Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data his Department holds on the number and proportion of (a) local authorities and (b) other registered social landlords that prohibit residents from operating as a childminder in their home.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The department does not hold this data. Social tenants are not prevented from running a business from their home under current housing legislation, but some tenancy agreements may include terms preventing them from doing so. We would expect landlords not to withhold permission unreasonably.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will bring forward proposals to permit childminding businesses to be run from social rented properties.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The department does not hold this data. Social tenants are not prevented from running a business from their home under current housing legislation, but some tenancy agreements may include terms preventing them from doing so. We would expect landlords not to withhold permission unreasonably.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of households in Worcester eligible to purchase their homes under (a) the right to buy, (b) the retained right to buy, (c) the right to purchase and (d) the new voluntary right to buy agreement with registered social landlords.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The total numbers of local authority and private registered provider (housing association) dwellings by local authority district can be found in Live Table 100 which is available to download at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants This shows the numbers as at 1 April 2014, a proportion of which may have the Right to Buy, Preserved Right to Buy, the Right to Acquire or may become eligible with the voluntary agreement with housing associations depending on exemptions and eligibility of tenants.
Data on the numbers of right to buy sales by district up to June 2015 can be found in Live Table 691 which is available to download at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the number of properties repossessed in (a) Worcester, (b) Worcestershire and (c) England in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Council of Mortgage Lenders collects data on the number of properties that have been repossessed, and provide this to the Ministry of Justice who publish the data and it can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics
The data are for the United Kingdom as a whole. No further geographical breakdown is available. Data for 2005-14 is shown in the attached Table 1.
The Ministry of Justice collects and publishes mortgage and landlord possession statistics, which include mortgage and landlord possession claim actions in county courts in England and Wales. Data is available at county and local authority level and can be found at:
Data for Worcester, Worcestershire and England, 2005-14, is shown in the attached Table 2.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the number of mortgage possessions is at its lowest annual figure since 2007.
Moreover, Bank of England statistics published on 9 December 2014 state that the number of new mortgage arrears cases is at its lowest quarterly level since the statistical series began in 2007.
The action that this Government has taken to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration has kept interest rates down and helped reduce the number of repossessions.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of businesses in Worcester that have received (a) small business rate relief and (b) the High Street Discount on business rates.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The Chancellor announced at the 2014 Autumn Statement an extra £650 million of support for 2015-16 business rates bills, bringing the total support from 2013 and 2014 Autumn Statement polices in 2015-16 to £1.4 billion. Autumn Statement 2014 help includes:
These policies are in addition to previous Autumn Statement measures that continue into 2015-16, including:
Central Government also now funds 50% of any local discount granted.
The attached table shows the number of properties in 2014-15 within the Worcester City Council boundary that have benefitted from business rates measures in the previous Autumn Statement, including those that have received small business rates relief and the high street discount on business rates.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much was paid in business rates in (a) Worcester and (b) Worcestershire in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Details of the amount of non-domestic rates that were collected in (a) Worcester and (b) Worcestershire in each of the last 5 years are shown in the table below. The data are the amount that was collected in the year, irrespective of the year to which it relates before the deduction of any allowances for the cost of collection or losses in collection.
The data for Worcestershire is made up from the data for Bromsgrove, Malvern Hills, Redditch, Wychavon, Wyre Forest and Worcester.
Worcester £million | Worcestershire £million | |
2009-10 | 35.0 | 163.8 |
2010-11 | 35.7 | 165.8 |
2011-12 | 37.6 | 176.0 |
2012-13 | 39.2 | 179.5 |
2013-14 | 40.1 | 182.3 |
Data were collected on auditor certified national non-domestic rates (NNDR3) outturn forms completed annually by all billing authorities in England.
These figures will reflect changes to the overall size and valuation of hereditaments, new buildings and the change in the multiplier, as well as changes to different types of rate relief.
These data are available on the gov.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/national-non-domestic-rates-local-authority-level-data
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many first-time buyers have (a) bought properties in Worcester and (b) been helped by the help-to-buy scheme to purchase properties in each of the last five years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
This Government is committed to supporting people’s aspirations to own their own home.
The Department does not collate statistics on the total number of first-time buyers at local authority level.
The Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme has been running for 17 months. The Department’s official statistics on sales for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, to 31 August 2014, broken down by local authority for England, are available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-monthly-statistics. In Worcester, the number of families buying a home with the support of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, as of 31 August 2014, was 79, of which 59 (75 per cent) were bought by first-time buyers.
The Government does not collect statistics for first-time buyers under Help to Buy: NewBuy. The latest official statistics, to 30 June 2014, are available at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/338725/20140731_Help_to_Buy_Equity_Loan_and_Help_to_Buy_NewBuy_statistical_release.pdf. There have been 7 sales in Worcester local authority until that point.
The Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee scheme is managed by HM Treasury and has been running for 12 months. Figures are currently available only for sales during the first nine months of the scheme, to 30 June 2014. There have been 39 sales in Worcester local authority until that point. The latest data is available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantee-scheme-quarterly-statistics-october-2013-to-june-2014. This includes total numbers of sales at individual local authority level (Table 7) and UK-wide figures for the number of first-time buyers (Table 6).
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress his Department has made on reducing the number of empty homes in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) the West Midlands, (d) Worcestershire and (e) Worcester.
Answered by Stephen Williams
Under this Government, the number of empty homes in England has fallen to a 10 year low. The number of long-term empty homes has fallen by around a third from October 2009 to October 2013, and the overall number of empty homes has fallen by arounda fifth over the same period.
There is more to do, yet we have a comprehensive series of policies to get empty buildings back into use and promote brownfield regeneration, as outlined in the answer of 3 April 2014, Official Report, Column 780W.
Local authority figures are published on my department's website, at live table 615:
www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants
Statistics on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are published by the devolved administrations. My Department does not publish regional statistics.
The number of vacant dwellings and long-term vacant dwellings, for Worcester, Worcestershire and England, are shown in Tables 1 and 2.
Table 1: All vacant dwellings, Worcester Local Authority District, Worcestershire and England, 5 Oct 2009 to 7 Oct 2013
| 5 Oct 2009 | 4 Oct 2010 | 3 Oct 2011 | 1 Oct 2012 | 7 Oct 2013 |
Worcester | 1,348 | 1,216 | 1,261 | 1,369 | 1,214 |
Worcestershire | 7,298 | 7,103 | 6,983 | 6,960 | 6,406 |
England | 770,496 | 737,147 | 719,352 | 704,357 | 635,127 |
Table 2: All long-term vacant dwellings, Worcester Local Authority District, Worcestershire and England, 5 Oct 2009 to 7 Oct 2013
| 5 Oct 2009 | 4 Oct 2010 | 3 Oct 2011 | 1 Oct 2012 | 7 Oct 2013 |
Worcester | 579 | 382 | 428 | 476 | 355 |
Worcestershire | 3,165 | 2,627 | 2,475 | 2,449 | 1,826 |
England | 316,251 | 299,999 | 277,529 | 254,059 | 216,050 |