Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of controls for light pollution within the planning system; and what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that planning rules on light pollution are being followed.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Planning guidance is just one of the ways that we seek to manage light pollution impacts and most types of lighting will fall outside of the control of the planning system. Local planning authorities must take the National Planning Policy Framework into account when preparing their plans; and its policies - including those on light pollution - also need to be taken into account in making individual planning decisions.
We have given local planning authorities a wide range of enforcement powers, with strong penalties for non-compliance, to deal with development which has not been carried out in accordance with the planning permission granted. It is for authorities to decide when and how they use those powers depending on the circumstances of each case.
Beyond the limits of planning guidance, the statutory nuisance regime provides individuals with recourse to their local authority where artificial light constitutes a nuisance.
DEFRA coordinates policy relating to light pollution across Government and undertook a review of light pollution policy in January 2014, titled Artificial light in the environment: policy update.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of funding for brownfield restitution has been (a) identified for and (b) allocated to each (i) local authority and (ii) region.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The £1.8 billion funding announced at Spending Review will help to regenerate communities and level up the country. This includes £1.5 billion to regenerate underused land and deliver transport links and community facilities, and £300 million locally led grant funding to unlock smaller brownfield sites for housing, regenerating and improving communities. Further details on how to access the funding will be provided as soon as possible
This is on top the of £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund, which will help unlock 26,000 homes by bringing under-utilised brownfield land back into use and. The fund was allocated as follows:
Mayoral Combined Authority Allocation
Greater Manchester £96,999,805
Liverpool City Region £44,643,420
North of Tyne £23,853,618
South Yorkshire £40,340,322
Tees Valley £19,352,315
West Midlands £108,031,802
West Yorkshire £66,778,719
Total £400,000,001*
*Total of £400,000,001 is due to rounding.
And also our Brownfield Land Release Fund, which has so far allocated the following: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-new-homes-to-be-built-and-derelict-land-transformed
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to bring forward a Renters Reform Bill that includes a landlord register and scrapping no-fault Section 21 evictions.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government remains committed to building back fairer and delivering a better deal for renters. To that end, we will publish a White Paper setting out a package of reforms that creates a fairer private rented sector that works for both tenants and landlords. This will include providing further detail on repealing Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 and well targeted, effective enforcement that drives out criminal landlords, for example exploring the merits of a landlord register.
We are undertaking robust and structured stakeholder engagement working with the sector to inform this while also learning from the pandemic and its impact on the sector. Following the publication of the White Paper, we will bring forward legislation.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans the Government has to build high quality and environmentally friendly affordable homes.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This Government is committed to increasing the supply of quality affordable housing and through the Affordable Homes Programme we are investing over £12 billion, including our new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme.
These new homes will need to align with the ‘Future Home Standard’ from 2025, to ensure they produce at least 75% fewer CO2 emissions than those built to current standards. This represents a considerable improvement in energy efficiency standards for new homes.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is planning to take to ensure the provision of safe shelter for homeless people facing both the cold and covid-19 over winter 2021-22.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government has committed over £750 million this year to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
This includes over £202 million across England for the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI), which is more than an 80% increase from the £112 million provided last year. The funding will provide up to 14,500 bed spaces and 2,700 support staff. Within this year's RSI, local authorities were asked to plan for winter and any other surge capacity throughout the year.
We recognise that winter brings with it extra pressures especially with the on-going risk of COVID-19. For this reason, we are we are supporting the voluntary and community sector with the £3.8 million Homelessness Winter Transformation Fund. This funding will help provide safe accommodation that creates a sustained route of the streets by supporting investment in improved accommodation and of self-contained bed spaces over winter 21/22.
Night Shelters that are considering opening this winter should consult their local authorities and consider the COVID-19: provision of night shelters guidance on gov.uk, which was drafted with advice from the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England).