Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding of the APPG on Homelessness that, between January and March, 37 per cent of rough sleepers in London had experience of being in prison; and what assessment they have made of housing support provision for ex-offenders.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
One person sleeping rough is one too many and this Government is determined to do something about this.
At Autumn Budget 2017, the Government announced £28 million of funding to pilot the Housing First approach for some of the country’s most entrenched rough sleepers. We also announced that we will be providing £20 million of additional funding for schemes that will enable better access to the private rented sector for those who are homeless or sleeping rough or at risk, including specialist groups such as care leavers and ex-offenders. We will be engaging with relevant departments as we develop these proposals.
This action builds on wider action that we have taken to achieve our manifesto commitment of halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it altogether by 2027. This includes:
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding of the APPG on Homelessness that, between January and March, 11 per cent of rough sleepers in London were care leavers; and what assessment they have made of the quality of housing support provision for care leavers.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
One person sleeping rough is one too many and this Government is determined to do something about this.
At Autumn Budget 2017, the Government announced £28 million of funding to pilot the Housing First approach for some of the country’s most entrenched rough sleepers. We also announced that we will be providing £20 million of additional funding for schemes that will enable better access to the private rented sector for those who are homeless or sleeping rough or at risk, including specialist groups such as care leavers and ex-offenders. We will be engaging with relevant departments as we develop these proposals.
This action builds on wider action that we have taken to achieve our manifesto commitment of halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it altogether by 2027. This includes:
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increasing tax rates on the 280,000 privately owned long-term empty homes in England on tax revenues.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The number of homes in England that have been empty for more than six months has reduced from over 300,000 in May 2010 to 206,236 in November 2017. The Government has announced that measures will be introduced to increase, from 50 per cent to 100 per cent, the council tax premium paid on homes empty for more than two years.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increasing tax rates on the 280,000 privately owned long-term empty homes in England on the overall quantity of housing supply.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The number of homes in England that have been empty for more than six months has reduced from over 300,000 in May 2010 to 206,236 in November 2017. The Government has announced that measures will be introduced to increase, from 50 per cent to 100 per cent, the council tax premium paid on homes empty for more than two years.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact of the removal of the requirement for developers to provide a certain proportion of affordable housing in developments of ten homes or fewer on the number of small and medium-sized enterprise builders over the last two years.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Government does not have data on the number of small and medium-sized (SME) builders over the last two years, but the National House Building Council (NHBC) estimated that the number of homes registered by small builders fell from 44,000 in 2007 to 16,000 in 2016.
Our Housing White Paper published in February this year recognised that small sites create particular opportunities for smaller developers, as well as custom developers, and set out a number of proposals for national policy changes so that local planning authorities have policies that support the development of small sites.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact of the removal of the requirement for developers to provide a certain proportion of affordable housing in developments of ten homes or fewer on the number of rural houses completed in areas of population under 3,000.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Government does not collect national data on the number of homes delivered in areas of population under 3,000.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many new housing developments were built in the period 2010 to 2015 against advice given by the Environment Agency.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The information requested is not collected by the Department. The Environment Agency’s most recent report ‘Managing flood and coastal erosion risks in England’ indicates that between April 2011 and March 2015, over 99 per cent of proposed new homes had planning outcomes in line with Environment Agency advice where they had objected because of concerns about flood risk and had been made aware of the decision.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the recent extensive flooding, they intend to review the sections of the planning practice guidance relating to flood risk.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Our planning guidance is clear that councils need to consider the strict tests set out in national planning policy, and where these are not met, new development on flood risk sites should not be allowed. These tests, set out in the National Planning Policy Framework, are designed to protect people and property from flooding and give councils the robust ability to reject inappropriate planning applications.
Councils are expected to avoid inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding by directing development away from areas at highest risk, including floodplains. Where development is necessary, it must be demonstrated that it is safe and will not increase flood risk elsewhere.
We are always looking to see what lessons can be learned and what changes should be considered including how local councils plan for development, where they allow building and the account they take of the strict tests set out in national policy to protect people and property from flooding.
My rt. hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Oliver Letwin), has already announced that he will chair a National Flood Resilience Review to assess how the country and our communities can be better protected from future flooding and extreme weather events. Additionally, my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Elizabeth Truss), has announced that the new Cumbria Floods Partnership group will consider and identify what additional flood protection measures may be needed in Cumbria.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of new houses built in each of the years from 2010 to 2015 were built on floodplains, and whether they expect that proportion to change in the next five years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The department’s latest land use change statistics provide estimates on the proportion of new residential addresses created in National Flood Zone 3 in England. The latest figures show that in 2013-14, 7 percent of new residential addresses were created in the National Flood Zone 3. This equates to an estimated 9,100 homes being built in National Flood Zone 3 in 2013-14.
Prior to the publication of 2013-14 figures land use change statistics were calculated using a different methodology so they are not directly comparable to the 2013-14 figures. Figures produced using the previous methodology were last published for the calendar year 2011 and are provided in the attached table.
Development can not be ruled out in high flood risk areas as around 10 percent of England, including large parts of major cities, such as Hull, Portsmouth and central London are located in these areas. All local planning authorities are expected to follow the strict tests set out in national planning policy and guidance, which includes steering development away from flood risk areas. Where development in flood risk areas is considered, national planning policy is clear that it should be safe, resilient and not increase flood risk elsewhere.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to assist rural councils that cannot access funding from the Rural Services Delivery Grant in order to ensure that the additional cost of delivery of services in rural areas is adequately resourced.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
In setting the baseline in 2013-14, the Government took into account the additional costs of delivering services in rural areas. It increased the amount distributed through sparsity in the older people's social care need formula, and both the district and county-level environmental, protective and cultural services need formulae. In addition a separate sparsity element was introduced in the fire need formula.
The Government believes that all authorities have sufficient resources to deliver adequate services within their areas.