Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government following the passage of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, whether local authorities are able to determine the number of housing units that their district needs without having to follow any direction from the Government on numbers required.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The definition of deliverable sites is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework also sets out that authorities should use the standard method to calculate housing need.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, in calculating a five-year supply of allocated housing sites, they will include (1) those sites with existing planning consent but not yet developed, and (2) units not yet built in partly developed sites.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The definition of deliverable sites is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework also sets out that authorities should use the standard method to calculate housing need.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Local Government (Levelling Up), during her visit to Hull on 28 February that she would like to see a devolution deal for Hull and the East Riding “sooner rather than later”, when they will provide further details of any plans.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Hull and East Yorkshire were announced in the Levelling Up White Paper as an early County Deal area. The Minister for Levelling Up visited Hull on 28 February where she took part in conversations with the Leaders of Hull and East Yorkshire about their plans for devolution in the region. Devolution discussions will continue following the May elections.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what identifying information is required for residents not living in the UK to register to vote in UK elections.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Currently an overseas elector must be a British citizen who was previously registered within the UK within the last 15 years. Overseas electors are subject to identity checks when registering to vote in the same way as domestic electors.
They are required to provide their full name, date of birth and National Insurance number to be checked against DWP data. If an overseas applicant’s identity cannot be verified via the National Insurance number check, they can be required to provide an attestation of identity from a registered overseas elector who is not a close family member. Overseas electors are also subject to checks to demonstrate their connection to the address at which they are registering.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the levels of fraud in the operation of postal voting; and what plans they have, if any, to introduce photo identification requirements for postal voting.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Electoral Commission publishes a report annually on electoral fraud. I also refer the noble peer to the report by (then) Sir Eric Pickles on electoral fraud, which identified a series of weaknesses in the postal vote process (attached). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/securing-the-ballot-review-into-electoral-fraud.
That report was commissioned following the 2015 Election Court ruling on electoral corruption in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
There are longstanding security measures which enhance the security of the postal voting process, including requiring postal voters to provide personal identifiers at the time of applying for a postal vote and which are checked at the time of a poll. The Elections Act 2022 introduces a package of sensible measures to enhance the security around absent voting including an identity check at the point of application for a postal vote, whereby an applicant will need to provide their National Insurance number to be checked against Government records. This process mirrors the current practice for Registering to Vote.
As is usual, the Government will keep this area of policy under review in the future.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they expect the provisions of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, if passed, will interact with the Building Safety Act 2022; and what steps they will take to ensure provisions in the Act concerning building safety standards are not undermined by the revocation of retained EU law.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the noble Baroness to the answer given (attached) to PQ 105305 on 12 December 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to simplifying the process of Compulsory Purchase Orders to enable local authorities to act more quickly where the completion of projects is unreasonably delayed.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is absolutely clear that new homes should be built out as soon as possible once planning permission is granted. Where sites are stalled or there are delays to delivery, it is for local authorities and developers to work closely together on the issues. We recognise communities need to see the homes they want and need built promptly. We are, therefore, exploring further options to support faster build out as part of the wider package of proposed changes to the planning system. As set out in the recent Levelling Up White Paper, we are also exploring the provisions around compulsory purchase powers to help speed up the process. An announcement on the way forward will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what actions are available to local authorities to take steps to mitigate planning blight.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government has provided various tools for local authorities to mitigate against incomplete developments or rundown sites. Most notably, Section 215 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 (the Act) provides a local planning authority (LPA) with the power in respect of land in their area to take remedial steps by serving a notice on the owner and occupier, when the condition of that land adversely affects the amenity of part of their, or an adjoining area. The notice should provide a clear timeframe for compliance and clearly particularise the remedial work that must be undertaken.
The scope of works that can be required in S215 notices is wide and includes planting, clearance, tidying, enclosure, demolition, re-building, external repairs and repainting. Any works specified by a notice need to be compliant and not lead to any breaches of planning control.
The use of Section 215 is discretionary, and an LPA should decide whether a notice under these provisions would be appropriate in a particular case, taking into account all the local circumstances. LPAs also have powers under Section 219 of the Act to undertake the remedial works themselves and to recover the costs from the landowner.
In addition, planning blight notices are a statutory mechanism available to owner-occupiers of dwellings who cannot sell their property except for a significantly reduced amount because it falls within one of the categories of 'planning blight' set out in Schedule 13 to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. If such a notice is confirmed, the owner can require the public body behind the scheme to acquire the premises at open market value in the absence of the scheme.
More information on blight notices in relation to Compulsory Purchase Orders can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to amending section 215 of the Town and County Planning Act 1990 to allow local councils to prosecute land owners if schemes have not been completed within a reasonable time period.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is absolutely clear that new homes should be built out as soon as possible once planning permission is granted. Where sites are stalled or there are delays to delivery, it is for local authorities and developers to work closely together on the issues.
Section 215 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 provides a local authority with the power to take remedial steps by serving a notice on the owner and occupier, when the condition of land adversely affects the amenity of the area. However, the use of Section 215 is discretionary, and a local authority should decide whether a notice under these provisions would be appropriate in a particular case, taking into account all the local circumstances as Section 219 of the Act allows local planning authorities to undertake the remedial works themselves and recover the costs from the landowner.
We recognise communities need to see the homes they want and need built promptly. We are, therefore, exploring further options to support faster build out as part of the wider package of proposed changes to the planning system. An announcement will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards achieving the voluntary contributions of £4 billion for the remediation of cladding from developers of blocks of flats between 11 and 18 metres in height.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Department has been working intensively with developers over recent weeks as it is essential that leaseholders living in their own flats in medium and high-rise buildings should not pay a penny to remediate historic cladding defects that are no fault of their own. We are clear that industry must develop a system to resolve the problems they have caused and pay to fix them. If they do not do the right thing and step in then, if necessary, we will impose a solution upon them in law. The Secretary of State recognises that other parties are also responsible for building safety failures and is bringing top cladding manufacturers operating in the UK into the talks. The Secretary of State is very clear on his expectations, and we have a process lined up to legislate where necessary if we don’t see the progress required.