Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what fiscal steps she is taking to help reduce the number of empty retail units on high streets in rural areas.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is determined to combat the blight of vacancy on high streets. On 2nd December, new High Street Rental Auction powers came into force enabling local authorities to tackle persistent vacancy, implementation is supported by over £1 million of funding.
Retail businesses across the country will also benefit from reforms to the business rates system including an extension to the retail, hospitality and leisure rate relief for one year, at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and the freezing of the small business multiplier for 2025/26.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to maximise the use of developer's contributions to improve community infrastructure in rural areas.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is also committed to strengthening the existing system of developer contributions to ensure new developments provide necessary affordable homes and infrastructure, including in rural areas. Further details will be set out in due course.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December also supports the increased provision and modernisation of various types of public infrastructure, including in rural areas.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of extending the UK Shared Prosperity Fund on (a) small business, (b) farmers and (c) community infrastructure.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Autumn Budget announced that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), for which the previous government made no plans beyond March 2025, will be extended for 2025-26 at a reduced level of £900 million. This transitional arrangement will allow places to continue investing in local growth in advance of wider funding reform. It will ensure stability and flexibility for areas to deliver the most important local projects, which can include help for small businesses and community projects where relevant.
We are committed to evaluating the impacts of the UKSPF. The UKSPF evaluation strategy is published online and sets out the approach to evaluation at programme, intervention and place level. The department is committed to publishing evaluation findings on an ongoing basis as they are available.
The Rural England Prosperity Fund is delivered alongside UKSPF to help rural communities and businesses, including farm businesses. Its evaluation is also now underway.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to publish a private parking code of practice.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 places a duty on the Government to prepare a code of practice containing guidance about the operation and management of private parking facilities.
The Government is determined to drive up standards in the private parking sector and we will announce our plans for the new Code in due course.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to respond formally to the Electoral Commission's report entitled Voter ID at the 2024 UK general election.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Yes – the Government intends to respond to the Electoral Commission’s interim report on the UK Parliamentary General Election. We understand that the Commission will publish their full report later this year, and we intend to respond to both reports together in due course.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on decreasing the number of properties required to trigger the flooding recovery framework.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Flood Recovery Framework provides swift, responsive financial support packages to communities, households and businesses suffering the impacts of severe flooding with schemes from MHCLG, DBT and Defra. A review of the Framework is currently underway and we expect this to report on progress later in the autumn.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will include (a) shotgun licences and (b) veteran ID cards as accepted forms of voter identification in (i) general and (ii) local elections.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 1157 on 30 July 2024.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce the number of empty retail units on high streets in (a) Ludlow and Bridgnorth and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government is fully committed to rejuvenating our high streets and supporting the businesses and communities that make our town centres successful.
Through the English Devolution Bill we will introduce a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets which will help this Government safeguard our high streets. This measure will empower local communities to reclaim and revitalise empty shops, pubs, and community spaces, helping to revamp our high streets and eliminate the blight of vacant premises.
Ludlow and Bridgnorth have access to a portion of Shropshire Council's Core UKSPF allocation totalling £10,845,217 and, under the UKSPF delegated delivery model, may choose to invest in rejuvenating high streets through a number of interventions under the ‘communities and place' investment priority. As such, £95,000 of this funding has been allocated to support a community facility to support local artisan makers and producers on Bridgnorth high street which had previously stood empty.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to support the creation of new (a) pocket parks and (b) other recreational spaces.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
The Levelling Up White Paper is clear that green infrastructure is a key component to levelling up, as so many levelling up goals are connected to green places that local people can be proud of.
Which is why my department has partnered with DEFRA to deliver the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund to support over 100 new or significantly refurbished green spaces across the UK. This is not another round of funding the Pocket Parks programme. This scheme will be far broader; it will support councils through revenue and capital funding and will focus on the regeneration of green space as part of our Levelling Up agenda. In England, grants will be given to, and administered by, local authorities who will be notified of their eligibility when the Fund launches.
My department has also set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) that planning policies should be based on robust and up-to-date assessments of the need for open space, sport and recreation facilities and opportunities for new provision. The NPPF is clear that open space should not be built on unless there is clear evidence it is no longer required, or equivalent or better provision is secured. Communities can designate land for Local Green Space through local and neighbourhood plans, ensuring green areas of particular importance to them are protected.
My department have also set out in the National Design Guide that well-designed places have a hierarchy of spaces that range from large and strategic to small and local spaces, including parks, squares, greens and pocket parks. The National Model Design Code sets out that design codes can specify levels of green infrastructure provision and guidance on design within new development, and cover everything from country parks to green roofs and street trees.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress he has made on the creation of affordable homes in the (a) West Midlands and (b) UK.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Since 2010, we have delivered over 574,100 new affordable homes, including over 403,400 affordable homes for rent, of which over 154,600 homes for social rent. Between 2010 and 2021 over 57,000 affordable homes were built in the West Midlands, including over 42,985 affordable homes for rent, of which 18,098 were for social rent
Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow. Around half the homes will be for affordable and social rent and we will deliver more than double the amount of social rent compared to the current programme, with around 32,000 social rent homes due to be delivered
In August 2021 we announced £8.6 billion of allocations for this programme, which will deliver 119,000 affordable homes. £568 million of this will be going to the West Midlands to deliver over 10,500 affordable homes.