Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what differentiating powers she plans to provide to (a) unitary authorities and (b) mayors in (i) considering individual planning applications and (ii) developing local and spatial plans.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The English Devolution Bill will create in law the concept of a strategic authority, which will include all combined authorities and combined county authorities, both mayoral and non-mayoral, as well as the Greater London Authority.
The Bill will place a duty on all strategic authorities to produce a spatial development strategy. Strategic authorities with mayors will also receive development management powers like those enjoyed by the Mayor of London. This will include powers to ‘call in’ and determine applications of potential strategic importance and make Mayoral Development Orders.
Local authorities, including unitary authorities, will remain the local planning authorities for their areas and will continue to have a duty to produce a local plan and to determine planning applications.
The establishment of strategic authorities across England will be a gradual process. Our aim is to have a universal system of strategic planning in place by 2030, so the Planning & Infrastructure Bill will place a duty on all combined authorities and combined county authorities, both mayoral and non-mayoral, to produce a spatial development strategy.
Outside of these areas county councils and unitary authorities will also be required to produce a spatial development strategy, either individually or in defined groupings. In some instances, they may also be grouped with a non-mayoral combined authority or combined county authority. The Mayor of London will continue to produce a spatial development strategy for the capital.
The precise geographical extent of these groupings is yet to be determined, but the government believes that they should be based on the sensible geography criteria set out for agreeing devolution deals in the English Devolution White Paper, in anticipation of these groupings forming the basis for future strategic authorities.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 Department's press release entitled Pension megafunds could unlock £80 billion of investment as Chancellor takes radical action to drive economic growth, published on 13 November 2024, whether she plans to appoint a body that will be legally accountable for (a) investment decisions, (b) paying pensions and (c) acquiring contributions from councils for proposed amalgamated local authority pension funds.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The Government is consulting on proposals relating to asset pooling in the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) England and Wales, following extensive engagement with sector stakeholders including the LGA.
The proposals in the consultation do not include mandatory merging of funds, and so a) assets and liabilities b) paying pensions and c) acquiring contributions from councils would remain the responsibility of the administering authority. Administering authorities would remain responsible for setting an investment strategy, with its implementation delegated to the pools.
All pools would be FCA-regulated investment management companies, with partner administering authorities as sole shareholders. Boards of all pool companies would be required to have the skills and experience appropriate to the leadership of an investment management company, meeting the requirements for FCA authorisation.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 Department's press release entitled Pension megafunds could unlock £80 billion of investment as Chancellor takes radical action to drive economic growth, published on 13 November 2024, whether the assets and liabilities of amalgamated local authority pension funds will remain with councils or become part of the Government's accounts.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The Government is consulting on proposals relating to asset pooling in the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) England and Wales, following extensive engagement with sector stakeholders including the LGA.
The proposals in the consultation do not include mandatory merging of funds, and so a) assets and liabilities b) paying pensions and c) acquiring contributions from councils would remain the responsibility of the administering authority. Administering authorities would remain responsible for setting an investment strategy, with its implementation delegated to the pools.
All pools would be FCA-regulated investment management companies, with partner administering authorities as sole shareholders. Boards of all pool companies would be required to have the skills and experience appropriate to the leadership of an investment management company, meeting the requirements for FCA authorisation.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 Department's press release entitled Pension megafunds could unlock £80 billion of investment as Chancellor takes radical action to drive economic growth, published on 13 November 2024, who will be responsible for appointing trustees for new amalgamated pension funds.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The Government is consulting on proposals relating to asset pooling in the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) England and Wales, following extensive engagement with sector stakeholders including the LGA.
The proposals in the consultation do not include mandatory merging of funds, and so a) assets and liabilities b) paying pensions and c) acquiring contributions from councils would remain the responsibility of the administering authority. Administering authorities would remain responsible for setting an investment strategy, with its implementation delegated to the pools.
All pools would be FCA-regulated investment management companies, with partner administering authorities as sole shareholders. Boards of all pool companies would be required to have the skills and experience appropriate to the leadership of an investment management company, meeting the requirements for FCA authorisation.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the amalgamation of local government pension funds will be compulsory; whether pension funds will be able to choose which new fund to join; and whether she has had recent discussions with (a) the Local Government Association and (b) pension funds on her proposed changes.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The Government is consulting on proposals relating to asset pooling in the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) England and Wales, following extensive engagement with sector stakeholders including the LGA.
The proposals in the consultation do not include mandatory merging of funds, and so a) assets and liabilities b) paying pensions and c) acquiring contributions from councils would remain the responsibility of the administering authority. Administering authorities would remain responsible for setting an investment strategy, with its implementation delegated to the pools.
All pools would be FCA-regulated investment management companies, with partner administering authorities as sole shareholders. Boards of all pool companies would be required to have the skills and experience appropriate to the leadership of an investment management company, meeting the requirements for FCA authorisation.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 Cabinet colleagues on embedding circular design principles in the construction of 1.5million homes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has written to the Deputy Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretaries of State for Business and Trade, Energy Security and Net Zero and Transport and invited them to join a Small Ministerial Group on Circular Economy (CE-SMG).
This group will govern, join up and drive CE work across government departments to support work relating to the Government’s Growth and Clean Energy Missions and feed into the Industrial Strategy.
The National Model Design Code and National Design Guide, which support the National Planning Policy Framework, already encourages the implementation of sustainable construction that focuses on reducing embodied energy, embedding circular economy principles to reduce waste, designing for disassembly and exploring the remodel and reuse of buildings where possible, rather than rebuilding.
Our continued commitment to well-designed homes and places is further supported through proposed updates to the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help ensure that people living in new homes have access to well-designed green spaces.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
National planning policy and guidance recognise the importance of high quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity for the health and wellbeing of communities.
Our proposals to release ‘grey belt’ land for development will depend on meeting golden rules, ensuring that all new developments has accessible green space.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) putting the New Homes Quality Board on a statutory footing, (b) requiring developers to be members of the Board and (c) providing buyers of new homes with a right of redress.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to improving upon existing means of redress for purchasers of new build homes. We are currently considering the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recommendations in their recent Housebuilding Market Study, which included activating a statutory New Homes Ombudsman, and will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to bring in (a) licences for and (b) registration of property managing agents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to ensuring that those living in the rented and leasehold sectors are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents. The Government will set out its position on the regulation of letting, managing and estate agents in due course.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to prevent products manufactured by (a) Kingspan and (b) Celotex from being used in Government-funded contracts.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
The Prime Minister has been clear that the government will write to all companies found by the Inquiry to have been part of these horrific failings, as the first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts. This process is being led by the Minister for the Cabinet Office. Our work to review the Inquiry report and the companies named in it as having contributed to the failures is ongoing.
Grenfell was a terrible tragedy that should never have happened. We must learn from these lessons and that is why government is considering the report’s recommendations with the seriousness the tragedy deserves.