Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
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 review the five-year plan to assume that homes will be built within five years to remove incentives for developers to delay development and speculate on land.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that local planning authorities should identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years' worth of housing against their housing requirement set out in adopted strategic policies.
The Government wants to see homes built faster and expects house builders to build out as soon as possible once planning permission is granted.
Where build-out is delayed, it is for councils and developers to work closely together to overcome any barriers. To support them, this Government is looking at strengthening the tools available to local authorities to encourage faster build out rates. We are considering the responses to the Planning for the Future consultation and will publish our response.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
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 provide local councils with the ability to raise a Community Infrastructure Levy within one year of the grant of consent to ensure delivery of homes and infrastructure delivery.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We have consulted on introducing a new infrastructure levy to replace section 106 planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy. We are currently analysing the 44,000 responses to the 'Planning for the Future' consultation and will be publishing our response.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of the community infrastructure levy and infrastructure levy falling due within 12 months of planning permission being granted to help deliver infrastructure with and in advance of housing.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) must be paid within sixty days of works commencing on a development, unless an authority chooses to exercise discretion by setting its own instalment policy allowing payment over a longer term. An authority is also able to make use of temporary flexibilities to defer payments from small or medium enterprises, introduced in response to COVID-19. Overall therefore, CIL payments can, and often will, be payable, and be available to an authority to fund infrastructure, prior to the completion of the development liable to pay.
However, we intend to reform the current approach to developer contributions by creating a new, single system, the Infrastructure Levy. This new levy would be a flat rate, value-based charge, set nationally, at either a single rate, or at area specific rates, and charged on the final value of a development. We also intend to allow authorities to borrow against revenues from the new levy to better enable them to forward fund infrastructure.
Our proposals were set out in our ‘Planning for the Future’ consultation which closed on 29 October. We are analysing the consultation feedback thoroughly and holding meetings with industry and local authority representatives to understand the effects of our proposals. We will respond formally as soon as possible.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has in place to ensure that housing allocations take into account protected areas in Wealden which has no green belt but with the Ashdown Forest and the protected Pevensey Levels is more than 60 per cent AONB.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The standard method for assessing local housing need is only the starting point in the process of planning for new homes, it is not a housing target. Local authorities will still need to consider the constraints they face locally, to assess how many homes can be delivered in their area.
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that great weight should be given to conserving and enhancing landscape and scenic beauty in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Specific strong protections are enshrined for protected areas or assets of particular importance within footnote 6 of the Framework, including, for example, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Green Belt, irreplaceable habitats, and designated heritage assets.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason housing allocations in the Wealden district council area are based not on 2018 population projections but on 2014 data used in the Current Standard Method.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Following consultation last year on the standard method for assessing local housing need, and after a year of uncertainty due to COVID-19, it became apparent that it was particularly important to provide stability and certainty for plan-making and decision-making. This is so local areas can plan based on a method and level of ambition that they are familiar with.
The Government therefore carefully considered whether to use the 2018-based household projections and concluded that, in the interests of stability for local planning and for local communities, it will continue to expect only the use of the 2014-based household projections. This gives local areas the best possible chance of meeting the deadline of December 2023, the date by which all authorities are expected to have up-to-date plans.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to issue advice to local authorities on property transactions that have commenced and not completed and searches have been lodged with them, prior to the deadline for the stamp duty holiday being applied.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We have always been clear to local authorities that they should complete local searches within 10 working days and we continue to monitor their performance. Authorities are aware of the importance of home moves at this time and are balancing this with the need to respond to COVID-19. We have no plans to issue any further advice in respect of the SDLT holiday.