Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the Town Deal for Southport.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Throughout the development of the Southport Town Deal my officials have worked closely with Southport and followed robust processes to ensure proposals are ambitious and well-considered, and that projects can ultimately be delivered. This includes:
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 encourage private investment in coastal communities not covered by its policy on freeports.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
My department is committed to supporting coastal communities flourish, strengthening their appeal as places to live, work and visit.
From 2012 – 2022, my department delivered over £187 million throughout the UK through the Coastal Communities Fund. The Evaluation has recently been published, which showed the positive effects on the economy including stimulating job growth and prosperity. Since then, we have been busy to ensure coastal communities remain at the heart of our levelling up funds.
Of 101 towns, there are 22 coastal towns that are recipients of Towns Deals worth up to £25 million and coastal areas will benefit from over £673 million of investment (inclusive of successful Future High Streets Fund bids). In addition to this, the Levelling Up Fund offers investment opportunities for coastal communities to promote regeneration and build vital infrastructure. Both of these place-based interventions should boost private sector investment through the regeneration of high streets and town centres.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions his Department has had with local authorities on the potential merits of supporting maritime projects through the Levelling-Up and Shared Prosperity Funds.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The maritime sector is a crucial part of our heritage and modern economy. Officials from my department have consistently engaged with local authorities on the design and scope of both the Levelling Up Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).
While it is up to local authorities what they wish to support with their UKSPF allocation, both UKSPF and the Levelling Up Fund are able to support and benefit maritime organisations and projects across the UK.
My department is also forging ahead with delivering new Freeports across the UK - these are special areas centred on ports of all modes that will enjoy access to a generous suite of tax incentives, customs facilitations, public funding, and government support, helping them harness the power of private investment to spread jobs and prosperity.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 give residents greater say over local developments.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill includes a number of measures to give residents a more effective voice, including more accessible and locally-relevant plans, mandatory design codes, street votes and digital powers which will transform the way that information can be accessed. Comments on planning applications will continue to be taken into account as part of the decision-making process.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the role of early intervention in achieving the Government's levelling up agenda.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
A central aim of the levelling up agenda is to address the unacceptable fact that, to a large extent, children's life chances are determined by where in the UK they grow up, and the Levelling Up White Paper confirmed the importance placed by the Government on early intervention. The Government has announced a £1 billion package to support vulnerable families, including funding for Family Hubs, investment in the Holiday, Activity, and Food programme and funding so that the Supporting Families programme can work with up to 300,000 more families.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 move civil service jobs to the North West.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The number of roles within my Department which are based in the North West has grown from 103 in March 2020 to 180 in April 2002, an increase of 75%.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 plans to take to ensure that people with disabilities are able to obtain Disabled Facilities Grants without delay.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to implement the recommendations of the 2016 Casey Review.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Responding to the Casey Review the Government published the Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper in March 2018, inviting views on our vision for building strong integrated communities where people - whatever their background - live, work, learn and socialise together, based on shared rights, responsibilities and opportunities
In February 2019, the Integrated Communities Action Plan was published alongside the Government's response to the consultation on the Green Paper. The Action Plan built upon the proposals set out in the Green Paper to create socially and economically stronger, more confident and integrated communities - supporting people to progress and make the most of the opportunities of living in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the impact on residents of living on an unadopted road.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Where a road is not adopted by the local authority the responsibility for maintaining the road rests with third parties, which are usually the owners of properties that front onto it.
Estate rentcharges are one way that residents cover the unadopted road’s maintenance. However, it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs. The Government is committed to protecting homeowners from abuse and poor service. That is why the Government intends to legislate to ensure that the charges that resident freeholders pay towards the maintenance of communal areas, including unadopted roads, are fairer and more transparent.
To this effect, we will give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges, as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services.
In addition, we will ensure that where a freeholder pays a rentcharge, the rentcharge owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge remains unpaid for a short period of time. We will translate these measures into law when parliamentary time allows.
We will also consider the option of introducing a Right to Manage for residential freeholders once we have considered the Law Commission's report and recommendations on changes to the Right to Manage for leaseholders.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of residential developments taking place on green belt land.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This Government has a manifesto commitment to protect and enhance the Green Belt. Our National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that a local authority can take development land out of Green Belt only in exceptional circumstances, through the local plan process, and only if it can demonstrate that it has explored all other reasonable options.
To reduce pressures on Green Belt land, the Government is investing significant amounts in re-using and regenerating brownfield sites. We have set up the £4.35 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund; the £4.95 billion Home Building Fund; the £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund; and the £75 million Brownfield Land Release Fund. At Autumn Budget 2021 the Chancellor announced a further £300 million of grant funding for Mayoral Combined Authorities and local authorities to unlock smaller brownfield sites.