Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help support the regeneration of towns and high streets.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Regenerating our high streets and town centres is essential to this Government's commitment to level up the country. Now, more than ever, it is vital that we continue to help our local economies by supporting town centres and high streets to innovate, evolve and thrive.
We are taking concrete steps towards reviving our high streets and town centres by committing billions of pounds to support economic growth and regeneration for high streets, through the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund. This is in addition to the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, which includes support for 101 Town Deals and 72 Future High Streets Fund projects, as well as the £220 million UK-wide Community Renewal Fund. Along with funding for capital projects, these also included significant revenue funding to provide resources to local authorities developing plans and projects.
Funding is only one way in which we are supporting local authorities. Beyond this, we are providing support to local leadership with the High Streets Task Force, which delivers hands-on support to local areas most in need, to develop data-driven innovative strategies and to connect local areas to relevant experts.
The Government has also introduced reforms to use classes to enable more flexible use of existing buildings. The use class reform creates a new ‘commercial, business and service’ use class which encompasses a wide range of uses which will attract people to high streets and town centres.
Furthermore, on Wednesday 11 May we introduced the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill. This new legislation will play an important role in reviving our high streets by introducing High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs). HSRAs will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use and will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs, local businesses and community groups.
This will help create attractive and lively high streets, with increased footfall and activity which attracts people and businesses, increases pride in place and avoids the long-term presence of vacancies, ensuring high streets remain viable now and in the future.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the role of technology in levelling up British high streets and the independent retail sector.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Regenerating our high streets and town centres is essential to this Government’s commitment to level up the country. Now, more than ever, it is vital that we continue to help our local economies by supporting town centres and high streets to innovate, evolve and thrive.
Government has already committed billions of pounds to support economic growth and regeneration for high streets. Regeneration and Town Centres is one of the three bidding themes used in the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, which has recently opened its second round. We would welcome any applications related to using technology to level up high streets across the UK. This is in addition to the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, which includes support for 101 Town Deals and 72 Future High Streets Fund projects.
Beyond substantial funding offers, Government is providing support to local leadership with the High Streets Task Force. Over five years this is providing hands-on support to 152 local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and to connect local areas to relevant experts.
The retail sector is innovative. Technology, innovation and levelling up are key themes for the industry-led Retail Sector Council in considering their sector’s strategic issues.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to (a) prioritise brown field development over the use of green field sites and (b) ensure that natural habitats and biodiversity are protected when any development commences.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
This Government strongly encourages the re-use of brownfield land. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out that planning policies and decisions should give substantial weight to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements. We have introduced a number of planning reforms, which include: uplifting local housing need in the top 20 most populated cities, successfully requiring every local authority to publish a register of local brownfield land suitable for housing, introducing “Permission in Principle” to speed-up housing-led development on land included in brownfield registers, and revising Permitted Development and Use Class rules to help make best use of existing buildings.
The NPPF is clear that the planning system should contribute to, and enhance, the natural and local environment by providing net gains where possible. Local authorities should set out in their development plans a positive strategy for the conservation of the natural environment. Planning Practice Guidance explains how to implement national policy on conserving and enhancing biodiversity, ecosystems and green infrastructure. Furthermore, the Environment Act’s new requirements for biodiversity net gain will begin commencement from 2023, meaning most types of new development will deliver improvements of 10 per cent or more for biodiversity.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 oral contribution of the former Secretary of State of 11 January 2021, Official Report, column 131-132WH, what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations on leasehold reform referred to in that oral contribution; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle the imposition of unregulated fees on freehold homes.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and making sure that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service.
The former Secretary of State (Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP) announced ambitious reforms covering enfranchisement valuation, 990-year leases, removing the retirement exemption from zero ground rent measures and commonhold on 7 January. This was followed by a Statement in Parliament from the former Secretary of State on 11 January.
The announcement is part of Government’s response to the Law Commission’s reports and we will respond to their remaining recommendations on enfranchisement, commonhold and right to manage in due course.
The Government has since established the “Commonhold Council” as a partnership of industry, homeowners and Government that will help prepare consumers and the market for widespread take-up of commonhold.
We have also introduced the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill, currently in Parliament. The Ground Rent Bill is the first of major two-part legislation to reform the leasehold system in this Parliament. We aim to legislate further on wider reforms within this Parliament.
The Government also intends 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.