Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of affordable rented homes.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Government’s 2011- 2015 Affordable Homes Programme exceeded expectations, delivering nearly 186,000 affordable homes since April 2011, about 16,000 more than originally planned.
£38 billion of public and private investment will help ensure 275,000 new affordable homes are provided between 2015 and 2020. This means we will build more new affordable homes than during any equivalent period in the last twenty years.
Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to protect green belt and green open spaces in North Hertfordshire local authority area.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
As pledged in the Collation Agreement, this Government has safeguarded national Green Belt protection and increased protection of important green spaces.
We have abolished the Labour Government’s top-down Regional Strategies which sought to delete the Green Belt in and around 30 towns and cities. This has included revoking the East of England Regional Spatial Strategy (May 2008) which advocated reviewing and potential removal of Green Belt boundaries in North Hertfordshire.
We have also:
• Introduced a new Local Green Space planning designation, which allows councils and neighbourhood plans to give added protection to valuable local green spaces;
• Published the National Planning Policy Framework which re-affirms Green Belt protection;
• Given councils stronger powers to tackle ‘garden grabbing’, and stopped gardens being classified as brownfield land;
• Issued new waste planning policy which increases protection of the Green Belt;
• Published planning guidance which re-affirms the importance of the Green Belt during Local Plan preparation; and
• Consulted on proposed changes to planning policy on traveller sites to further increase Green Belt safeguards.
Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much (a) North Hertfordshire District Council and (b) East Hertfordshire District Council received in New Homes Bonus in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
New Homes Bonus has been allocated to East Hertfordshire and North Hertfordshire councils in the year 2014/15 as follows:
East Hertfordshire £2,190,429
North Hertfordshire £1,982,455
The total New Homes Bonus allocated since April 2011 is as follows:
East Hertfordshire £7,628,975
North Hertfordshire £7,503,553
The Bonus ensures that local authorities who promote and welcome growth can share in its economic benefits, and build the communities in which people want to live and work. Councils are free to spend the Bonus as they choose, including on front-line services and keeping council tax low.
Fundamentally, the New Homes Bonus reverses the perverse situation under the last Labour Government, where councils were effectively penalised for building new homes; councils with a larger council tax base from house building found that the amount of formula grant they received from central Government was reduced during the equalisation process.
Asked by: Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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.