Asked by: Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much of the Home Building Fund has been allocated; and what proportion of that amount has been allocated to small and medium-sized house builders.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The £3 billion Home Building Fund provides long and short term loan finance to build the homes this country needs.
Of the £3 billion Home Building Fund, £1.38 billion (46 per cent) has been allocated to successful applicants. Of the £1 billion funding specifically allocated to support small and medium sized builders, custom builders and innovators, £540 million has been allocated. The amount of that fund specifically allocated to small and medium sized builders is £292 million.
Asked by: Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with local authorities on 100 per cent business rate retention.
Answered by Marcus Jones
By the end of the Parliament, local government will retain 100% of taxes raised locally, giving councils control of an additional £12.5 billion of business rates to spend on local services. To ensure the reforms are fiscally neutral, some existing grants will be phased out and responsibilities will be devolved to local authorities. This move towards self-sufficiency and away from dependence on central government is something councils have long campaigned for. We have worked in close collaboration with local government in how to implement this commitment, 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.
Last week, we introduced the Local Government Finance Bill that will establish the legislative framework for the reformed system. All relevant documents can be found here: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/localgovernmentfinance.html. We will continue to work closely with local government during the passage of the legislation, to shape the detail of the reforms.
Asked by: Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
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 support high streets around the country.
Answered by Andrew Percy
We are committed to ensuring that high streets throughout the country remain at the heart of their community and we have taken significant actions to help high streets adapt and thrive through a range of targeted tax breaks, sensible planning changes and measures to ensure fairer parking for motorists.
At Budget 2016 we announced the biggest ever cut in business rates – worth £6.7 billion across the next five years. The Government is permanently doubling the level of Small Business Rate Relief and increasing the thresholds to benefit a greater number of property occupiers. Eligible properties with a rateable value of £12,000 and below will receive 100% relief. This means that 600,000 small businesses will pay no business rates at all. Furthermore, the revaluation of Business Rates will ensure business rate bills more closely reflect the property market and that all businesses are getting a fair deal.
We have also given over £18 million to town teams since 2010, funding successful initiatives such as “Love Your Local Market” and the “Great British High Street Competition”, which aims to recognise and celebrate some of the great work that is being done by local councils and communities around the country to help celebrate their high streets. The finalists for the 2016 Competition, which received over 900 applications and 500,000 public votes, included Thame, who were runners-up in the Small Market town “Place” category, and Chris Hurdman, who runs Thame weekly market, was a runner-up in the Market Champion “People” award.
Asked by: Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
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 ensure pre-commencement conditions do not delay development.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Imposing unnecessary or otherwise unacceptable pre-commencement conditions on a grant of planning permission can result in unnecessary and avoidable delays and costs to the completion of new development. That is why, as part of the Neighbourhood Planning Bill, we are pursuing measures to ensure that these conditions do not cause unreasonable delays to the delivery of new homes.
The measures in the Bill are two-fold. First, to require local planning authorities to seek the written agreement of the applicant to the terms of any pre-commencement conditions before granting permission subject to such conditions. Second, we are seeking a power for the Secretary of State to prescribe descriptions of conditions and circumstances when such conditions may not be imposed. These provisions are aimed at ensuring that any planning condition meets the well-established policy tests for conditions as set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.