Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with planning authorities in the (a) South West, (b) South East, (c) West Midlands, (d) East Midlands and (e) the East of England on the designation of new green belts.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Government policy in respect of the designation of new Green Belts may be found in Chapter 13 of the National Planning Policy Framework, which sets out that new Green Belts should be established only in exceptional circumstances.
The Framework was recently updated following extensive consultation, including with local planning authorities.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what HM Land Registry's average response time is on requests to merge title deeds.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government does not hold the information in the format requested.
HM Land Registry processing times for a range of broad application categories can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department offers paternity leave to its staff from their first working day.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Paternity Leave entitlement is based on 26 weeks of continuous service ending with the 15th week before the baby is due. Qualifying service includes employment with another civil service organisation.
As with any changes to employment legislation, internal policies and processes will be updated as appropriate in preparation for when the Employment Rights Bill 2024 comes into effect.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of immigration on the length of waiting lists for social housing in (a) Horsham, (b) Chichester District and (c) Arun District.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department does not hold information on the immigration status of those on the waiting lists.
Local Authority Housing Statistics show that, at 31 March 2023, Horsham District Council had 740 households on the waiting list for social housing, Chichester District Council had 2,029 households on the waiting list, and Arun District Council had 1,732 households on the waiting lists.
Local Authority Housing Statistics also show that Horsham District Council has a local connection test in place to determine who qualifies for social housing, Chichester District Council has both a residency and local connection test, and Arun District Council has a residency test.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her oral contribution of 30 July 2024, Official Report, column 1194, what steps she (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to amend social housing allocation policy to give priority to local residents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local councils already have necessary powers to give priority to local residents, and most are doing so. In March 2023, 89% of councils had a local connection test and/or a residency test in place.
Responses to the recent consultation on changes to social housing allocation tests made it clear that mandating a local connection test would not add to existing powers that councils have in any meaningful way and would only serve to remove vital flexibility to design and operate qualification tests in a way that best meets the needs of individual local areas.
The response is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-reforms-to-social-housing-allocations/outcome/government-response-to-the-consultation-on-changes-to-social-housing-allocation-tests.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the provisional allocations of the annual government finance settlement for local authorities in Sussex.
Answered by Luke Hall
Provisional local government finance settlement allocations for local authorities in England in 2021-22 were published on 17 December. The provisional allocations for local authorities in Sussex can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-provisional-local-government-finance-settlement-2021-to-2022.
I intend to bring forward a final settlement for debate and a vote in the House shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support (a) high street businesses and (b) community stores during the covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021.
Answered by Luke Hall
This Government is fully committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and town centres successful as the nation responds to the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Government has provided a comprehensive package of support of £200 billion to help businesses that have been affected by Covid-19. This package includes the small business grants, the coronavirus loan schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as well as deferral of income tax payments.
We are also delivering the £50 million Reopening High Streets Safely Fund to support local authorities with rolling out extra measures to support their business communities and have introduced measures protecting commercial tenants from eviction if they are unable to pay their rent.
The High Street Task Force is also playing a vital role in supporting the recovery of our local economies, through providing intelligence and evidence to support government in its response to the Covid-19 outbreak through the creation of monthly reports, a series of webinars to help support local recovery frameworks, and Covid-specific resources in the High Street Task Force’s online resource library.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to promote local economic growth in (a) West Sussex and (b) England.
Answered by Luke Hall
We are promoting local economic growth in West Sussex through:
Across England, the Government is supporting local partners to deliver local economic growth through:
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to support local authorities in Sussex during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall
For 2020-21, we have now committed over £7.2 billion for local authorities to fund their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, even before the extension of the Contain Outbreak Management Fund for those authorities under the highest level of restriction – potentially worth over £200 million a month – which was announced as part of the Covid-19 Winter Plan. This is part of an unprecedented package of support for local authorities to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, including measures worth an estimated c. £3 billion of additional support next year. This takes the total support committed to councils in England to tackle the impacts of Covid-19 to over £10 billion.
Councils in the Arundel and and South Downs constituency have been allocated over £96 million in funding from Government, including over £53 million in unringfenced funding, and over £13 million from the Contain Outbreak Management Fund.
Looking ahead to next year, Spending Review 2020 provides councils with the funding and stability to support vital social care services and tackle Covid-19. Local authorities will be able to access an additional £2.2 billion in resources to support Adult and Children’s Social Care and maintain universal services. In addition, we are providing over £1.5 billion in unringfenced grant for ongoing Covid-19 pressures and extending support to offset the income losses councils are experiencing.
Provisional allocations for the annual local government finance settlement for local authorities in Sussex will be announced shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support development on brownfield sites.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Planning Policy Framework expects local authorities to prioritise brownfield land for development wherever possible. Local authorities are best placed to assess individual sites: each authority is required to publish a register of its developable brownfield suitable for new homes. My Department will shortly issue a national map of the land identified in these registers. We also provide significant practical support for the take-up of brownfield, such as: