Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what role public houses have in his Department's leveling up policies; and what steps his Department is taking to utilise them.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Community Ownership Fund has awarded funding to protect a wide range of community assets that are important to communities, including £8 million for 33 Pubs.
We recognise that Pubs can help to form vital parts of our social fabric and boost pride in place by bringing people together and help to tackle loneliness and social isolation.
Pubs provide a range of services for the communities they serve, and the Community Ownership Fund helps local groups to secure the futures of pubs in their communities.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help more young people onto the housing ladder in Yorkshire.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has a range of home ownership schemes that are available to first time buyers, including First Homes and shared ownership.
The Mortgage Guarantee Scheme helps to increase the supply of 95% loan-to-value mortgages for credit-worthy households.
We have also doubled the threshold at which SDLT becomes due to £250,000 and expanded First Time Buyers Relief, raising the threshold at which stamp duty becomes payable from £300,000 to £425,000.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to support leaseholders with the costs of cladding removal.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government has provided multiple avenues of funding to address dangerous cladding in all eligible residential buildings above 11m in England.
Where developers have signed the developer remediation contract, they will remove dangerous cladding themselves, or reimburse the Government where government funds have already been used to do so. For other buildings, the Cladding Safety Scheme will ensure that cladding is removed where necessary at no cost to leaseholders.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will commission a review of the planning permission regime for areas at risk of flooding.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
National planning policy on managing flood risk was last updated in 2018, and provides a robust framework for making decisions that take flood risk fully into account. It makes clear that inappropriate development in areas at current or future risk of flooding should be avoided and directs development towards areas at least risk. Where development is necessary in such areas, and where there are no suitable sites available in areas with a lower risk of flooding, it should be made safe without increasing flood risk elsewhere and be appropriately flood resistant and resilient. It is primarily the responsibility of local planning authorities to determine applications for planning permission, having weighed up all the material planning considerations – including advice received from flood risk management bodies.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the National Audit Office report Help to Buy: Equity loan scheme published on 12 June 2019, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Help to Buy scheme in supporting less well-off people to purchase property.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
An independent evaluation of Help to Buy: Equity Loan commissioned by the Government found that that the scheme helped 75 per cent of customers to enter the market.
Most of the homes purchased through the scheme are made by first-time buyers, so far accounting for 171,053 (81 per cent) of total purchases.
The scheme helps those who cannot raise a large deposit, with 57 per cent of buyers paying only a 5 per cent deposit to purchase their home.
56 per cent of households who purchased a home through Help to Buy: Equity Loan have had a total household income of £50,000 or less.
The Government runs a range of schemes to assist people into home ownership, such as Shared Ownership and Right to Buy.
The number of completions by band of total household income is set out at Table 7 of the quarterly statistics on Help to Buy: Equity Loan to December 2018:
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to lower business rates.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
Since 2016, Government has announced a range of business rates reforms and measures. These include raising the threshold for Small Business Rate Relief, linking the multiplier to CPI rather than RPI inflation, a new retail discount worth an estimated £1 billion, and a range of other smaller reliefs. In total, these measures are estimated to be worth over £13 billion between 2019-20 and 2023-24.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support communities that wish to create a Business Improvement District; and what (a) financial support and (b) advice is available to such communities on initial start-up costs.
Answered by Andrew Percy
The Government has committed to helping communities establishing Business Improvement Districts given the positive impact they have on their local areas.
We have provided funding totalling £658,555. The latest round for new areas seeking support closed in February 2017, and applications are being processed.
Although there are many organisations offering advice to communities on establishing a Business Improvement District, we have published supporting guidance and best practice which can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-improvement-districts-guidance-and-best-practice
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the additional housing needed to provide (a) private and (b) social sector accommodation for immigrants from (i) the EU and (ii) non-EU countries in each year to 2020.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department has not made estimates of the addition private and social housing needed to provide accommodation for immigrants from EU and non-EU countries.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what research his Department has commissioned on the effect of immigration on the demand for (a) housing and (b) social housing.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department published statistics on average household growth in December 2015, including the proportion attributable to net migration. The department has not commissioned research on how immigration affects the demand for social housing.