Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to implement the Government's policy of requiring an electric car charging point at every new home.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer my Rt Hon Friend to the answer I gave to PQ UIN 157016 on 1 March 2021
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether it is his policy to require local authorities to release green belt land for housing in the event that is the only developable land available to them.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Planning Policy Framework maintains a high level of protection for the Green Belt, and states that local authorities should propose to alter Green Belt boundaries only where they can demonstrate that there are exceptional circumstances and that they have examined all other reasonable options for meeting their identified development needs. They are expected to show that they have been using their brownfield and under-used land; optimising density; and exploring opportunities in neighbouring authority areas under the duty to cooperate. In examining local plans, a planning inspector will look for evidenced justification of any proposed change to a Green Belt, to check that all reasonable alternatives have been considered.
In line with our manifesto commitment, the reform proposals in Planning for the Future, currently out for consultation, do not affect the Framework’s strong protections for Green Belt land.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the housing need for each local authority is when calculated through the standard method.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
To get enough?homes built in the places where people and communities need them,?a crucial first step is to plan for the right number of homes.??To support our overall aspirations, and to?target more homes into areas where they are least affordable, we are proposing to revise the number of homes authorities should plan for.
We have not published an authority by authority list of numbers generated by the formula. The formula uses variable?data?and it is down to local planning authorities to calculate their local housing need.
Paragraph 23-39 of the Changes to the current planning system consultation explains step-by-step the proposed calculation for the updated standard method.???
Lower household projections do not mean that fewer homes are needed?– in some cases they reflect existing under-supply, where lack of provision stops new households from forming.
Not all homes that are planned for are?built, so our proposed formula includes a buffer to account for the drop off rate between permissions and completions. This?gives the best opportunity to?deliver against our aspirations while also ensuring that the market offers?a good?choice of homes.??
The affordability adjustment used in the proposed standard method is based on the median house price to workplace-based earnings ratio, published annually by the Office for National Statistics.
The house price to workplace-based earnings ratio compares the median salary earnt in a local authority against the median house price in that same authority area. This ratio is used as people typically choose to live close to where they work – and therefore is a proxy for demand within the housing market.
Earnings data is taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) Release, which provides data on the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked by UK employees. This data does not cover the self-employed.
The proposals were out for consultation until 1 October 2020. Following consideration of the consultation responses received, the Government will publish a response in due course. The response will set out any decisions and any associated proposed implementation.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons his policy to build 300,000 new homes a year is greater than the ONS projection of future household growth.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
To get enough?homes built in the places where people and communities need them,?a crucial first step is to plan for the right number of homes.??To support our overall aspirations, and to?target more homes into areas where they are least affordable, we are proposing to revise the number of homes authorities should plan for.
We have not published an authority by authority list of numbers generated by the formula. The formula uses variable?data?and it is down to local planning authorities to calculate their local housing need.
Paragraph 23-39 of the Changes to the current planning system consultation explains step-by-step the proposed calculation for the updated standard method.???
Lower household projections do not mean that fewer homes are needed?– in some cases they reflect existing under-supply, where lack of provision stops new households from forming.
Not all homes that are planned for are?built, so our proposed formula includes a buffer to account for the drop off rate between permissions and completions. This?gives the best opportunity to?deliver against our aspirations while also ensuring that the market offers?a good?choice of homes.??
The affordability adjustment used in the proposed standard method is based on the median house price to workplace-based earnings ratio, published annually by the Office for National Statistics.
The house price to workplace-based earnings ratio compares the median salary earnt in a local authority against the median house price in that same authority area. This ratio is used as people typically choose to live close to where they work – and therefore is a proxy for demand within the housing market.
Earnings data is taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) Release, which provides data on the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked by UK employees. This data does not cover the self-employed.
The proposals were out for consultation until 1 October 2020. Following consideration of the consultation responses received, the Government will publish a response in due course. The response will set out any decisions and any associated proposed implementation.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons his Department's consultation on changes to planning policy and regulations does not propose to include the income level of residents who live in one local authority but work in another local authority in the calculation of local housing need.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
To get enough?homes built in the places where people and communities need them,?a crucial first step is to plan for the right number of homes.??To support our overall aspirations, and to?target more homes into areas where they are least affordable, we are proposing to revise the number of homes authorities should plan for.
We have not published an authority by authority list of numbers generated by the formula. The formula uses variable?data?and it is down to local planning authorities to calculate their local housing need.
Paragraph 23-39 of the Changes to the current planning system consultation explains step-by-step the proposed calculation for the updated standard method.???
Lower household projections do not mean that fewer homes are needed?– in some cases they reflect existing under-supply, where lack of provision stops new households from forming.
Not all homes that are planned for are?built, so our proposed formula includes a buffer to account for the drop off rate between permissions and completions. This?gives the best opportunity to?deliver against our aspirations while also ensuring that the market offers?a good?choice of homes.??
The affordability adjustment used in the proposed standard method is based on the median house price to workplace-based earnings ratio, published annually by the Office for National Statistics.
The house price to workplace-based earnings ratio compares the median salary earnt in a local authority against the median house price in that same authority area. This ratio is used as people typically choose to live close to where they work – and therefore is a proxy for demand within the housing market.
Earnings data is taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) Release, which provides data on the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked by UK employees. This data does not cover the self-employed.
The proposals were out for consultation until 1 October 2020. Following consideration of the consultation responses received, the Government will publish a response in due course. The response will set out any decisions and any associated proposed implementation.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the affordability measure for local housing needs assessment in his Department's consultation on changes to planning policy and regulations takes into account self-employed incomes.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
To get enough?homes built in the places where people and communities need them,?a crucial first step is to plan for the right number of homes.??To support our overall aspirations, and to?target more homes into areas where they are least affordable, we are proposing to revise the number of homes authorities should plan for.
We have not published an authority by authority list of numbers generated by the formula. The formula uses variable?data?and it is down to local planning authorities to calculate their local housing need.
Paragraph 23-39 of the Changes to the current planning system consultation explains step-by-step the proposed calculation for the updated standard method.???
Lower household projections do not mean that fewer homes are needed?– in some cases they reflect existing under-supply, where lack of provision stops new households from forming.
Not all homes that are planned for are?built, so our proposed formula includes a buffer to account for the drop off rate between permissions and completions. This?gives the best opportunity to?deliver against our aspirations while also ensuring that the market offers?a good?choice of homes.??
The affordability adjustment used in the proposed standard method is based on the median house price to workplace-based earnings ratio, published annually by the Office for National Statistics.
The house price to workplace-based earnings ratio compares the median salary earnt in a local authority against the median house price in that same authority area. This ratio is used as people typically choose to live close to where they work – and therefore is a proxy for demand within the housing market.
Earnings data is taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) Release, which provides data on the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked by UK employees. This data does not cover the self-employed.
The proposals were out for consultation until 1 October 2020. Following consideration of the consultation responses received, the Government will publish a response in due course. The response will set out any decisions and any associated proposed implementation.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish a comparative assessment of his Department's housing targets and the Office for National Statistics projections of future household growth by each local planning authority area in England.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government does not set housing targets. It is for local planning authorities to determine how many homes they will plan for through the local plan making process. The national planning policy framework sets out that in doing this strategic plan making, authorities should use the standard method for assessing local housing need as the starting point in this process. The projections of future household growth are published by the Office of National Statistics and are available publicly online.