Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what annual budget Lancaster City Council is provided by his Department for the maintenance and security of properties in the Chatsworth Gardens housing project.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Lancaster City Council was awarded £1.9 million in May 2012 to bring 110 empty properties back into use in Morecambe’s West End. Lancaster City Council is responsible for the use of that funding and the assets acquired. Information on the current value of the assets and the annual maintenance budget is not centrally held.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what funds from his Department, including legal fees, have been paid by Lancaster City Council for the purchase of privately owned properties in the West End of Morecambe during the Chatsworth Gardens project; and what the current value of these assets is.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Lancaster City Council was awarded £1.9 million in May 2012 to bring 110 empty properties back into use in Morecambe’s West End. Lancaster City Council is responsible for the use of that funding and the assets acquired. Information on the current value of the assets and the annual maintenance budget is not centrally held.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an estimate of the council tax forgone as a result of houses being purchased by Lancaster City Council for the Chatsworth Gardens project and remaining empty.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department does not collect data on the level of council tax charged to empty properties by type of owner/occupier.
Unoccupied and substantially unfurnished properties, not entitled to a statutory council tax exemption, will be charged council tax at a level set out in the billing authority determination made under Section 11A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people have (a) bought a home for the first time and (b) made mortgage applications in Lancaster district since 2010.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
My Department does not hold this information.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders does publish some information on the number of first time buyers and mortgage approvals at a national level.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new houses are (a) being built and (b) projected to be built in the next 12 months in Lancaster district.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Quarterly statistics on house building starts and completions up to September 2014 in each local authority district, including Lancaster, are published in the Department's live table 253a
at:
http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
Figures are not available centrally on the projected numbers to be built in Lancaster.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people in Lancaster district live in private rented accommodation.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department does not hold data on the number of people in privately rented properties by local authority district, including Lancaster. Information is available from the Population Census 2011 and shows the number of households and dwellings in the private rented sector at March 2011. This is available at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/dc4402ew
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/search/index.html?newquery=ct0259
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much additional revenue was raised by rises in council tax, including precepts by Lancashire County Council in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15 to date.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
In 2013-14, Lancashire County Council reduced its council tax precept. They received a council tax freeze grant worth £4.3 million a year from the Government, which has been incorporated into the baseline.
In 2014-15, the County Council increased its council tax, raising an additional £7.2 million in revenue. However, they lost out on the offer of £4.3 million a year of council tax freeze grant funding.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will estimate how much money his Department has spent in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency since May 2010.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The information is not centrally held in the form requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Funding is generally not allocated by Parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to Lancaster City Council's Local Plan for Lancaster District 2011-2031: Strategic Options for Land Allocations, what assessment his Department has made of the logistics of providing the services for the 5,000 new homes in the rural area of the Lune Valley that would be required under Option 5 of that plan.
Answered by Nick Boles
We have not made any specific assessment; the drafting of a Local Plan is a matter for the local council. Planning guidance issued on 6 March is clear that infrastructure requirements must be considered by councils in plan making when they assess the suitability of sites.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support his Department has provided to Lancaster City Council to ensure affordable homes are built in rural areas in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
There will be 228 affordable homes delivered in Lancaster area as a result of £6.9 million of government funding through the 2011 to 2015 Affordable Homes Programme of which 27 homes are in rural areas (defined as settlements with populations of less than 3,000 people).
In 2011-12, half of the affordable homes built outside London were in rural local authorities and we have delivered over 5,000 affordable homes in the smallest rural communities (under 3,000 people) in the first two years of the current programme.
The Homes and Communities Agency's funding prospectus for the 2015-18 Affordable Homes Programme sets out how the Agency will continue to pay particular attention to the importance of delivery in rural areas in providing funding. The work of the Agency is also supported by a network of rural champions. The National Planning Policy Framework and Rural Exception Sites also help to address the housing needs of rural communities.