Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

346925

registered interest
date	27/05/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Local Government: Tees Valley
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on creating a Tees Valley combined authority; and whether an elected mayor is a pre-condition for any such authority.
tabling member constituency	Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland
tabling member printed	Tom Blenkinsop
uin	80
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/06/2015 answer text <p>The five councils in the Tees Valley have proposed a combined authority and we are now carefully considering the proposals. An elected mayor is not a pre-condition for a combined authority. My rt. hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been clear that the transfer of major power to a city will only happen to those cities who have a metro mayor.</p> answering member constituency Stockton South answering member printed James Wharton question first answered 01/06/2015 15:52:50 answering member 4123 label Biography information for Lord Wharton of Yarm
tabling member	4037 label Biography information for Tom Blenkinsop

347155

registered interest
date	27/05/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Housing Starts: Kingston upon Hull
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new housing starts there have been in Hull local authority area in the last 10 years; and how many such housing starts have been of social housing.
tabling member constituency	Kingston upon Hull North
tabling member printed	Diana Johnson
uin	268
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/06/2015 answer text <p>Statistics on the number of new housing starts in each local authority area in England are published by the Department in Live Table 253 which is available at the following link;<br><br>https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building.</p><p>These figures are derived from records kept for building control purposes. It is sometimes difficult for data providers to identify whether a dwelling is being built for a Registered Social Landlord or for a private developer. This may lead to an understatement of Registered Social Landlord starts recorded in these tables. For this reason the Department provides statistics on the number of additional social rented homes provided by local authority area. These statistics are published by the Department in Live Table 1006 which is available at the following link;<br><br>https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply.</p> answering member constituency Great Yarmouth answering member printed Brandon Lewis question first answered 02/06/2015 14:40:17 answering member 4009 label Biography information for Sir Brandon Lewis
tabling member	1533 label Biography information for Dame Diana Johnson

229345

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Parks
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the National Trust on the preservation of public parks.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	228925
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>Details of Ministers’ meetings with external organisations are published on-line as part of our transparency agenda. They are available at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-communities-and-local-government&amp;publication_type=transparency-data" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-communities-and-local-government&amp;publication_type=transparency-data</a><br><br></p><p> </p><p>Through the Community Right to Bid, introduced as part of the Localism Act 2011, communities and local groups can protect local assets, such as parks, playing fields and allotments, by nominating them to be listed by the local authority as an Asset of Community Value. If the listed asset comes up for sale, local community groups can ‘pause’ the sale for a period of time in order to raise the finance to make a bid to buy it.</p><p> </p><p>In February, the Department held a green spaces seminar to explore barriers to pursuing innovative solutions to protecting green spaces and to consider what actions central government might usefully take to help remove some of these. The National Trust attended this seminar and presented the approach they are exploring in partnership with Sheffield City Council to create an endowment fund for the city’s parks. This work is being pursued as part of the £1 million Rethinking Parks project initiated by Nesta, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery.</p> answering member constituency Bristol West answering member printed Stephen Williams question first answered 26/03/2015 08:50:59 answering member 1492 label Biography information for Stephen Williams
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

229346

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Planning Permission
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the performance of his Department against targets for the processing of new planning applications.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	228910
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>Planning law sets out the statutory time period for determining a planning application as 13 weeks for a major application and 8 weeks for a minor application (unless an Environmental Impact Assessment is required, in which case the statutory period is 16 weeks) – unless a longer period has been agreed in writing with the applicant.</p><p> </p><p>The Government's live tables p151 and p152 set out local planning authorities' speed and quality of decision-taking against these statutory timeframes, for major applications. The Government has also recently published data on local planning authorities' timeliness in determining minor applications in live tables p153 and p154. The live tables are available at <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-planning-application-statistics" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-planning-application-statistics</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Our reforms to simplify and speed-up the application process, and to deal with the few cases where planning authorities are under-performing, are having a positive effect on decision times. For example 77% of major applications were determined on time in October to December 2014, compared with 57% in July to September 2012.</p> answering member constituency Great Yarmouth answering member printed Brandon Lewis question first answered 26/03/2015 15:56:31 answering member 4009 label Biography information for Sir Brandon Lewis
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

229347

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Planning Permission
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average length of time was for a decision to be made on a planning application in each quarter since 2013.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	228939
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>The Government collects quarterly data on planning application decision times by local planning authorities, broken down by six time bands. This information is accessible at live table P120.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has radically reformed the planning system to ensure that it operates efficiently in delivering badly needed sustainable development. Decision taking times have substantially improved: in the final quarter of 2012, 56% of major applications were determined on time, and following our changes to speed up and simplify processes by the final quarter of 2014 this had risen to 77%.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Great Yarmouth answering member printed Brandon Lewis question first answered 26/03/2015 14:18:30 answering member 4009 label Biography information for Sir Brandon Lewis
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

