
Statistics on the number of Help to Buy sales at local authority and postcode level are published in the Open Data Communities portal for Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee and Help to Buy: Equity Loan, which are available at the following link:
http://opendatacommunities.org/def/concept/folders/themes/housing-market
Statistics on Help to Buy: NewBuy sales at local authority level are published on the Department’s website, which are available at the following link:
http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/help-to-buy-equity-loan-and-newbuy-statistics
The table below breaks down the total Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee and Equity Loan sales in Woking and Guildford local authority areas:
Mortgage Guarantee (to 30 June 2014) | Equity Loan (to 31 August 2014) | NewBuy (to 30 June 2014) | TOTAL | |
Woking | 27 | 81 | 19 | 127 |
Guildford | 32 | 0 | 1 | 33 |