Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what funding the Government is providing to help regenerate town centres in Wiltshire; and what steps the Government is taking to incentivise private investment in town centres.
Answered by Lia Nici
The Government is investing £2.4 billion through the Towns Fund and £830 million through the Future High Streets Fund. This will help to renew and reshape town centres and high streets and incentivise further private investment. It includes £16.3 million for Trowbridge town centre and £9.3 million for Salisbury city centre through the Future High Street Fund which will leverage £456,000 of private sector investment.
The Government is also investing in local areas through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and has allocated £7.8 million to Wiltshire over the next three years. The Fund will seek to build pride in place and increase life chances across the UK. Proposed interventions include funding for improvements to town centres and high streets.
Investment in regeneration and town centres is also one of the three investment themes for the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund which is currently open for round two bids and the £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund is designed to support investment in housebuilding including infrastructure, enabling and bringing properties back into use. The Fund is now open for applications and private and public sector local partners will be supported by Homes England, the Government's housing accelerator.
Other measures to support private investment in town centres include proposed new legislation in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill which the Government announced on 11 May and will support bringing vacant units on the high street back into use by requiring landlords to rent out long-term vacant properties to prospective tenants such as local businesses.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government has taken to ensure that local communities are consulted when planning applications for shale gas extraction sites are made.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
Any local resident can make representations during a formal period of consultation before any planning application for shale exploration is determined.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that local residents have more of a say over planning decisions in their area.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Neighbourhood planning, introduced in the 2011 Localism Act, gives local people a stronger role in shaping the areas in which they live and work. For the first time community groups can produce plans that have real statutory weight in the planning system. They are able to choose where they want new homes, shops and offices to be built, have their say on what those new buildings should look like and what infrastructure should be provided, and grant planning permission for the new buildings they want to see go ahead. To date, over 1,500 local areas have been designated for neighbourhood planning, with 74 successful referendums and 62 plans and orders brought into force.
The Government announced in the Queen’s Speech that the Housing Bill would include measures to simplify and speed up the neighbourhood planning system, to support communities that seek to meet local housing and other development needs through neighbourhood planning. We have also launched a £22.5 million support programme for 2015 – 2018, providing grants and technical assistance to neighbourhood planning groups, and published a suite of resources to make it easier and quicker for communities to progress their plans.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to call in those planning applications for further consideration which have been initially rejected but allowed on appeal.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
There are no plans to change the planning appeal system to enable central government intervention after a decision on an appeal has been taken. The current system allows for any planning appeal to be recovered from the Planning Inspectorate for determination by the Secretary of State at any point up to publication of the appeal decision. Once the decision has been published, aggrieved parties can seek to legally challenge it within prescribed timescales.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what council tax relief is available to members of the armed forces posted abroad who leave their homes vacant until their return.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Ministry of Defence administers a council tax relief scheme which provides a lump-sum payment to service personnel who pay council tax for a property in the UK while they are on operational deployments overseas.