Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 2.20 of the Budget Policy Paper of March 2020, what progress has been made on the examination and development of a case for up to four new Development Corporations in the OxCam Arc.
Answered by Simon Clarke
At Budget 2020, Government outlined plans to explore the case for up to four new Development Corporations at Bedford, St Neots/Sandy, Cambourne and Cambridge. Since the Budget my Department has engaged local partners on this work, and further detailed examination and development will continue in 2020 and 2021.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the level of housing need in the Oxford Cambridge Arc.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Supporting housing delivery in the right places is crucial to delivering sustainable growth across the Arc. The standard method for calculating local housing need enables all communities to have a clear, transparent understanding of the minimum number of homes they need. It is for local authorities across the Arc to calculate their local housing need figure based on the standard method set out by my Department
At Budget 2020 the Government also announced it will work with local communities and partners, to deliver a spatial framework for the Arc to make sure future growth is planned over the long-term in a sustainable and coordinated way.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what requirements the Government has placed on the provision of GP services ahead of new housing developments in the Oxford Cambridge Arc.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The National Planning Policy Framework states that plans should set out the contributions expected from development. This should include setting out the levels and types of infrastructure required, such as that needed for health. Such policies should not undermine the deliverability of the plan
Local authorities are able to use contributions from developers to support the delivery of local infrastructure, including GPs’ surgeries.