Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the loss of pubs as community facilities as part of his High Street Rental Auction policy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This Government recognises that British pubs lie at the heart of our communities and will often be a much valued community asset. They not only support local economies and provide space for communities to come together, but the best pubs provide important community services, such as support for vulnerable people, creating a sense of community pride.
High Street Rental Auctions (HSRA) will be a permissive power for local authorities, which they can use alongside other regeneration tools at their discretion. They aim to tackle the problem of persistently vacant property on high streets and in town centres and empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use. HSRAs seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs and community groups.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to require the High Street Rental Auction scheme to (a) protect integral pub infrastructure in empty premises and (b) ensure ancillary accommodation for licensees is not lost as a result of sub-division of a premises in order to protect against the permanent loss of pubs as community facilities.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This Government recognises that British pubs lie at the heart of our communities and will often be a much valued community asset. They not only support local economies and provide space for communities to come together, but the best pubs provide important community services, such as support for vulnerable people, creating a sense of community pride.
High Street Rental Auctions (HSRA) will be a permissive power for local authorities, which they can use alongside other regeneration tools at their discretion. They aim to tackle the problem of persistently vacant property on high streets and in town centres and empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use. HSRAs seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs and community groups.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a nationwide scheme to allow people to top-up a prepayment card for use in public car parking facilities when they are unwilling or unable to make app based payments.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Parking is the responsibility of local authorities and it is for them to determine what is best for their own area. Whilst central government has no remit to intervene in their daily affairs, it does have an interest in how car parks are managed and recognises the important link between parking provision and the vitality of our high streets and town centres. The Secretary of State recently wrote to all local authorities in England setting out his expectations that parking services for which councils are responsible for remain accessible.
All local authorities have existing statutory duties to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision making against older people or those with vulnerabilities. Local authorities should ensure that there are alternative provisions for parking payments available so that no part of society is digitally excluded.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that (a) town centres and (b) high streets have a variety of shops other than charity shops and takeaways.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Government is introducing measures to help places have more control over their high streets and town centres. High Street Rental Auctions, a measure within the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, aim to empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use. They will make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs and community groups. Over five years the Government's High Streets Task Force is providing support to local leaders by giving high streets and town centres expert advice to help adapt and thrive, with local authorities receiving access to expert support in areas such as placemaking, planning and design.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to introduce an ownership transparency register for land and buildings in town centres.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This is an area in which there is already a high level of transparency. HM Land Registry holds publicly accessible records of the registered proprietors of land and buildings in England and Wales.
If the registered proprietor is a UK company or an overseas entity, information about the company and its people with significant control, or, in the case of an overseas entity, its beneficial owners, is publicly available from Companies House.
Further measures to enhance land transparency are being brought forward by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities via the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, currently passing through Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the cost of commercial rents upon the viability of independent shops in town centres.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is fully committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and town centres successful. In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government introduced legislation to prevent evictions and the seizure of goods for businesses who were unable to pay their rent, alongside publishing a Code of Practice to help landlords and tenants work together to resolve this rent debt. To resolve any remaining rent debt, on 24 March 2022, Government passed (attached) the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 and established a new statutory arbitration process.
Government has also provided an unprecedented package of support to businesses over the past few years, including recent fuel duty and VAT cuts, changes to business rates worth £13.6 billion over the next five years in lower bills, government backed loans worth around £400 billion and the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, which includes support for 101 Town Deals and 72 Future High Streets Fund projects.
This is in addition to the Energy Bills Relief Scheme, which discounts businesses' energy bills until 31 March 2023; the new Energy Bills Discount Scheme; the increased Employment Allowance of £5,000, which takes the smallest 40% of businesses out of paying any National Insurance at all; and setting the Annual Investment Allowance at £1 million permanently. This is a comprehensive package of support which will help protect independent retailers.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of projects that received money from the Levelling Up Fund: Round 2 aim to improve local high streets.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
As set out in the published thematic and geographic analysis, Over £760 million of funding was awarded to projects under the regeneration and town centres theme, with a further £120 million awarded to projects where funding is split evenly between regeneration and town centre interventions and other themes.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
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 taken steps to help increase the diversity of local high streets to encourage more people to shop locally.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This Government is fully committed to supporting our town centres and high streets to adapt and evolve. We are enabling places to transform their high streets and town centres into thriving commercial, social and cultural hubs. We also strongly support people shopping locally.
To do so, we have reformed the use classes order to enable more flexible use of existing buildings. The use class reform creates a new 'commercial, business and service' use class which encompasses a wide range of uses which attract people to high streets and town centres. This includes offices and other business uses, shops, cafes, gyms and other uses for visiting members of the public which are suitable in a high street. Premises can move between such uses without the need for a planning application. This builds on longer-term structural interventions and funding by Government to support high streets and town centres, including the £3.6bn Towns Fund, £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund and the work of the High Street Task Force which has now supported around 115 local authorities in areas such as placemaking, planning and design.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State was pleased to visit the New Lubbesthorpe community on 24 February 2023 and to see first-hand how such long-term structural interventions can benefit communities.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals to reform the law in relation to business rates to assist businesses in town centres.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Chancellor published the final report of the Business Rates Review at Autumn Statement 2021. The Government will bring forward legislation to implement the conclusions of the Review as soon as Parliamentary time allows. At the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022, the Chancellor announced a further package of business rates measures worth £13.6 billion over the next five years.
The package includes a retail, hospitality and leisure scheme that will provide a 75% relief to eligible properties in 2023/24, up to £110,000 per business. This scheme alone will provide £2.1 billion of taxpayer subsidy to high streets and town centres.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps the Government is taking to revitalise high streets.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This Government is committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and town centres successful. The Government has provided a comprehensive package of around £400 billion of direct support, including business grants, coronavirus loan schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and income tax payment deferral. This is alongside our steps to introduce an arbitration scheme to help resolve pandemic related rent debt through the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022. Our package builds on long-term investment in our high streets and small businesses including through the £3.6bn Towns Fund, the Future High Streets Fund, and the 4.8bn Levelling Up Fund. In addition to this, the High Streets Task Force is continuing to provide essential support in placemaking and planning, and so far has supported 115 local leaders.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is going further and builds on long-term investment in our high streets and small businesses. For example, this includes High Street Rental Auctions, a new permissive power for local authorities to require landlords to rent out vacant commercial properties to prospective tenants, such as local businesses or community groups.