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Written Question
Planning Permission
Monday 11th December 2023

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to announce funding levels for local planning authorities to help tackle planning backlogs.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

Local councils are responsible for ensuring that they build skills pipelines in their area to discharge their responsibilities. We recognise, however, that there have been challenges in recent years in plan and so, on a temporary basis, the Government is providing additional funds.

The £24 million Planning Skills Delivery Fund will help local authorities to recruit, retain and upskill planners to build a more sustainable planning system for the benefit of communities by helping local planning authorities clear planning backlogs and get the skills in place that they need to respond to changes in the planning system. This has been supplemented at Autumn Statement by an additional £5 million to clear the planning applications backlog.

We will announce the successful local authorities who applied for funding as part of the year one application process shortly.


Written Question
Right to Buy Scheme: Housing Associations
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the extension of the right to buy for housing association tenants will be brought into effect.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Government remains committed to the Right to Buy, which since 1980 has enabled over two million social housing tenants to become homeowners.

Any future announcements will be set out in the usual way.


Written Question
Leasehold: Reform
Monday 13th March 2023

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

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 implement the recommendations of the report by the Law Commission entitled Leasehold home ownership: buying your freehold or extending your lease, published on 21 July 2020; and whether he plans to review the calculation relating to the lease extension premium

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Government has committed to making enfranchisement cheaper for leaseholders by reforming the process of valuation they must follow to calculate the cost of extending their lease or buying their freehold. We will abolish marriage value, cap ground rents in the calculation, prescribe the rates to be used and introduce an online calculator.

On 11 January 2022, the Government launched a consultation on a number of recommendations made by the Law Commission aimed at broadening the rights of leaseholders, and reinvigorating commonhold.

The consultation closed on 22 February 2022 and we received over 2000 responses. We are currently analysing the feedback and we will provide a response in due course.


Written Question
Right to Buy Scheme: Housing Associations
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

What progress he has made on enabling housing association tenants to purchase their homes.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Our overall priority as a government is to ensure that more people become home owners, and more people live in secure and safe accommodation whatever their tenancy.

Right to Buy has helped over 2 million tenants buy homes since 1980. We will be working closely with the Housing Associating sector on the approach to these schemes and will announce any developments in due course.


Written Question
Council Tax
Tuesday 23rd March 2021

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the (a) cash and (b) percentage change was in the Band D precept for the Greater London Authority in (i) real and (ii) cash terms between (A) 2009-10 and 2016-17 and (B) 2017-18 and 2020-21.

Answered by Eddie Hughes

The Greater London Authority precept charged in the 32 London boroughs decreased by £33.82 (10.9%) between 2009-10 and 2016-17; a real terms (CPI) decrease of £71.81 (23.2%). Between 2017-18 and 2020-21, it increased by £52.05 (18.6%); a real terms (CPI) increase of £31.10 (13.2%).


Written Question
Council Tax
Tuesday 16th March 2021

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of council tax in the (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2010-11 financial years by local authority area.

Answered by Eddie Hughes

Based on the latest OBR forecasts, the average council tax bill in England in 2021/22 would be 1.7% lower in real terms (RPI) than in 2010/11.


Written Question
Rented Housing: Coronavirus
Monday 9th November 2020

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps his Department has taken to support renters; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a (a) compulsory and (b) permanent ban on rental increases in (i) private, (ii) public and (iii) shared ownership housing after the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Government has no plans to ban rent increases and we have put in place an unprecedented package of support to protect renters during this period.

We have legislated to increase notice periods to 6 months in all but the most serious circumstances and bailiffs have been asked not to enforce evictions across England whilst the new, toughened national restrictions apply from 5 November. The only exceptions to this will be the most egregious cases, including cases of illegal occupation, fraud, where tenants have demonstrated anti-social behaviour or are the perpetrator of domestic abuse in social housing and where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant. We also intend to introduce an exemption for extreme pre-Covid rent arrears and will provide more detail in due course.

Together with the pause on evictions starting in December, this means that evictions will not be enforced in England until 11 January at the earliest, except in the most serious circumstances.

These measures build on the Government’s major economic package of support to help renters continue to meet their housing costs, including the Chancellor’s recent announcement to extend the Job Retention Scheme to March 2021 .

We have also strengthened the welfare safety-net with an over £9 billion boost to the welfare system, which includes an extra £1 billion to increase Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates so that they cover the lowest 30 per cent of market rents. For renters who require additional support, there is also an existing £180 million of Government funding for Discretionary Housing Payments made available this year, an increase of £40 million from last year, which is for councils to distribute to support renters needing additional help.


Written Question
Second Homes
Monday 9th March 2020

Asked by: Duncan Baker (Conservative - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to limit second home ownership.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Government has introduced a series of measures to help mitigate second home ownership. In 2013 the Government removed the requirement for local authorities to offer a discount on second homes enabling them to charge the full rate of council tax. Additionally, in April 2016, the Government introduced a 3 per cent higher rate of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for those purchasing additional properties.