Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 policy costings document, published 27 October 2021, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on homelessness of the decision to maintain local housing allowance at 2020-21 cash levels.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The causes of homelessness are complex and it is driven by a range of factors, both personal and structural.
In April 2020 we boosted investment in Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates by nearly £1 billion providing 1.5 million claimants of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit with around £600 more housing support in 2020/21 than they would otherwise have received. In 2021/22 we have maintained LHA rates at the same cash level.
As set out at the Autumn Budget, the forecast default is that LHA rates for 2022-23 will be maintained at the elevated cash rates agreed for 2020/21. This will be confirmed at the benefits uprating review.
For those who require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHPs to local authorities to support households with their housing costs.
The Government has also announced an additional £65 million this year to help those with rent arrears who may be at risk of homelessness. This means the Government is spending more than £800 million this year alone on tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of homes sold through right to buy that will be replaced with (a) First Homes and (b) shared ownership.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In March 2021, the Government announced a package of flexibilities to how local authorities can spend their Right to Buy receipts including allowing replacements to be delivered as Shared Ownership or First Homes. This will help local authorities to build the types of home that they think are most needed in their communities. As part of these reforms, information will be collected from local authorities on whether Right to Buy replacements are delivered as Affordable Rent, Social Rent, First Homes or Shared Ownership. This information will be published as official statistics annually from Summer 2022.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to deliver 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to building the homes this country needs. This will help to get more people on the housing ladder, support local economic growth, and create stronger and more sustainable communities.
We are making strong progress towards delivering our ambition to build 300,000 homes a year, and to build 1 million homes over the course of this parliament. From April 2019 to March 2020 around 244,000 homes were delivered - the highest level for over 30 years and the seventh consecutive year that net supply has increased.
COVID 19 stoppages inevitably had an impact on housebuilding, but government took swift action to support the sector through this period, including a stamp duty land tax holiday and issuing developers with guidelines on operating in an effective and safe manner. Housing completions have started to rebound; ONS figures show that the first two quarters of 2021 saw completions 67% higher than in the same period of 2020.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October to Questions 58403, 58404, 58405 and 58406, what the average value is per hectare (a) nationally and (b) regionally of land designated for (i) agricultural, (ii) industrial and (iii) residential use.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Given the large variation in land values within the country and within regions, we do not publish national or regional average land values estimates. However, we do publish land value estimates at local authority level for residential and industrial land and at local enterprise partnership (LEP) level for agricultural and commercial office land.
As set out in my response to Question UIN 58403, the latest published land value estimates for all of the required typologies are published at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-value-estimates-for-policy-appraisal-2019.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the (a) national and (b) regional average value is of land designated for industrial use per hectare, for the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The latest estimates of land values published by the department and produced for it by the Valuation Office Agency can be found here; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-value-estimates-for-policy-appraisal-2019 .