Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
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 publish guidance on (a) indoor and (b) outdoor wedding receptions from August 2020.
Answered by Luke Hall
Any receptions that typically follow or accompany marriages or civil partnerships are strongly advised not to take place at this time.
We recently published guidance preparing for small marriage ceremonies and civil partnership formations to take place from 4 July, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships.
The Government is working with the wedding and civil partnership celebration industry on how receptions that typically follow or accompany marriages and civil partnerships could take place safely in the future.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the amount of public sector land not in use that could be used for housing.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Public Land for Housing programme (2015-2020) aims to identify and release surplus central government land with capacity for at least 160,000 homes in England by end March 2020. Since the start of the programme to end June 2019, departments had sold 508 sites with capacity for c48,000 homes. We confirmed to the Public Accounts Committee in 2019 that land for 160,000 homes will be released to a longer time frame due to the complexities of disposal and the evolving demands placed on departments’ estates.
We are currently considering options for a next programme, reflecting on lessons learnt. Decisions on a future programme, including estimating the amount of centrally owned public sector land that could be used for housing, will be made at Spending Review.
In addition, at Budget 2016, an announcement was made that councils would collaborate with central government on a local authority land ambition, working with their partners to release surplus local authority-owned land with the capacity for at least 160,000 homes by the end of March 2020. As of August 2019, two-thirds of local authorities in England were forecasting the release of land for approximately 128,000 homes by the end of March 2020. We will report on the final local authority land ambition numbers in Summer 2020 once the final set of data has been collected. We are considering options for the future of the local authority land ambition after March 2020, including estimating the amount of surplus local authority land that could be used for housing.
Information on land held by individual sectors is continually refined.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the size of the land bank that could be used for housing held by the (a) the public sector as a whole, (b) the NHS, (c) Network Rail, (d) local authorities and (e) the armed forces.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Public Land for Housing programme (2015-2020) aims to identify and release surplus central government land with capacity for at least 160,000 homes in England by end March 2020. Since the start of the programme to end June 2019, departments had sold 508 sites with capacity for c48,000 homes. We confirmed to the Public Accounts Committee in 2019 that land for 160,000 homes will be released to a longer time frame due to the complexities of disposal and the evolving demands placed on departments’ estates.
We are currently considering options for a next programme, reflecting on lessons learnt. Decisions on a future programme, including estimating the amount of centrally owned public sector land that could be used for housing, will be made at Spending Review.
In addition, at Budget 2016, an announcement was made that councils would collaborate with central government on a local authority land ambition, working with their partners to release surplus local authority-owned land with the capacity for at least 160,000 homes by the end of March 2020. As of August 2019, two-thirds of local authorities in England were forecasting the release of land for approximately 128,000 homes by the end of March 2020. We will report on the final local authority land ambition numbers in Summer 2020 once the final set of data has been collected. We are considering options for the future of the local authority land ambition after March 2020, including estimating the amount of surplus local authority land that could be used for housing.
Information on land held by individual sectors is continually refined.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the contribution of Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) to increasing levels of (a) economic growth, (b) new local infrastructure and (c) skills among the workforce in each LEP area.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) play a vital role in providing a business voice to inform investment decisions and drive economic growth across the country. LEP performance is monitored through an annual assurance process and regular reporting, such as quarterly data returns.
There are over 1,200 Growth Deal projects in progress with almost 700 projects having been completed by September 2019, covering themes including transport, skills, digital infrastructure, housing and business support.
LEPs are also required to publish Delivery Plans and End of Year Reports, which set out details of the contributions they are making to promote economic growth in their areas.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of first time buyers that have purchased a property through a shared ownership scheme in each year since 2015.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department does not collect this information.
The total number of new shared ownership properties completed since 2015-16 can be found in Live Table 1007bC here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply.