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Written Question
Elections: Disinformation
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent any negative impact on this year's local elections as a result of fake news being disseminated through (1) artificial intelligence, and (2) other means.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is committed to safeguarding the UK’s elections and already has established systems and processes in place, to protect the democratic integrity of the UK.

The Government has established the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which has a mandate to safeguard our democratic institutions and processes from the full range of threats, including digitally manipulated content. The Taskforce is an enduring government function which is ensuring we have a robust system in place to rapidly respond to any threats during election periods, including novel threats from artificial intelligence (AI).

The new digital imprints regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, will increase the transparency of digital political advertising, including AI-generated material.

Additionally, it is already an election offence for a person to make a false statement about a candidate which provides a reasonable check and balance against malicious smear campaigns.

The threat to democracy from artificial intelligence was discussed at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to international collaboration on this shared challenge.


Written Question
Housing: Cooperatives
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to the development of more cooperative housing schemes.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is committed to supporting housing co-operatives and other providers of community-led housing. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government's planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied, and was most recently revised in December 2023. The National Planning Policy Framework now includes several measures that will support the diversification of the housing market, including the growth of the community-led housing sector. These new measures include:

  • A new community-led housing exception sites policy to encourage local authorities to support the development of community-led sites that deliver affordable housing to meet local need;
  • encouragement to local planning authorities to seek opportunities to support small sites to come forward for community-led development for housing;
  • greater emphasis on the role that community-led development can have in supporting the provision of housing in rural areas; and
  • a definition of “community-led developments”, which will help planning authorities provide support for local proposals for community-led housing development;

Community-based groups (or their partner organisations) who are registered as providers of social housing may apply for capital grant through the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).

In addition, in 2023, we provided £3 million to support a social finance fund to provide equity and loan finance for community-led housing schemes across England. This fund is expected to support the delivery of 1587 homes over ten years.


Written Question
Building Inspectors
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the number of building inspectors and any risk to construction due to declines in their numbers.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

I refer the Noble Lady to the answer given to Question UIN 16272 on 5 March 2024.


Written Question
Arms Length Management Organisations
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many arms-length management organisations there are in England.

Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We do not collect this information centrally. However, the National Federation of ALMOs’ latest publicity suggests that there are currently 19 arms-length management organisations in England: https://www.almos.org.uk/about-us/our-members/.


Written Question
Council Housing: Construction
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of council homes on social rents, excluding council homes on affordable rents, that they expect to be built by 2030.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.

The Levelling Up White Paper committed to increasing the supply of social rented homes and a large number of the new homes delivered through our Affordable Homes Programme will be for social rent.

Since 2010, we have delivered over 172,600 homes for social rent.


Written Question
Social Rented Housing: Overcrowding
Tuesday 26th September 2023

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the level of overcrowding in the social housing sector.

Answered by Lord Evans of Rainow - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Data on the levels of overcrowding can be found in the English Housing Survey 2021 to 2022: social rented sector report

We are committed to reducing overcrowding and the length of social housing waiting lists, by increasing the supply of affordable housing and enabling councils and other social landlords to make better use of their existing stock.

That is why since 2010, we have delivered over 659,500 new affordable homes, including over 468,700 affordable homes for rent, of which over 166,300 homes for social rent. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country, and we have also recently launched our £750 million Local Authority Housing Fund.


Written Question
Freeports
Monday 25th September 2023

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many freeports they have established in the past three years; and where they are.

Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Excellent progress has been made with Freeport delivery - all English Freeports are open for business and seven out of eight have final government approval. We have also announced two new Green Freeports in Scotland as well as two new Freeports in Wales. The location of each Freeport can be found on the Freeports page on GOV.UK .


Written Question
Buildings: Concrete
Monday 25th September 2023

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (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 amount of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in buildings other than schools.

Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

I refer the noble Lady to the response given to Question UIN 197493 on 11 September 2023.


Written Question
Planning: Combined Authorities
Thursday 20th July 2023

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the effectiveness of Combined Authorities in delivering strategic planning objectives.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Although the Government has not undertaken a formal assessment of how Combined Authorities are meeting their strategic planning objectives, officials from the Department work closely with the Combined Authorities. There is regular and ongoing engagement with those Combined Authorities that have specific planning powers and functions.


Written Question
Planning Permission: Fees and Charges
Tuesday 18th July 2023

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to give planning authorities more flexibility to set fees for planning applications.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We have announced our intention to increase planning fees by 35% for major applications and 25% for all other applications by the Summer 2023. Local authorities have the flexibility to set their own fees for discretionary planning services such as pre-application advice and Planning Performance Agreements.