Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what investment support is available to companies in Gloucestershire under the levelling up agenda; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Government is committed to levelling up all areas of the UK. Gloucestershire received over £52 million levelling up fund investment, for a range of regeneration projects and infrastructure improvements. The funding will help to develop projects such as The Forge, a new innovation hub supporting emerging cyber businesses to grow, creating new opportunities for Gloucester City and wider region. Further levelling up funding will be available in the Spring when we expect to launch the next round of the Levelling Up Fund. Further details of that, and the forthcoming UK Shared Prosperity Fund, will be announced soon.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to remove the statutory right for owners of rentcharges to take possession or grant a lease of the property in the event of non-payment by the homeowner; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. Where people pay estate rent charges it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.
That is why the Government intends to legislate to ensure that the charges that resident freeholders may pay towards the maintenance of communal area are fairer and more transparent.
To this effect, we will legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services.
In addition, we will ensure that where a freeholder pays a rentcharge, the rentcharge owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge remains unpaid for a short period of time. We will translate these measures into law when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to allow a right to manage for residential freeholders; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. Where people pay estate rent charges it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.
That is why the Government intends to legislate to ensure that the charges that resident freeholders may pay towards the maintenance of communal area are fairer and more transparent.
To this effect, we will legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services.
In addition, we will ensure that where a freeholder pays a rentcharge, the rentcharge owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge remains unpaid for a short period of time. We will translate these measures into law when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to allow owners of freehold properties who pay estate rent charges to be able to challenge these costs; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. Where people pay estate rent charges it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.
That is why the Government intends to legislate to ensure that the charges that resident freeholders may pay towards the maintenance of communal area are fairer and more transparent.
To this effect, we will legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services.
In addition, we will ensure that where a freeholder pays a rentcharge, the rentcharge owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge remains unpaid for a short period of time. We will translate these measures into law when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made in determining a standard methodology for local planning authorities to use when calculating their land supply; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to realising our aim of delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and supporting housing delivery as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. A critical part of this is local authorities making land available for planning. Local planning authorities are expected annually to identify and update a supply of specific ‘deliverable’ sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ worth of housing against their housing requirement. This is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework
In December, in response to the ‘Changes to the current planning system’ consultation, the Secretary of State announced a minor revision to the standard method formula for assessing local housing need. The announcement on the standard method provides certainty and stability during a period of economic uncertainty for our communities, businesses, and development sector whilst also focusing greater need into urban areas to maximise existing infrastructure and to support development that reduces the need for high-carbon travel
Our Planning for the Future White Paper proposed changes to housing land supply policy, and we are currently analysing responses to that consultation. A Government response will follow.