Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new homes for social rent were started in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2015-16.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The numbers of social rent dwellings recorded as started by the Homes and Communities Agency and the Greater London Authority are published in Live Table 1012:
www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
The numbers of private registered provider and local authority dwellings for the period are available in Live Table 100:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants
Notes:
The numbers of affordable homes to buy provided by private registered providers and local authorities in each year are available in live table 1000:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
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 reduce levels of homelessness in the North East of England.
Answered by Marcus Jones
One person without a home is one too many. That is why the Government is clear that prevention must be at the heart of everything we do to tackle homelessness. We have protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, which will amount to £315 million by 2020, to help them provide quality advice and assistance to everyone who approaches them for help.
We have also increased central investment to tackle homelessness over the next four years to £139 million and why we have just announced the new £40 million Homelessness Prevention Programme to provide an innovative approach to reducing homelessness, with prevention at its heart.
The Homelessness Prevention Programme includes;
As well as this, we announced in the Budget an additional £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living.
In the North East, Newcastle City Council has been announced as an early adopter of our Homelessness Prevention Trailblazer programme. The Council has been awarded £1 million to build on the good work they are doing in driving reform and innovation in homelessness prevention.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
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 ensure that more homes are accessible for disabled people.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Government is committed to helping older and disabled people to live independently and safely in their own homes for as a long as possible. Since 2010, over £1 billion pounds has been provided for the Disabled Facilities Grant, funding adaptations to around 250,000 existing homes to help disabled people to live independently and safely. Funding for the grant has risen by almost 80% from £220 million in 2015-16 to £394 million in 2016-17 and will rise further to over £500 million by 2020-21.
Planning policy and Building Regulations support local authorities in meeting the new housing supply needs of disabled and older people in their communities. This includes the introduction of optional levels of accessibility in the Building Regulations which local authorities can apply to new development in their local area subject to needs and viability assessment.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations his Department has made to the Valuation Office Agency on the effect of planned business rate increases for solar power on the solar industry.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Business rates are based on valuations from the Valuation Office Agency and we do not intervene in their independent assessments. We will look closely at the impacts of the forthcoming revaluation and consult on how to make sure the right support is in place for businesses to adjust to any changes.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require private landlords to fit safety devices on blinds to ensure children's safety.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Government has already taken steps to protect children, having worked with various sector bodies and lobby groups to revise the European standard EN 13120 (performance and safety requirements for internal blinds). This means all blinds placed on the market, since February 2014, have to display warning labels on the product, as well as on the packaging, and include safety devices to ensure blind cords are kept out of the reach of young children. It also imposes a maximum cord and chain length where there is a likely hood of young children (0-42 months) being present, which includes residential properties and public places like hotels, hospitals, schools, shops, places of worship and nurseries.
Local authorities also have powers, under the Housing Act 2004, to inspect properties and where hazards are identified require the landlord to rectify them.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many applications for repowering existing onshore wind farms were (a) received and (b) recovered by the Secretary of State in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The Department does not hold information on planning applications received for repowering onshore wind farms. Neither does it record information on appeals recovered for this case type.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of solar farm planning applications (a) received planning approval and (b) were called in in (i) 2013 and (ii) 2014.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Although the Department routinely collects information from local planning authorities on the numbers of planning applications decided and granted each quarter, the numbers relating to solar farms are not separately identified.
No planning applications were called in for solar farm development in 2013 and one application for solar energy development was called in by the Secretary of State during 2014.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many onshore wind development planning applications that had been considered by local planning authorities were subsequently called in by his Department in each of the five years.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Since January 2010 three applications for onshore wind development have been called in by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The three applications have all been called in during 2014.
All three followed requests by local or neighbouring Members of Parliament to call in the applications.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of solar farm planning applications were approved by local planning authorities in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014 to date.
Answered by Nick Boles
We do not hold aggregated information on planning applications for solar farms in the form requested. However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change's Renewable Energy Planning Database (RESTATS) includes information on a range of renewable energy projects above 0.01 megawatts, including applications for solar energy developments. The database tracks the progress of potential new projects from inception, through planning, construction and operational stages, and can be accessed at: https://restats.decc.gov.uk/cms/planning-database.
Asked by: Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, in which parliamentary constituency each onshore wind planning application which he has received for determination during this Parliament is located.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
I can confirm that during this Parliament (since May 2010) 50 on shore wind farm planning appeals have been recovered by Ministers.
The information is held by local planning authority, rather than Parliamentary constituency and a table has been placed in the Library of the House.