Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which access to funds from the Public Works Loan Board by local authorities for the purpose of investing in commercial properties is compliant with the provisions of the Prudential Code relating to the activities of public bodies.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Prudential Code issued by CIPFA makes it clear that local authorities must not borrow more than or in advance of their needs purely to profit from the extra sums invested. This applies to all borrowing activity, not only Public Works Loan Board (PWLB). Our guidance published in February 2018 makes it clear that this section of the Prudential Code applies to non-financial investments, such as commercial property, in the same way that it applies to financial investments. If local authorities chose to ignore this prohibition, they will need to disclose that they are knowingly disregarding statutory guidance and explain their policies in investing the money borrowed, including management of the risks, for example, of not achieving the desired profit or borrowing costs increasing.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 14 September following the statement on Local Housing Need, what is the basis of their classification of affordable rents as 80 per cent of market rents.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Affordable Rent must be set at or below 80 per cent of market rents, so tenants will still benefit from sub-market rent. Actual levels of rents vary, and landlords must consider the local market conditions to ensure a fit with local circumstances when setting rents.
Government introduced Affordable Rent in 2012 to maximise government investment in affordable housing, enabling the development of more homes for every pound of public spending. This has allowed us to build nearly 333,000 new affordable homes since 2010, including 240,000 affordable homes for rent.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many publicly owned or charity owned houses have been sold to their tenants in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Statistics on the number of social dwellings sold by local authorities and private registered providers can be found in Live Table 678, which is too large to be included here but has been attached and can also be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance they have given to councils and local authorities regarding the registration of interests other than disclosable pecuniary interests, and in particular whether elected persons who are Freemasons should declare that fact as an interest.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is for individual local authorities in England to determine what non-pecuniary interests their members should register and disclose in accordance with their code of conduct. My Department has produced an illustrative code of conduct for local authorities, which advises that “you must, within 28 days of taking office as a member or co-opted member, notify your authority’s monitoring officer of any disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest which your authority has decided should be included in the register or which you consider should be included if you are to fulfil your duty to act in conformity with the Seven Principles of Public Life”.
The illustrative code of conduct (attached) is available on my Department’s web site at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/illustrative-text-for-local-code-of-conduct--2
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will list those green belts in which they are considering the removal of existing green belt protection from development.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As pledged in the collation Agreement, this Government has safeguarded national Green Belt protection. We have abolished the top-down Regional Strategies of the last Administration which sought to delete the Green Belt in and around 30 towns and cities.
In recent months, we have published waste planning policy which increases protection of the Green Belt; issued planning guidance which re-affirms the importance of the Green Belt during Local Plan preparation; and have consulted on proposed changes to planning policy on traveller sites to further increase Green Belt safeguards.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether planning authorities are required to notify town or parish councils of planning applications relating to their towns or parishes.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Yes, if the council of any parish makes a request to the local planning authority that they be consulted on planning applications in their area, they must be given the opportunity to make representations about a planning application. The local planning authority must take into account any relevant representations made and notify the council of any parish of the decision.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they define affordable housing in terms of (1) maximum proportion of after-tax income of those on average earnings needed to pay rent, and (2) multiple of gross income needed to buy a house.
Answered by Baroness Stowell of Beeston
We do not define affordable housing in those terms. The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (sections 68 – 70) defines social housing as low cost rental accommodation and low cost home ownership accommodation. In the Act, a low cost rent is simply defined as below the market rate. Low cost home ownership is defined by its availability for occupation on a shared ownership or equity percentage basis. This provides flexibility to support a range of people with different housing needs through our affordable housing programmes.
For planning purposes, the definition set out in the National Planning Policy Framework is as follows:
“ Social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing, provided to eligible households whose needs are not met by the market. Eligibility is determined with regard to local incomes and local house prices. Affordable housing should include provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision.
Social rented housing is owned by local authorities and private registered providers (as defined in section 80 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008), for which guideline target rents are determined through the national rent regime. It may also be owned by other persons and provided under equivalent rental arrangements to the above, as agreed with the local authority or with the Homes and Communities Agency.
Affordable rented housing is let by local authorities or private registered providers of social housing to households who are eligible for social rented housing. Affordable Rent is subject to rent controls that require a rent of no more than 80% of the local market rent (including service charges, where applicable).
Intermediate housing is homes for sale and rent provided at a cost above social rent, but below market levels subject to the criteria in the Affordable Housing definition above. These can include shared equity (shared ownership and equity loans), other low cost homes for sale and intermediate rent, but not affordable rented housing.
Homes that do not meet the above definition of affordable housing, such as “low cost market” housing, may not be considered as affordable housing for planning purposes.“