Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich of 15 January 2021 on expanded polystyrene (EPS).
Answered by Christopher Pincher
My noble Friend, Lord Greenhalgh, responded to the hon Member's letter on 9 March.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich of 15 January 2021 on his constituent's application to the Building Safety Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The response was emailed to the Hon Member on Wednesday 24 February 2021.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2020 to Question 126087 and the Answer of 22 January 2021 to Question 137988, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich of 12 October 2020 on the approach of property insurers to mature trees in close proximity to homes that require underpinning to prevent or correct subsidence.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This correspondence has been transferred, as Her Majesty’s Treasury is best placed to respond.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the environmental effect of opening a new coal mine at the Woodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven; and what comparative assessment he has made of the environmental impacts of that mine and continuing to import coking coal for UK steel production.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In the decision of 6 January, the Secretary of State decided not to call in the planning application for the proposed West Cumbria Coal mine. In that decision, the Secretary of State carefully considered this case against his published policy on calling in planning applications, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 26 October 2012. Further representations to MHCLG when received are carefully considered.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made on the suitability of the coal that would be mined from the Woodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven for use in primary steel manufacturing in the UK.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The planning application for the proposed West Cumbria coalmine seeks permission for the winning and working of coking coal for use in steel manufacture only.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 5 October 2020 to Question 97550, if he will take steps to introduce a Tenant Loan Scheme similar to the Tenancy Saver Loans and Tenant Hardship Loan Fund introduced by the Welsh and Scottish Governments.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support to protect renters whose income has been affected throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notably, to help prevent people getting into financial hardship, we have increased the local housing allowance rate to the 30th percentile of local market rents in each area. The increased LHA rates will be maintained at the current levels in cash terms in 2021/22, even in areas where the 30th percentile of local rents has gone down. We have boosted the welfare system by billions of pounds, including increasing Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by up to £1,040 for the year.
In addition, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has offered support for businesses to pay staff salaries, enabling people to continue to pay their rent and has been extended until April 2021.
For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments are available. As announced at the spending round for 2020/21, there is already £180 million in DHPs for local authorities to distribute for supporting renters with housings costs in the private and social rented sectors. For 2021-22 the Government will make available £140 million in DHP funding, which takes account of the increased LHA rates.
We continue to closely monitor the ongoing effects of the pandemic on renters.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to extend unimplemented planning permissions with time limits for implementation which were due to lapse between 19 August 2020 and 31 March 2021 beyond 1 May 2021 with no requirement to obtain Additional Environmental Approval.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Business and Planning Act 2020 introduced measures to enable certain planning permissions and listed building consents in England which had lapsed or were due to lapse during 2020 to be extended to 1 May 2021.
These measures provide for the power to extend the eligibility date for permissions and the time period for implementation. This is being kept under review at this time.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich of 12 October 2020 on the approach of property insurers to mature trees in close proximity to homes that require underpinning to prevent or correct subsidence.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This correspondence has been transferred, as Her Majesty’s Treasury is best placed to respond.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the number of blocks of flats in the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency that did not meet the required building regulations at the time of their completion; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Information on high rise residential buildings with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations can be found in the monthly Building Safety Programme data release, available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/aluminium-composite-material-cladding#acm-remediation-data. Data is not published at parliamentary constituency level but local authority level data is available in Web Table 3.
For high rise residential buildings with non-ACM cladding systems, local authorities and housing associations are undergoing a data collection exercise as part of an ongoing programme to build a more complete picture of high-rise residential buildings and the variety of external wall systems in use.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what commitments have been made to fund the remediation of unsafe (a) aluminium composite material (ACM) and (b) non-ACM external wall systems at no cost to leaseholders by (i) Ballymore, (ii) Barratt, (iii) Bellway, (iv) Berkeley, (v) Bovis, (vi) Countryside, (vii) Crest Nicholson, (viii) Galliard, (ix) Persimmon, (x) Redrow, (xi) Taylor Wimpey and (xii) Durkan for those developments in which each retains a legal interest; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Protection for leaseholders from the costs of remediation is available from a number of sources, including Government funding, warranties and building owners and developers. The remediation of over half of privately owned high-rise residential buildings with unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding will be paid for by building owners and developers, or through warranty or insurance claims - without passing the cost to residents and leaseholders. Details of this can be found in Figure 6 of the Building Safety Programme: Monthly Data Release at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/934661/Building_Safety_Data_Release_October_2020.pdf . We expect building owners and developers to step up in a similar way for other kinds of unsafe cladding.