Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish a timetable for when developers who have signed the Developer Pledge should commence remediation works.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
On 13 July, we published the draft of a contract with developers. The contract turns the commitments made in the pledge into a legally binding agreement.
Publication marks the start of a four-week period of engagement, during which we will refine and fine-tune the contract. We plan to have the terms of the contract finalised by 10 August. We expect developers to have signed a contract giving effect to the commitments they have made in the pledge by the end of September.
We expect developers to make sure that remediation is completed without delay. Under the terms of the draft contract published on 13 July, developers will be required to set and report to my department on the progress of remediation works. My department will hold developers to account if they are not making progress as quickly as reasonably possible.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of making Build to Rent providers exempt from the building safety and orphan fund levies.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
A decision on what will be exempt from the levy will be made in due course. We will use secondary legislation to identify exemptions, for example social housing, care homes, and hospitals may be considered.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the levelling up missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper will align with the targets the Government has committed to under the Sustainable Development Goals.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The UK remains committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, and all government departments have responsibility for aspects of the SDGs that relate to their policy remits. At the same time, the Levelling Up White Paper has set out 12 ambitious new missions - also with a 2030 time horizon - that are targeted, measurable and time-bound declarations of the progress needed to achieve levelling up.
There are a number of helpful parallels between the levelling up missions and the SDGs. As well as specific overlaps in areas such as education, skills, health and inequality, both the missions and the goals can only be achieved through long-term, concerted action across central and local government, the private sector and civil society. Robust monitoring and accountability is a crucial part of this; in addition to welcoming ongoing scrutiny through established Parliamentary mechanisms, the Government will introduce a statutory obligation to report annually on progress towards meeting the Levelling Up missions.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the role for infrastructure is in delivering the missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Infrastructure plays an important role in levelling up. The White Paper provides a clear plan to level up every corner of the UK, underpinned by 12 ambitious missions. These include that by 2030, local public transport connectivity across the country will be significantly closer to the standards of London, with improved services, simpler fares and integrated ticketing
We have announced a comprehensive programme of policies including a commitment to £4.8 billion infrastructure investment in towns across the UK via the Levelling Up Fund. This will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to announce full details of the long-term, low interest, Government-backed financing arrangement for cladding removal in buildings between 11 and 18 metres, as announced in February 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer my Rt Hon Friend to my answer to Question UIN 59764 on 28 October 2021.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of how funding for remediation of building safety works will be sourced if it cannot be recovered from (a) the original developer of a building or (b) any existing warranties or insurances.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Our £5.1 billion investment in grant funding for cladding remediation on residential buildings of 18 metres and taller in England will protect hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from the cost of remediating unsafe cladding on their homes.
We are also stepping in to provide a generous finance scheme for the remediation of combustible cladding on medium-rise residential buildings, where the risk is lower. Under this scheme leaseholders in residential buildings between 11-18 metres will pay no more than £50 per month towards the cost of combustible cladding remediation.
Government funding does not absolve building owners of their responsibility to ensure that their buildings are safe. They should consider all routes to meet costs, protecting leaseholders where they can - for example through warranties and recovering costs from contractors for incorrect or poor work.
Under the Defective Premises Act, compensation can be claimed from anyone responsible for the defective work, such as developers, builders and other contractors, architects and designers.
We have seen many responsible developers and building owners stepping up to take responsibility for correcting these defects - for example, in more than half of the high-rise private sector buildings with ACM.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans to publish the full bidding prospectus for the Community Ownership Fund.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
My Department will be publishing shortly the prospectus for the Community Ownership Fund. In most cases, community groups will be able to make the case for up to £250,000, matching funds which communities have raised. The prospectus will set out detailed advice on how to structure a bid, what activity to undertake to support this, what information to include, and the criteria by which bids will be assessed.
I will update the House when the bidding prospectus is published to ensure that your constituents are fully informed of how this Government are supporting local people to protect and sustain important local assets by bringing them into community ownership.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to announce full details of the long-term, low interest, government-backed financing arrangement for cladding removal in buildings between 11 and 18 metres, announced in February 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 10 February, we announced a generous finance scheme, which will provide leaseholders in residential buildings of 11-18 metres with access to finance for remediation of dangerous cladding, and a commitment that their monthly repayment costs through the scheme will not exceed £50 a month. We will publish more information on the scheme as soon as we are in a position to do so.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to further extend planning permission beyond 1 May 2021 for those permissions which lapsed between 23 March and 31 December 2020 during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Business and Planning Act 2020 introduced measures to enable certain planning permissions and listed building consents in England which had lapsed or were due to lapse during 2020 to be extended to 1 May 2021. These measures provide for the power to extend the eligibility date for permissions and the time period for implementation. This is being kept under review at this time.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What steps he is taking to support leaseholders in buildings under 18 metres in height that require fire safety remediation works.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has announced a generous financing scheme which will mean that buildings of 11-18 metres in height will be able to access finance for the remediation of unsafe cladding, with a commitment that leaseholders will not need to pay more than £50 a month towards this. By providing this financing scheme we are ensuring that money is available for remediation, accelerating the process and making homes safer as quickly as possible.