Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) existing supply and (b) future provision of social housing in Darlington constituency.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Data on social housing supply is not available at constituency level. New delivery of affordable housing by local authority, including Darlington, is available in Live Table 1008C available here Live tables on affordable housing supply.
Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.
Between 2010 and 2023 over 1,500 affordable homes have been delivered in in the Darlington local authority.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help support efforts to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness in Darlington constituency.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is investing nearly £2.4 billion across three years to enable local areas to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in England.
This includes over £3.8 million allocated to the North-East, including Darlington, from the Rough Sleeping Initiative over the three-year period 2022-2025, and over £600,000 from the Homelessness Prevention Grant between 2023 and 2025.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of enabling Homes England to use part of its budget for retrofitting homes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Homes England’s financial information can be found in the organisation’s Annual Reports and Financial Statements.
Policy relating to insulating and energy efficiency of existing housing stock is a matter for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of the Homes England budget was not spent in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Homes England’s financial information can be found in the organisation’s Annual Reports and Financial Statements.
Policy relating to insulating and energy efficiency of existing housing stock is a matter for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken to process first registrations of land at His Majesty’s Land Registry; and what steps he is taking to reduce the number of pending registrations.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
HM Land Registry (HMLR) publishes information each month about its latest processing times on GOV.UK here.
Applications to HMLR can be expedited free of charge if registration is needed urgently for financial (including remortgaging), legal or personal reasons. More than 95% of expedited cases are processed within 10 days.
HMLR recognises that it is not currently processing some non-urgent applications fast enough. Improving speed of service is the top priority for HMLR and it is addressing this urgently through a combination of recruitment, training, and automation. It also has specialist teams focussing on the oldest complex cases with a specific goal to reduce the processing times for these applications. These efforts have already seen a reduction in the overall age of applications with HMLR and it is committed to reducing waiting times further in the months ahead.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the requirement to apply for a lawful development certificate to install solar panels on the number of solar panels installed.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
There are existing permitted development rights which allow for installation of solar equipment on and within the curtilages of domestic and commercial premises without having to make a planning application. The rights are set out in Part 14 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, as amended.
There is no requirement under the regulations to seek a lawful development certificate from the local authority before installing solar panels. However, this is something that a homeowner may decide to do in order to obtain written confirmation that any such proposals are lawful for planning purposes.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the (a) format, (b) criteria and (c) bidding window for levelling up Round three will be published and timetabled.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 181062 on 26th April 2023.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of provisions in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 on the responsibilities of local authorities to help tackle domestic abuse; and whether her Department is taking steps to monitor the work of local authorities in this area.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 introduced new duties on local authorities which came into force on 1 October 2021 to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in safe accommodation. Backed by £125 million in both 2021/22 and 2022/23 and on 12 December 2022 we announced a further two years of government funding - £127.3 million and £129.7 million for the delivery of these duties in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
Under the duties local authorities are required to assess the local support needs of all victims and commission support to meet the identified needs in safe accommodation. Local authorities are required to report annually to my department on how they have delivered their duties. A Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation National Expert Steering Group, chaired by the Minister for Housing and Homelessness and co-chaired by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner has been set up to monitor delivery of the new duties. The Group will publish an annual report summarising progress in implementation of the new support in safe accommodation duties across England.
The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 also amended homelessness legislation to give those who are homeless as a result of being a victim of domestic abuse priority need for accommodation secured by the local authority. This change came into force in July 2021. Local authorities must provide temporary accommodation until the duty can be discharged through provision of settled accommodation. The Homelessness Code of Guidance sets out comprehensive guidance on providing homelessness services to people who have experienced, or are at risk of, domestic abuse.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) the rate of increase of baseline rents and (b) changes to costs in the construction sector on housing associations.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer to Question UIN 80923 on 15 November 2022.
We will publish a final Impact Assessment in due course.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential impact of nutrient neutrality on planning applications in Darlington.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed. On 18 November 2022, the Government laid an amendment to the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill that aims to drive down nutrient pollution in nutrient neutrality catchments; allowing us to deliver the homes that this country needs, whilst protecting our precious environment.