The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
I would like to update hon. Members on the main items of business undertaken by my Department since the House rose for the prorogation of Parliament and since the start of the new Session.
Her Majesty’s Most Gracious Speech
The Queen’s Speech is a further step in the coalition Government’s long-term economic plan to secure the recovery for our country. We want a Britain that pays its way in the world, has a stronger, more competitive economy and gives hard-working people peace of mind for the future.
Measures in the Infrastructure Bill related to the work of this Department would:
Enable surplus and redundant public sector land and property to be sold more quickly by cutting red tape around such sales, increasing the amount of brownfield land available for new homes;
End unreasonable and excessive delays on projects which already have been granted planning permission, by a new “deemed discharge” provision on planning conditions; this will help speed up house building;
Modernise and digitise the Land Registry, improving services and aiming to reduce costs to end users, helping speed up the home buying process;
Create a framework to give house builders cost-effective offsite opportunities to meet the zero carbon homes standard; and
Improve the nationally significant infrastructure regime by making a number of technical administrative improvements to the Planning Act 2008 following a review of how the Act has operated.
In addition, the Deregulation Bill, which has been carried over, will include the following measures that would cut red tape and scale back bureaucratic restrictions; it will:
Further extend the right to buy, by reducing the eligibility period that a social tenant has to have to qualify for the right to buy and the right to acquire from five years to three years, bringing home ownership closer for approximately 275,000 households;
Reform outdated rules from the 1970s preventing London residents from renting their homes on a short-term basis to visitors, assisting the take-up of innovative internet sites such as airbnb and onefinestay.
Scrap the Labour Government’s unfair bin fines, which penalised families for not following complex and arbitrary bin rules;
Remove top-down, prescriptive requirements on local authorities to consult and produce various unnecessary strategies, giving them more freedom from Whitehall micro-management in line with the coalition Government’s ongoing localism agenda.
In addition, a measure in the Consumer Rights Bill will ensure full transparency on letting agents fees, closing off the opportunity for a small minority of rogue agents to impose unreasonable, hidden charges. This common sense approach avoids excessive state regulation which would push up rents for tenants.
Getting Britain building
The Queen’s Speech reaffirmed the coalition Government’s commitment to further increase housing supply and home ownership.
House building—On 15 May, my Department published house building figures for the latest quarter showing housing starts are 11% up on the previous quarter and a third higher than the same time last year. House building by councils is now at a 23-year high; more new council housing was built in London last year than in all the 13 years of the last Labour Government combined.
Help to Buy—Help to Buy is opening up home ownership to thousands and supporting the long-term plan to help hardworking people secure a better future for their families. Private house building has increased by 34% since the launch of the Help to Buy scheme in April 2013 and overall, housing starts are now at the highest level since 2007. On 29 May, official figures for the Help to Buy equity loan and mortgage guarantee schemes showed that 27,861 households have been helped by the scheme. It continues to overwhelmingly benefit first-time buyers, with the vast majority of sales outside of London and at prices well below the national average. Help to Buy is directly helping to increase housing supply, with the scheme driving demand and supply of new-build homes. Almost three quarters (74%) of homes bought through both Help to Buy schemes are new-build properties.
Affordable housing—On 30 May, my Department announced that 13 housing associations will receive a share of £208 million in Government guaranteed loans to build affordable homes across the country. In total, 26 borrowers have now been approved for loans that will enable 5,900 homes to be built. The agreement forms part of the affordable housing guarantees scheme, delivered by Affordable Housing Finance, part of the Housing Finance Corporation. Through the scheme, the Government use their strong economic record from tackling Labour’s deficit to guarantee and unlock up to £3.5 billion of cheaper debt for Affordable Housing Finance, enabling it to lend this on to housing associations to build new homes to rent for hard-working people.
Decent Homes—On 28 May, my Department announced a deal that could see council tenants in Salford benefit from up to £75 million investment in their homes. We have given the green light to Salford city council to transfer ownership of its social homes to Salix Homes, a non-profit company, by writing off the council’s £65 million historic housing debt. In exchange, Salix Homes made a commitment to invest £75 million to ensure all 8,500 properties will reach the Government’s Decent Homes standard by 2020.