229348

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Research
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Written Statement of 20 March 2015, HCWS 438, on unpublished research reports commissioned by the last Administration, what the evidential basis is for the assertion that his Department commissions research better than did previous administrations.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Mr David Blunkett
uin	228868
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>Since 2010 the Department’s processes for commissioning research from external organisations have been strengthened. All research proposals must meet a set of criteria agreed with Ministers before they can go to tender. These are:</p><ol><li>Is the project endorsed by Ministers or senior officials or is the proposal something the Department needs to or is reasonably expected to do?</li><li>Does the project need to be commissioned now or can the work be deferred to a later date?</li><li>What is the justification for this work?</li><li>Is the project value for money and is the Department’s share of the cost reasonable?</li></ol><p> </p><p>Ministers scrutinise prospective research proposals at an early stage which allows them to influence the research proposal and ensure external commissions meet the Department’s priorities and provide value for money.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>Fully-developed research proposals are scrutinised by the Department’s Research Gateway panel – which comprises the Heads of Analytical Profession and senior representatives from Finance and Procurement. This panel reviews the proposed research methodologies, costs and procurement strategy to ensure these are necessary and the commission will deliver robust results at reasonable cost to the tax-payer.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>Project officers are challenged by the panel to justify the need for the work, the proposed cost and the expected outputs. The panel routinely encourages the use of innovative research methods to drive costs down. Opportunities for co-funding are routinely investigated before research contracts are procured.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>Following approval by the Research Gateway, research proposals are then sent to Ministers for final approval to proceed to procurement. This offers Ministers a further opportunity to ensure that external research commissions are meeting their criteria to deliver robust and cost-effective results.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>I would add that the last Administration spent £25.6 million on research projects that were commissioned but not published before May 2010, and many of those projects did not represent value for money for taxpayers - as evident by the fact that many were unpublished for years.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 26/03/2015 11:46:50 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	395 label Biography information for Lord Blunkett

229349

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Housing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on ensuring that new large-scale provision of housing takes place within mixed-use development schemes.
tabling member constituency	Bromley and Chislehurst
tabling member printed	Robert Neill
uin	228888
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>The National Planning Policy Framework states that councils planning policies and decisions should aim to promote mixed use developments.<br><br>It is for local planning authorities to determine the shape of large scale development locally in the light of local planning policies. The delivery of housing at scale that this Government has supported, for example through our Large Sites investment programme, has a focus on creating strong new communities with development supporting a range of uses.</p> answering member constituency Great Yarmouth answering member printed Brandon Lewis question first answered 26/03/2015 15:01:57 answering member 4009 label Biography information for Sir Brandon Lewis
tabling member	1601 label Biography information for Sir Robert Neill

229350

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	EU Grants and Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2015 to Question 226590, what steps the Government has taken to ensure that all local European Structural and Investment Fund Subcommittees reflect the views of small businesses.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	228881
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>The Government has set out clear expectations for strong business representation in local European Structural and Investment Fund sub-committees. Business groups on local sub-committees will represent the interests of small and medium sized businesses as appropriate to the local area.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 26/03/2015 11:34:51 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

229351

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Public Sector: Land
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what comparative assessment he has made of the benefit to the public purse of using surplus public land to (a) generate long-term revenue and (b) generate capital from the sale of that land.
tabling member constituency	Bromley and Chislehurst
tabling member printed	Robert Neill
uin	228887
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>Over the course of this Parliament, Departments have exited unnecessary leases and sold vacant buildings. As a result, we have generated £1.4 billion in capital receipts, and saved £625 million by reducing the annual running cost of the estate. The Government has exited in aggregate more than one building every day since May 2010, reducing the size of our estate by 20%.</p><p> </p><p>The One Public Estate programme has already shown that, with small levels of investment and support, a great deal can be achieved. The 12 pilot areas that joined the programme in year 1 expect to cut running costs in the order of £21 million and to raise £88 million in capital receipts by 2018, as well as creating 7,500 new homes and 5,500 new jobs.</p><p> </p><p>Local 'capital and asset pathfinder' pilots have found that savings of around 20% are possible from a cross-public sector approach. Public sector assets are worth an estimated £385 billion, with almost two thirds owned by councils. ( Local Government Association Capital and Asset pathfinders Wave 2 summary report). The Government estimates this could potentially save £35 billion over 10 years through better property management. (DCLG press release, 5 August 2011).</p><p> </p><p>Further research has suggested that local government could reduce the space that it occupies by 20-30%, with potential savings in running costs of up to £7 billion a year. (Westminster Sustainable Business Forum, Leaner and Greener: Delivering Effective Estate Management, February 2011).</p> answering member constituency Great Yarmouth answering member printed Brandon Lewis question first answered 26/03/2015 15:52:47 answering member 4009 label Biography information for Sir Brandon Lewis
tabling member	1601 label Biography information for Sir Robert Neill

229085

registered interest
date	23/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Public Expenditure
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for which spending announcements made by him or his Ministers since 1 September 2014 the relevant business case has not been made public; and for what reason each such case has not been published.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield South East
tabling member printed	Mr Clive Betts
uin	228812
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>We do not routinely publish internal business cases; this has been the practice under current and previous Administrations. We do publish Impact Assessment where appropriate.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 26/03/2015 08:39:30 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	394 label Biography information for Mr Clive Betts