Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Adams Excerpts

Monday 18th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)]

4. What steps he is taking to provide people who have recently been granted asylum with support for housing and community integration.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Nigel Adams)]

On 8 June, the Department announced £1.75 million to help new refugees by funding 35 offices in 19 areas of England with some of the highest numbers of asylum seekers. This will support people granted asylum into housing, learning and work. The Department is very keen to share this learning widely, including with the devolved Administrations.

[Tommy Sheppard]

The Government’s consultation report, “Integrated Communities”, said that the Government will

“work with civil society and others to increase the integration support available to those recognised as refugees after arrival in the UK.”

What specific measures are being taken to ensure that newly recognised refugees get the same support as resettled refugees?

[Nigel Adams]

Funding for the pilot programmes is drawn from the controlling migration fund, which has no remit to finance the devolved Administrations, as funding is devolved in this area. The pilot programmes are now recruiting staff and getting their programmes up and running. The pilots will run for two years. They are funded in the first year by my Department and in the second year by the council itself.

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[Mr Ranil Jayawardena (North East Hampshire) (Con)]

8. What steps his Department plans to take to enable local authorities to prioritise brownfield regeneration.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Nigel Adams)]

This Government are continuing to identify ways to ensure that local authorities make full and efficient use of brownfield land, including through changing the national planning policy framework, supporting the reuse of buildings through permitted development rights, and requiring every authority to publish and maintain a register of brownfield land suitable for housing.

[Mr Jayawardena]

I thank my hon. Friend for that answer, but what progress has been made in giving Homes England the powers and resources it needs to acquire sites in fragmented ownership in order to deliver regeneration for our communities?

[Nigel Adams]

My hon. Friend is well known for his work in ensuring that brownfield land is prioritised for development. The Government are currently working up the details of a new £1.1 billion land assembly fund to enable Homes England to work alongside private developers to develop strategic sites, including new settlements and urban regeneration schemes. Homes England is also encouraged to use its powers of compulsory purchase, where necessary, to deliver community regeneration.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

18. Where local authorities have a shortage of brownfield sites, will they be exempt from the requirement under the new national plan proposals, and will the Secretary of State reserve the power to call in such a decision?

[Nigel Adams]

The Government do not have the ability to force local authorities to build on brownfield sites. I am sure we can write to the hon. Gentleman to get specific details of the needs of his local authority area.

[Mary Robinson (Cheadle) (Con)]

20. With former offices currently being converted into high-quality apartments in Cheadle Hulme, it is clear that first-class housing can be built using existing brownfield land and through office redevelopments. Does the Minister agree that district centres can be revitalised with permitted developments that provide much needed local town centre homes?

[Nigel Adams]

Again, my hon. Friend is a fantastic champion for her local area. It is very important that her local authority continues, with the Government, to identify ways to increase the take-up of these sites, especially for new homes, and to ensure that suitable brownfield land is prioritised for development.

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

Recent figures from the Campaign to Protect Rural England show that the amount of farmland, forest, gardens and greenfield land lost to development each year has increased by 58% over the past four years. What are the Government going to do to better protect our vital green spaces and redevelop our brownfield sites, which are so urgently in need of regeneration?

[Nigel Adams]

The hon. Lady makes a very important point. She will no doubt be aware of the protections in the NPPF to ensure that green-belt and greenfield sites are protected. I encourage all right hon. and hon. Members to remind their local authorities that there are protections in that policy framework.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

As the Minister will know, I recently wrote to the Secretary of State to make a strong case for calling in a decision made by Labour-controlled Bradford Council to build 500 houses on the green belt in Burley in Wharfedale in my constituency. Given that Bradford’s Telegraph & Argus has reported today that Bradford Council is taking out of the plan a brownfield site in the city centre where more than 600 houses would have been built so that it can be used as a car park until at least 2024, will the Minister confirm that there can clearly not be “exceptional circumstances” to justify building 500 houses on the green belt in Burley in Wharfedale?

[Nigel Adams]

I am afraid that I have not read this morning’s Telegraph & Argus and seen that particular news; I shall try to get a copy by the end of today. I am sure that my hon. Friend realises that I cannot comment specifically on such a case. I understand that my colleague the Minister for Housing will be writing to him in very short order.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

9. What progress the Government have made on the delivery of the northern powerhouse.

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[Laura Smith (Crewe and Nantwich) (Lab)]

Why is the Secretary of State pressing ahead with changes in funding for homelessness hostels and other supported housing which charities in my constituency, such as the YMCA, have said could threaten their vital services?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Nigel Adams)]

As the hon. Lady will know, the Government have been consulting on that very issue. We are absolutely committed to reducing homelessness, and we will be able to provide further information in due course.

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

T9. Will the Minister provide an update on the Housing First pilots?

[James Brokenshire]

rose—

[Nigel Adams]

No, it is me. Up and down—you have to be quick.

On 9 May the Secretary of State announced the allocation of funds for the £28 million Housing First pilots, which will be in Greater Manchester, the Liverpool city region and the west midlands. Plans to measure the impact and value for money of the approach are also well under way, and the first beneficiaries of the pilots will be housed in the autumn.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

The Government are currently consulting on sites for Traveller families. Rather than simply looking at more enforcement, which police chiefs and others say will not work, what positive solutions is the Minister considering, and will he meet the all-party parliamentary group for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma to discuss some of those positive alternatives?

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[John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

The music industry, clubgoers, musicians and the Musicians Union all welcome the inclusion of the Agent of Change principle in the Department’s proposed revision of planning regulation. When will the Minister actually introduce that much-welcomed and much-needed change?

[Nigel Adams]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the fabulous work he has done, alongside UK Music and others interested in this subject, to bring about this change in policy in what is a very important area. The Government will be responding very shortly.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

It is really good to see the northern powerhouse Minister on the Treasury Bench because in recent weeks there was a view that he had gone out of service when we were facing the rail chaos around the new timetabling, so could he tell us exactly what he has been doing to improve connectivity between the east and west of the north?