Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether upper-tier local authorities will be consulted on the delivery of the Multiply scheme announced in the Autumn Budget 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The first priority for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be a locally delivered new adult numeracy programme, Multiply, to help hundreds of thousands of adults improve their maths, as well as a wider range of local priority programmes. The Government will continue to engage stakeholders as we develop the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. We will publish further details on the fund in due course.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to strengthen the protection for ancient woodland from inappropriate development as part of his Planning White Paper.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In Planning for the Future we make clear that, under the reforms proposed, local authorities would use the plan-making process to ensure the continued protection and enhancement of areas important for biodiversity, including ancient woodland. After carefully considering all the consultation responses, the Government will publish its conclusions and intentions, setting out any decisions and how they would be implemented.
We have already strengthened the protections for irreplaceable habitat, including ancient woodland and ancient and veteran trees, in the National Planning Policy Framework. Any development that could affect such habitat should be ‘wholly exceptional’.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to issue guidance to people celebrate Eid Al-Adha during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall
We know that British Muslims will be thinking about how they can safely celebrate Eid Al-Adha with their friends, family and community during this period. We have produced guidance for the safe use of places of worship during the pandemic, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-the-safe-use-of-places-of-worship-during-the-pandemic-from-4-july.
Guidance is also available on how individuals can protect themselves while meeting people from outside of their household, which includes guidance on indoor and outdoor gatherings. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-people-from-outside-your-household-from-4-july.
We will continue to engage with faith leaders to help communities stay safe whilst marking this important time of the year.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the compatibility of proposed planning reforms with measures contained in the Environment Bill.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The planning system has a vital role to play in enabling the delivery of housing and to support sustainable economic growth and renewal, and we want to see better planning for nature, in a way that’s more efficient as well as effective. In March, the government signalled its intention to modernise our planning system, ensuring it supports the delivery of homes that local people need and creates more beautiful and greener communities.
Since then, we have developed a number of planning regulation easements to support businesses to operate through Covid-19, such as enabling restaurants, cafes and pubs to offer a takeaway and delivery service and removing specific publicity requirements for planning applications. We have recently introduced a Bill to parliament with further measures to help businesses to resume and to support economic recovery, and will continue to work across government to investigate options for broader regulatory reform to support sustainable economic growth and renewal, and to protect and conserve our environment.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
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 effect of exempting developments granted planning permission through development orders on the effectiveness of the Government’s policy that new developments should enhance biodiversity and create new green spaces.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government’s response to biodiversity gain consultation published in https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/biodiversity-net-gain-updating-planning-requirements made it clear that the new biodiversity gain regime – currently being legislated for in the Environment Bill - would not apply to permitted development rights which are granted under the General Permitted Development Order. The provisions do apply to development permitted by local development orders and neighbourhood development orders.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance he issues to local planning authorities on the consideration of controversial planning applications during purdah.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
To date, Government has issued no guidance to local planning authorities about consideration of planning applications during the pre-election period.
Within my Department, caution is exercised during both general and local election periods, with no substantive decisions issued. During these periods, where I receive a request to intervene in a case, or a case is referred to me by an authority, I am able to delay a grant of planning permission while I consider whether or not to call-in an application, by means of a holding direction issued under section 31 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.
Local authorities should exercise good judgement about whether it is appropriate to determine cases of local or national significance or controversy during a pre-election period of sensitivity. I intend to work with the Local Government Association to ensure they provide suitable guidance to councils to this effect.