Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Written Statement of 12 December 2016, HCWS346, what plans he has to issue further guidance to planning authorities and Parish Councils on consideration of an absent five year land supply in Neighbourhood Plans.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Neighbourhood planning gives communities a powerful set of tools to shape their area. The Written Ministerial Statement of 12 December 2016 (HCWS346) introduced additional protection to neighbourhood plans where all of the following criteria apply:
•the written ministerial statement is less than 2 years old, or the neighbourhood plan been part of the development plan for 2 years or less;
•the neighbourhood plan allocates sites for housing; and
•the local planning authority can demonstrate a 3-year supply of deliverable housing sites against its 5 year housing requirement.
The Housing White Paper committed to take forward this important protection in the revised National Planning Policy Framework. Guidance for decision makers on interpreting the Written Ministerial Statement, in light of recent Court judgements, was published on 10 August 2017 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/neighbourhood-planning--2 (Paragraph: 083) and we will provide further clarification where necessary. Revised guidance will also set out more clearly how the five-year land supply should be calculated.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to simplify the process of amending Neighbourhood Plans.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017 (section 4) offers new flexibilities for the process of modifying neighbourhood plans. Regulations for this section of the Act will be laid before Parliament on 13 December 2017 and are due to come into force in the New Year, subject to Parliamentary approval.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to encourage the fitting of solar panels where appropriate to private sector new-build homes.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The regulations and national planning policy encourage the use of renewables without mandating any particular technology.
The energy performance requirements in the regulations do not prescribe the technologies, materials or fuels to be used, allowing builders the flexibility to innovate and select the most practical and cost-effective solutions in particular circumstances. These solutions could include solar panels, but they may not be appropriate for some types of buildings or locations.
The National Planning Policy Framework expects local planning authorities to have a positive strategy in place to promote energy from renewable and low carbon sources. The strategy should identify opportunities where development can draw its energy supply from renewable or low carbon energy supply systems. Authorities should also have policies in place to ensure that any adverse impacts, including cumulative impacts, from renewable energy developments are addressed satisfactorily.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on introducing flexible ticketing for part-time commuters.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer given on 11 September to Question UIN 8612.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to reform the way in which Neighbourhood Plans can be amended by (a) parish councils and (b) other sponsoring community groups; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Over 2,100 communities have started the process of creating or have created a neighbourhood plan since 2012. The Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017 will further strengthen neighbourhood planning, including reforms to make the process for neighbourhood planning groups to modify ‘made’ neighbourhood plans or orders proportionate to the changes proposed.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to audit local authorities to assess what proportion of funding raised specifically through the social care precept is spent on frontline social care.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Government is keen to ensure that any money raised by councils using the new flexibility is spent on adult social care. We were clear about this in the consultation document to the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement which was published 15 December which states:
“To ensure that councils are using income from the precept for adult social care, councils will be required to publish a description of their plans, including changing levels of spend on adult social care and other services. This must be signed off by the Chief Finance Officer (section 151 officer). Councils wishing to use the extra freedom to raise their precept by 3 per cent instead of 2 per cent in 2017-18 must also show how they plan to use this extra money to improve social care.”
Councils have also been required to publish their returns concerning the social care precept on their websites to ensure local accountability.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 September 2016 to Question 46112, in what proportion of those planning permissions where building has not yet commenced (a) a developer has an option to build or is otherwise working in partnership with the landowner, (b) a developer owns the land and (c) no developer is in place.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Department does not hold this information.
The Government is clear that where sites have planning permission they should move ahead as quickly as possible. That is why we are actively taking a number of steps to tackle some of the factors which can delay the start of development, including the measures in the Neighbourhood Planning Bill to improve the use of pre-commencement conditions.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2016 to Question 46626, on home ownership incentive schemes, what the value was of the equity loans included in the £4,090,595,000 figure given in that Answer.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The value of outstanding equity loans at 31 March 2016 is £4,090,595,000.
The original investment made by government in these outstanding equity loans was £3,949,289,000.
Further information is set out in the Homes and Communities Agency Annual Report and Financial Statements 2015-16 (Note 21) with further information about ‘fair value’ in Notes 1 and 31.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2016 to Question 46626, on home ownership incentive schemes, if he will estimate the amount of accumulated interest and other costs due to the Government included within the £4,090,595,000 figure given in that Answer.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The amount of accumulated interest and other costs due to the government included within the £4,090,595,000 figure is £nil, as interest and fees are paid as they fall due.
Further information on interest and fees is set out in the Help to Buy Equity Loan Buyers Guide at https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/Help-to-Buy-Buyers-Guide-Feb-160216.pdf
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the total estimated net present value was of all outstanding equity loan advances in UK residential property held by government departments on the latest date for which information is available.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) operates and administers a number of current and past equity loan and equity share schemes for the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The estimated fair value for all outstanding equity loans with HCA at end March 2016 is:
Help to Buy: Equity Loan £3,629,294,000
Other legacy home equity schemes £461,301,000
Total £4,090,595,000
The other legacy home equity schemes are: FirstBuy, HomeBuy Direct and First-Time Buyers’ Initiative.
This information is set out in the HCA Annual Report and Financial Statements 2015-16 (Note 21) with further information about ‘fair value’ in Notes 1 and 31.
The Ministry of Defence operated a scheme: Affordable Homes Ownership scheme (AFHOS) until March 2014. There are presently 259 live AFHOS loans with an initial value of £15.073 million. The net present value for this book is not estimated so this figure is the value of the equity at purchase.
The Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive also operate equity loan and shared schemes for home ownership, on which they can provide information.