Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government which, if any, of their advisory groups, or relevant public bodies, supported the changes to Nutrient Neutrality Rules that would require local authorities to disregard scientific evidence of the pollution impacts from new housing.
Answered by Lord Evans of Rainow - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require local authorities in England to take into account (1) the use of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies, or (2) the potential for future installation of such technology, when considering whether to grant permission for new energy from waste plants.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that the planning system should support the transition to a low carbon future, including by supporting renewable and low carbon energy and associated infrastructure. Local Planning Authorities should consider this when considering whether to grant permission for new energy for waste plants.
In addition to requiring planning permission to build a new energy from waste plant, an environmental permit may be required to operate it. The Environment Agency are the permitting authority in England. Environmental permits contain conditions to protect the environment and human health. Energy from waste permits can set controls a range of factors, for example, by including emissions limits. Carbon capture and utilisation and storage technologies could play a role in this.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to put a target on their aim to diversify the housebuilding industry, and (2) to collect statistics to monitor delivery against that target.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is committed to diversifying the housebuilding industry. This means enabling a greater variety of firms to contribute to housing supply, providing for a wider range of housing needs and improving productivity, quality and choice. We are providing financial support to help drive greater diversification. The £3 billion Short Term Home Building Fund is available to SME housebuilders, MMC manufacturers and other innovative forms of housing delivery. We have also announced a National Home Building Fund (NHBF), investing £7.1 billion over 4 years, including £2.2 billion of investment to SME firms and innovative housebuilders.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the Planning Bill directs Local Plans towards promoting sustainable transport to end developers being required to overprovide car parking in areas with good public transport and active travel options.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
As set out in the Planning for the Future white paper, our reforms will leave an inheritance of environmental improvement, including that new homes will be built closer to where people want to live and work, to reduce our reliance on carbon-intensive modes of transport.
The White Paper consultation closed in October 2020, and received around 44,000 responses – demonstrating just how important this is to people. We will publish the Government’s response to the consultation, setting out the way forward, ahead of introducing the Planning Bill to Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to put self and custom-build and community-led housing at the heart of the Planning Bill so that the public can bring forward their own development.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is committed to increasing the number of self and custom build homes and community-led housing in this country, and to establish it as a mainstream option for people to choose to get on the housing ladder or when moving home. The Planning Bill will simplify and modernise the planning system. It will establish a clear set of rules, on questions ranging from where communities want homes to be built to the high design and environmental standards that must be met. Both those looking to self and custom build their own home and SME housebuilders will find this system much easier, less costly and quicker to navigate, with more land available for development and clearer expectations on the types of development permitted.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of potential new build homes that are dependent on the Community Housing Fund.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Until the end of March 2020, when the funding period ended, the Community Housing Fund was delivered outside London by Homes England (and its predecessor, the Homes and Communities Agency). Data provided by Homes England in May indicated that it had received applications for funding from projects anticipating the delivery of a total of 10,780 homes, 4,347 of which from applications that have been approved. The overwhelming majority of the funding requested was in the form of revenue grant to cover pre-development costs. Organisations that are registered as providers of social housing may seek capital funding from the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme operated outside London by Homes England and, where appropriate, Homes England has been encouraging them to do so.
Within London, the Community Housing Fund is delivered by the Greater London Authority (GLA) with £36 million grant awarded to it by MHCLG. Data provided by the GLA in December indicates a current pipeline of up to 1,387 community-led homes for which funding applications may be made to the GLA.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have for the future of the Community Housing Fund.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Community Housing Fund closed at the end of March 2020. Departmental budgets for 2021/22 have been confirmed at the recent Spending Review and my department is now undertaking a process of allocation of budgets to individual programmes. The needs of the community-led housing sector will be taken into consideration alongside the full range of the Department’s priorities. In the meantime, organisations that are registered as providers of social housing may seek capital funding from the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme operated outside London by Homes England.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to devolve powers to (1) the Mayor of London, and (2) elected mayors in England and Wales.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to publishing an English Devolution White Paper as a strategy to unleash the potential of all our regions – covering plans for full devolution across England and levelling up powers of existing mayors.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what communications they have had with local authorities in England and Wales about (1) the availability, and (2) the funding, of (a) temporary, and (b) emergency, accommodation.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide accommodation for households that are homeless and defined as being in priority need, unintentionally homeless and eligible for assistance. They are obliged to secure temporary accommodation for the household in the first instance until suitable long-term accommodation can be secured.
Local authorities provide updates on how many households are living in temporary accommodation to Government via H-CLIC, the new quarterly data return on local authorities’ actions under homelessness legislation. According to that data, in England, the current total number of households in temporary accommodation is 86,130. Of these households, 7,110 were in bed and breakfast accommodation and 22,360 were in nightly paid, privately managed accommodation.
In December 2019 we announced the allocation of £263 million in funding for 2020/21 to local authorities designed to support them to deliver services to tackle homelessness. This is an uplift of £23 million on the previous year. The purpose of this funding is to give local authorities more control and flexibility in managing homelessness pressures and supporting those who at risk of homelessness, including providing them with temporary accommodation.
As housing is a devolved issue, we would advise you to contact the Welsh Government for information about temporary accommodation in Wales.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the availability of (1) temporary, and (2) emergency, accommodation in England and Wales.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide accommodation for households that are homeless and defined as being in priority need, unintentionally homeless and eligible for assistance. They are obliged to secure temporary accommodation for the household in the first instance until suitable long-term accommodation can be secured.
Local authorities provide updates on how many households are living in temporary accommodation to Government via H-CLIC, the new quarterly data return on local authorities’ actions under homelessness legislation. According to that data, in England, the current total number of households in temporary accommodation is 86,130. Of these households, 7,110 were in bed and breakfast accommodation and 22,360 were in nightly paid, privately managed accommodation.
In December 2019 we announced the allocation of £263 million in funding for 2020/21 to local authorities designed to support them to deliver services to tackle homelessness. This is an uplift of £23 million on the previous year. The purpose of this funding is to give local authorities more control and flexibility in managing homelessness pressures and supporting those who at risk of homelessness, including providing them with temporary accommodation.
As housing is a devolved issue, we would advise you to contact the Welsh Government for information about temporary accommodation in Wales.