Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to replace the rate support grant with business rates.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government has a Manifesto commitment to continue to give local government greater control over the money they raise locally. We will collaborate closely with local government over the coming months about how we achieve this, including through revenue support grant and business rates.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress his Department has made on enabling local authorities to retain 100 per cent of business rates.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We recently conducted a consultation on our approach to the implementation of 100% Business Rates Retention. There were over 450 responses from local authorities, businesses interests and other organisations. My officials are currently considering these and we will publish a summary of the responses and our proposed way forward in due course. In the meantime, we will continue close collaboration with local government in taking this work forward, including through the Business Rates Retention Steering Group, which is jointly chaired by the Local Government Association and the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The Steering Group was established to consider the mechanisms needed to set up and run the new business rates system, as well as the timetable and implementation of the reforms. It oversees the work of a set of technical working groups, each looking at particular aspects of the reforms. The Group meets on a regular basis and has done so on 7 occasions since April 2016. All papers for meetings are published here: http://www.local.gov.uk/business-rates
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will extend the Help to Buy scheme to shared ownership housing association tenants.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Government has recently launched the new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership scheme which enables people to purchase an initial 25% to 75% of a new home and pay rent on the remainder with the option to purchase more later. It is open to those with a household income below £80,000 in England or £90,000 in London. The Government has no plans to combine this with Help to Buy: Equity Loan.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on creation of new unitary authorities.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government's policy is to work with local areas to deliver effective devolution with the governance necessary to support this. We support the move to create new unitary authorities where such a move is locally driven and enjoys local support.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his estimate is of the amount of New Home Bonuses to be granted to (a) East Northants Council, (b) the Borough Council of Wellingborough, (c) Northamptonshire County Council and (d) England in each of the next 10 years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
As part of the Spending Review, the Government committed to the continuation of the New Homes Bonus. We will consult on reforms to the New Homes Bonus, including means of sharpening the incentive to reward communities for additional homes. We will also explore reducing the length of payments from six years including an option for savings of at least £800 million to be returned to local government and used to fund vital services such as adult social care. Details of both reforms will be set out shortly. There are no plans to change the basis of allocations for 2016/17. The allocations for 2016/17 will be published alongside the provisional Local Government Settlement for that year.