Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the prevalence of non-disclosure agreements used by house building companies where there are disputes between the company and the house buyer after completion of the purchase of a property.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is not aware that the practice of using non-disclosure agreements is routine. However, it is unacceptable for developers to be requiring non-disclosure agreements as a condition of carrying out repairs. This Governments expects all defects with a newly purchased home to be addressed swiftly and fairly. It is essential that homebuyers are able to have confidence in the quality of the home that they are buying.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to (a) challenge the reasonableness of estate rent charges and (b) have the right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager for the provision of services covered by estate rent charges; and what assessment he has made of the financial effect on freeholders of not having those same rights as leaseholders.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. Where people pay estate rentcharges it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.
That is why the Government intends to legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services covered by estate rentcharges.
We will translate these measures into law as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Planning for the Future White Paper published in August 2020, whether his Department has costed the effect of being located in a protected zone on rural businesses and communities.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Planning White Paper consultation closed on 29 October 2020, and we are considering the responses. My department is undertaking further policy development on the individual elements of the proposals. No decisions have been made on the details at this stage, and economic effects will be appropriately analysed before decisions are made and policy or legislation introduced.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Planning for the Future White Paper published in August 2020, whether his Department has produced an impact assessment for rural businesses and communities that are located in a protected zone.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Planning White Paper consultation closed on 29 October 2020, and we are considering the responses. My department is undertaking further policy development on the individual elements of the proposals. No decisions have been made on the details at this stage, and economic effects will be appropriately analysed before decisions are made and policy or legislation introduced.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Planning for the Future White Paper published in August 2020, what procedure he proposes will be used to define whether open countryside is classified as protected under the new zoning arrangements.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is clear about the importance of retaining our valued open countryside and greenfield land. The National Planning Policy Framework expects local authorities to recognise the character and beauty of the countryside and the benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services, including woodland and our best and most versatile farmland. Under the consultation proposals in Planning for the Future , it would still be for each local authority, in consultation with the community, to use the local plan process to plan for and ensure the protection of any countryside. The Government will publish a response to the consultation, including next steps.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 to extend beyond 2022 the grant funding available to parish councils to formulate neighbourhood plans.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The ‘Planning for the Future’ consultation published in August 2020 set out that Government is committed to retaining neighbourhood planning and wants to encourage the continued use of neighbourhood plans, and to help spread their use further, particularly in towns and cities.
Our current £34.5 million neighbourhood planning support programme runs until 2022 and we will confirm future funding arrangements at a later date.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been allocated to each local authority through the coronavirus Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall
On 1 May, government announced up to £617 million available in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) to support certain small businesses that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). As set out in the Grant Funding Schemes guidance, a local authority’s funding allocation for the LADGF equates to 5 per cent of the value of the hereditaments they have identified as in scope of the SBGF and RHLGF in their area: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses
Local authorities have now closed their LADGF schemes and are in the process of making final payments to businesses. These must be complete by 30 September. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will contact local authorities shortly to arrange the return of any unspent funds.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to ensure that unspent monies allocated to the coronavirus Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund are (a) re-distributed under that scheme or (b) returned to central Government.
Answered by Luke Hall
On 1 May, government announced up to £617 million available in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) to support certain small businesses that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). As set out in the Grant Funding Schemes guidance, a local authority’s funding allocation for the LADGF equates to 5 per cent of the value of the hereditaments they have identified as in scope of the SBGF and RHLGF in their area: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses
Local authorities have now closed their LADGF schemes and are in the process of making final payments to businesses. These must be complete by 30 September. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will contact local authorities shortly to arrange the return of any unspent funds.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 local authorities with excess funding under Phase 1 of the Coronavirus local authority discretionary grants scheme scheme (a) kept all their criteria unaltered for subsequent phases and (b) amended the criteria to widen eligibility for subsequent phases of that scheme.
Answered by Luke Hall
On 1 May, Government announced up to £617 million available in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund to support certain small businesses that are not liable for business rates or rates relief and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund.
Local authorities were responsible for defining precise eligibility for the scheme in their area, subject to businesses meeting the national eligibility criteria set out in the guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding .
We do not receive management information from local authorities on local scheme eligibility criteria over the lifetime of the Discretionary Grants Fund.