Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish (a) the total amount of business rates paid and (b) how much relief has been granted for each commercial airport operator in the UK.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Department does not collect data on business rates paid, or relief granted, by type of business.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of staff employed by his Department are apprentices.
Answered by Jake Berry
As of 31 December 2019, there were 53 apprentices in The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This is 2.3 per cent of the total staff employed within the Department.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will issue urgent guidance on what are acceptable replacement materials for the multi-storey blocks that have had cladding removed.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Building Regulations and supporting guidance set out the requirements for external walls in relation to fire safety. Advice to all building control bodies was published on 14 July, which highlighted the key Building Regulations' guidance requirements when cladding work on high rise buildings over 18 metres tall is undertaken. That note can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ensure-that-recladding-work-meets-building-regulations-advises-expert-panel
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the Home Building Fund has been allocated to property developers in each region since October 2016.
Answered by Lord Sharma
In October 2016, the Government launched the £3 billion Home Building Fund, a fund which will provide loans for SME builders, custom builders and offsite construction, and which will unlock large sites throughout England. The £3 billion Home Building Fund is broken down into two funds:
The £1 billion short term fund (STF) is available to small builders, custom builders and innovators and the £2 billion long term fund (LTF) is to deliver infrastructure and site preparation for large sites, including brown field.
The below table presents, the proportion of the Home Building Fund (in terms of projects supported) in each region, as recorded by the Homes and Communities Agency, and broken down into long term funding and short term funding. Percentages may not total 100 per cent, as they are rounded to the nearest per cent.
HCA Region | LTF | STF |
East & South East | 31% | 6% |
London | 25% | 3% |
Midlands | 19% | 18% |
North East, Yorkshire & Humber | 13% | 41% |
North West | 0% | 14% |
South & South West | 13% | 13% |
National | 0% | 5% |
National projects are projects where sites are being delivered over multiple areas. This category also includes the £50 million which has been committed to the Housing Growth Partnership.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the cladding used at Grenfell Tower was approved for use when the tower was refurbished; and whether standards changed after that refurbishment.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Government cannot release information specific to the Grenfell Tower, as this would cut across the police investigation currently underway.
The Department wrote to local authority and housing association landlords on 18 June, setting out immediate actions that should be taken to identify residential tower blocks over 18 metres in height with aluminium type external cladding. The Department wrote again on 19 June to set out the process they should follow to submit samples of aluminium composite material cladding for testing.
On 30 June, we published a note at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-note-on-safety-checks-and-testing. This note confirms the advice in those letters to local authorities, with further specific information about the tests being carried out.
On 6 July we published details of further tests to be carried out as the next step in helping landlords to ensure the safety of their buildings. These large scale tests will help establish how different types of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels in combination with different types of insulation behave in a fire. Further detail about the next testing stage can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/expert-panel-recommends-further-tests-on-cladding-and-insulation.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of successful applications to the Home Building Fund have been submitted by builders delivering less than 100 units per year since the introduction of that fund.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The £3 billion Home Building Fund provides long and short term loan finance to build the homes this country needs. To date the fund has allocated £1.181 billion (40 per cent) to successful applicants.
Of the £1 billion short term fund £0.445 billion (44 per cent) has been allocated to successful applicants. The proportion of schemes which will be delivered by small and medium sized builders is 70 per cent. Of which, nearly 90 per cent of these sites have fewer than 100 homes.