Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to support people affected by a rise in insurance premiums as a result of living in buildings with unsafe cladding.
Answered by Michael Gove - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
We are working with the insurance industry to address the challenges experienced by leaseholders facing increasing building insurance costs.
Ministers continue to press insurers to take a proportionate approach to pricing insurance.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate he has made of the average time between an offer of funding to remediate dangerous cladding being made by his Department and a Grant Funding Agreement being signed by the applicant.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government acknowledges that remediation of unsafe cladding is complex and each individual project will vary in their journey through the funding application process. Detailed information on the Building Safety Fund application process and estimated timelines can be found in the Building Safety Fund application guidance available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-application-process
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the average amount spent by owners of buildings is on legal advice on their Grant Funding Agreement between the agreement being offered by his Department and the owner signing that agreement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This information is not held by the Department.
The Government's funding covers all reasonable costs directly related to the remediation of unsafe cladding systems which may include legal fees involved with managing an application and a remediation project. This would be paid out together with other costs associated with the remediation project.
As a condition of funding, we require that all Government funding received, including for legal costs, are to be paid into an account which is for the benefit of leaseholders. This means that the funding can only be used for the remediation project, with no eligible project costs being passed onto leaseholders.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on the process for allocation of funding under the Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The November 2020 Spending Review set out the main strategic elements of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in a Heads of Terms. Further details will be set out in a UK-wide Investment Framework to be published later this year and funding profile for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be set at the next Spending Review. The UK Government is providing an additional £220 million funding through the UK Community Renewal Fund to help local areas prepare for the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What assessment his Department has made of the effect of recent changes to the level of fees for planning applications on the capacity of local authorities to process such applications.
Answered by Dominic Raab
In introducing the 20 per cent increase in planning fees in January, all local planning authorities committed to ring-fence this additional income to increase the capacity of their planning departments. Based on current activity the uplift in planning fees could generate over £75 million of additional fee income annually for local authorities. This is equal to the average salary of approximately 1600 planners and other professionals who play a role in the planning process.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish a timetable for implementing the measures yet to be commenced in the (a) Housing and Planning Act 2016 and (b) Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017.
Answered by Dominic Raab
Except with reference to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 1 November 2017 (HL2050), the Government is fully committed to implementing all measures across both the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017.
We are taking end-to-end action to fix our broken housing market through our wider package of reforms, including last year’s Housing White Paper and the measures announced at Autumn Budget. We regularly update the House on progress towards fixing our broken housing market, and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish a list of meetings (a) he and (b) officials of his Department have had with organisations outside of his Department on the matter of compulsory purchase since 1 May 2017.
Answered by Dominic Raab
Details of Ministers' meetings with external organisations are published quarterly on Gov.uk and can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dclg-ministerial-data
Since May 2017 departmental officials have met with Transport for London, Homes England, Scottish Government, the Country Land and Business Association, the Compulsory Purchase Association, Shelter and the National Infrastructure Commission to discuss general compulsory purchase matters.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
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 11 November 2015 to Question 15112, when he intends to bring forward amendments to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015; what provisions will apply to office premises that have been granted prior approval for conversion to residential use but which will not be completed before 30 May 2016; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We announced on 13 October 2015 that the permitted development right for the change of use from office to residential is to be made permanent, and that those with prior approval will have three years from the date of prior approval in which to change use. Further information on the detail and timing of the regulations will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on ensuring that new large-scale provision of housing takes place within mixed-use development schemes.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The National Planning Policy Framework states that councils planning policies and decisions should aim to promote mixed use developments.
It is for local planning authorities to determine the shape of large scale development locally in the light of local planning policies. The delivery of housing at scale that this Government has supported, for example through our Large Sites investment programme, has a focus on creating strong new communities with development supporting a range of uses.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what comparative assessment he has made of the benefit to the public purse of using surplus public land to (a) generate long-term revenue and (b) generate capital from the sale of that land.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Over the course of this Parliament, Departments have exited unnecessary leases and sold vacant buildings. As a result, we have generated £1.4 billion in capital receipts, and saved £625 million by reducing the annual running cost of the estate. The Government has exited in aggregate more than one building every day since May 2010, reducing the size of our estate by 20%.
The One Public Estate programme has already shown that, with small levels of investment and support, a great deal can be achieved. The 12 pilot areas that joined the programme in year 1 expect to cut running costs in the order of £21 million and to raise £88 million in capital receipts by 2018, as well as creating 7,500 new homes and 5,500 new jobs.
Local 'capital and asset pathfinder' pilots have found that savings of around 20% are possible from a cross-public sector approach. Public sector assets are worth an estimated £385 billion, with almost two thirds owned by councils. ( Local Government Association Capital and Asset pathfinders Wave 2 summary report). The Government estimates this could potentially save £35 billion over 10 years through better property management. (DCLG press release, 5 August 2011).
Further research has suggested that local government could reduce the space that it occupies by 20-30%, with potential savings in running costs of up to £7 billion a year. (Westminster Sustainable Business Forum, Leaner and Greener: Delivering Effective Estate Management, February 2011).