Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Planning for the Future White Paper published in August 2020, whether his Department has produced an impact assessment for rural businesses and communities that are located in a protected zone.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Planning White Paper consultation closed on 29 October 2020, and we are considering the responses. My department is undertaking further policy development on the individual elements of the proposals. No decisions have been made on the details at this stage, and economic effects will be appropriately analysed before decisions are made and policy or legislation introduced.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Planning for the Future White Paper published in August 2020, what procedure he proposes will be used to define whether open countryside is classified as protected under the new zoning arrangements.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is clear about the importance of retaining our valued open countryside and greenfield land. The National Planning Policy Framework expects local authorities to recognise the character and beauty of the countryside and the benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services, including woodland and our best and most versatile farmland. Under the consultation proposals in Planning for the Future , it would still be for each local authority, in consultation with the community, to use the local plan process to plan for and ensure the protection of any countryside. The Government will publish a response to the consultation, including next steps.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to extend beyond 2022 the grant funding available to parish councils to formulate neighbourhood plans.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The ‘Planning for the Future’ consultation published in August 2020 set out that Government is committed to retaining neighbourhood planning and wants to encourage the continued use of neighbourhood plans, and to help spread their use further, particularly in towns and cities.
Our current £34.5 million neighbourhood planning support programme runs until 2022 and we will confirm future funding arrangements at a later date.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been allocated to each local authority through the coronavirus Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall
On 1 May, government announced up to £617 million available in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) to support certain small businesses that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). As set out in the Grant Funding Schemes guidance, a local authority’s funding allocation for the LADGF equates to 5 per cent of the value of the hereditaments they have identified as in scope of the SBGF and RHLGF in their area: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses
Local authorities have now closed their LADGF schemes and are in the process of making final payments to businesses. These must be complete by 30 September. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will contact local authorities shortly to arrange the return of any unspent funds.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to ensure that unspent monies allocated to the coronavirus Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund are (a) re-distributed under that scheme or (b) returned to central Government.
Answered by Luke Hall
On 1 May, government announced up to £617 million available in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) to support certain small businesses that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). As set out in the Grant Funding Schemes guidance, a local authority’s funding allocation for the LADGF equates to 5 per cent of the value of the hereditaments they have identified as in scope of the SBGF and RHLGF in their area: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses
Local authorities have now closed their LADGF schemes and are in the process of making final payments to businesses. These must be complete by 30 September. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will contact local authorities shortly to arrange the return of any unspent funds.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of local authorities with excess funding under Phase 1 of the Coronavirus local authority discretionary grants scheme scheme (a) kept all their criteria unaltered for subsequent phases and (b) amended the criteria to widen eligibility for subsequent phases of that scheme.
Answered by Luke Hall
On 1 May, Government announced up to £617 million available in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund to support certain small businesses that are not liable for business rates or rates relief and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund.
Local authorities were responsible for defining precise eligibility for the scheme in their area, subject to businesses meeting the national eligibility criteria set out in the guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding .
We do not receive management information from local authorities on local scheme eligibility criteria over the lifetime of the Discretionary Grants Fund.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of housing affordability in (a) Cambridge city, (b) Cambridgeshire, (c) Bedfordshire, (d) Milton Keynes, (d) Oxfordshire and (e) Oxford.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government planning framework guidance sets out that local planning authorities should objectively assess and evidence their full housing needs, working with neighbouring authorities where housing market areas cross administrative boundaries.
The assessment should address the need for all types of housing, including affordable housing, and identify the scale and mix of housing, and the range of tenures that the local population is likely to need over the plan period. It is for the local authorities and housing associations as registered providers (landlords) to decide what types of housing stock they want to deliver.
In order to plan properly, local authorities need to properly understand how many homes they need to build in their area. It is for local areas to make evidence-based decisions on the total number and type of homes needed in their area as part of their plan-making process
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of dwellings have a valid Energy Performance Certificate.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 31 March 2020, the published quarterly statistics recorded a total of 20,485,644 Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) for dwellings in England and Wales. This information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-energy-performance-of-buildings-certificates
The published data may contain more than one EPC for a property where multiple assessments have been undertaken and no estimate has been made of the proportion of dwellings in England and Wales with a valid EPC.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many dwellings have a valid Energy Performance Certificate at each rating level in each local authority area as at 15 July 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 30 April 2020, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published quarterly statistics which recorded a total of 20,485,644 Energy Performance Certificates for dwellings in England and Wales. Table LA1 gives a further breakdown of domestic Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for all dwellings in each local authority, by energy efficiency rating. This information is available at:
The current publication provides statistics up to the end of the first quarter of 2020.
Subsequent statistical releases covering the second and third quarters of 2020 will be published at the end of July and October, respectively. These releases will be available via the same link as above.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the average cost of upgrading a dwelling from Energy Performance Certificate (a) Band F to Band D, (b) Band E to Band D and (c) Band D to Band C.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The department has not modelled estimates for the average cost of upgrading dwellings from Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band F to Band D, Band E to Band D and Band D to Band C.
The average notional cost for implementing all recommended energy efficiency measures in F or G band dwellings was £26,891.
The average notional cost for implementing all recommended energy efficiency measures in A to E band dwellings was £13,347.