Self-Build—On 3 May, I attended the Grand Designs Live event for custom build week. Self-build and custom-build offer an important alternative in providing greener, more affordable and more innovatively designed homes. Our £150 million budget boost to self-builders will help turn these visions into bricks and mortar. The right to build scheme will provide the solid foundation for more self-build, unlocking council and other land as a right, rather than a request, to help self-builders secure their desired plot. Self-builders are also exempt from the community infrastructure levy, saving them on average £15,000 for a four-bed property; we intend to follow this through by making similar changes to offer relief on section 106 tariffs imposed on self-build.
Promoting Community Rights
On 26 May, my Department paid tribute to the communities that have used their new powers to protect around 1,200 local assets including pubs, parks, libraries, sports grounds and theatres from sell-off across England. The coalition Government have taken action to give local communities new rights to help shape how local public services are run and planning decisions are made. Local residents can put forward a community asset to their council to have it listed as a protected asset and, if approved, this gives a six-month window for the community to put in a bid to buy it should it be put up for sale.
Boosting local growth and jobs through Enterprise Zones
Enterprise zones are part of our long-term economic plan to secure a better future for people right across the country. Enterprise zones are a major global investment opportunity. Many of the 24 zones are already home to world-leading businesses and as their reputation grows they are attracting even more new interest from investors over the world. Since their start three years ago. Enterprise zones have created over 9,000 jobs, attracted over 300 businesses and secured £1.2 billion of private sector investment.
On 28 May, my Department announced that £23 million of essential infrastructure investment will help bring more jobs to Bristol, Manchester, Great Yarmouth and Leicestershire. The infrastructure investment will fund:
Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone—awarded £6 million for commercial development in and around the new city centre;
MIRA Technology Park Enterprise Zone—awarded £7.4 million for the construction of a new spine and distribution roads with a roundabout to increase access to the Hinckley site;
Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft Enterprise Zone—awarded £3 million to deliver 5,700 square metres of speculative office and industrial units, as well as road and utilities for Beacon Park, Great Yarmouth;
Manchester Enterprise Zone—awarded £6 million to open up key sites to attract companies in the healthcare and medical technology sectors.
On 3 June, I met with Chinese business leaders as part of a drive to attract further international investment to the UK’s enterprise zones. Chinese businesses have already committed billions to enterprise zones in London and Manchester. The conference was a chance to show them the potential of other enterprise zones and for business leaders from the UK and Asia to explore trade and investment opportunities. The conference was organised by Advanced Business Park, a major Chinese commercial enterprise, one year after they announced a £1 billion investment to transform the London Royal Albert Dock into a new business district in London.
Supporting Great British high streets
Between 14 and 28 May, over 900 markets across Britain, including 100 youth markets, held thousands of events as part of the third annual “Love your local market” fortnight long celebration of market culture in the UK delivered by the National Association of British Market Authorities and supported by the coalition Government.
The campaign is proving so successful that it will be now be recreated on the continent. France, Italy, Spain and Holland have all signed up to the “Love your local market” brand, and will be followed by the likes of Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Slovenia and Slovakia next year.
As part of the coalition Government’s commitment to the high street, the future high streets forum chaired by the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), published a report on 31 May identifying local leadership as the recipe for high street success.
The report “Good Leadership: Great High Streets” analysed four Portas pilot towns and found that good local leadership was behind their successful reinvention. It concludes that any town centre, regardless of size, can really benefit from good leadership habits. The forum recommends that every town centre across the country puts in place a structure, direction and a vision for their work.
Celebrating England’s counties
On 16 May, my Department raised the flag of Middlesex to mark Middlesex day, and on 2 June my Department also raised the flag of Dorset to celebrate Dorset day. England’s traditional counties date back over a thousand years of history, but in the past, many of them were sidelined by Whitehall and municipal bureaucrats. By contrast, the coalition Government are championing local people in flying the flag for such traditional ties and community spirit.
I am placing in the Library copies of the press notices and documents associated with these announcements.