Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2015 to Question 218966, whether he plans to publish financial data on national non-domestic rates before 12 February 2015.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Financial data on national non-domestic rates to be collected by councils in England in 2015-16 will be published on 18 February 2015. The data will be available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/national-non-domestic-rates-to-be-collected-by-councils-in-engalnd-2015-to-2016.
Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the use of neighbourhood plans to ensure development is in accordance with the wishes of local residents.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Over 1,300 communities in England have started neighbourhood planning, giving them the power to shape development and growth in their area. Once in force, neighbourhood plans form part of the statutory development plan. Planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless other material considerations indicate otherwise.
Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2014 to Quesiton 217113, when data on how many small firms and shops in each local authority will benefit from reductions in business rates in 2015-16 will be available; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The Department publishes hereditament (property) data for business rates measures annually through the national non-domestic rates (NNDR) returns. Specifically, this data is contained within the supplementary tables of the NNDR1 returns, which provides forecast financial and hereditament data regarding the non-domestic rates collected by all local authorities in England. For 2015-16, the financial data is expected to be published in February 2015, while the supplementary tables are expected to be released in early summer 2015.
For 2014-15, the financial data on national non-domestic rates was published on the 19 February 2014, while the supplementary tables were added on the 29 July 2014.
The data on the national non-domestic rates collected by local authorities can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-non-domestic-rates-collected-by-councils#history
Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has set any target for the number of homes in the North Hertfordshire Local Plan.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
No. We have abolished Labour’s top-down targets and Regional Strategies which built nothing but resentment.
Our new locally-led approach is working; in the last 12 months, a total of 230,000 homes received planning permission across England.
The Coalition Government is determined to protect our countryside and the Green Belt, as stated in the Coalition Agreement. I refer my hon and learned Friend to the new planning guidance issued by my Department on 6 October, reaffirming how councils should use their Local Plan to safeguard their local area against urban sprawl, drawing on protections in the National Planning Policy Framework. We have been very clear that there is no central diktat demanding that councils rip up the Green Belt to meet housing need.