Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are in a position to announce the mechanism for distributing the second year of funding from the Community House Fund.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The annual £60 million Community Housing Fund was launched on 23 December 2016 to put local groups who know their area’s needs best in the driving seat and help them deliver housing that is affordable to the local community. For the 2016/17 financial year, grants were awarded to 148 local authorities which were particularly affected by local affordability issues or high rates of second home ownership. My officials have been working up proposals for the delivery of the Fund from 2017/18 and an announcement will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
Her Majesty's Government when they will announce the mechanism for distributing the second year of funding from the Community House Fund; and when they expect the number of houses built by Community Land Trusts and others to increase as a result of that funding.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Community Housing Fund was launched on 23 December 2016 to put local groups who know their area’s needs best in the driving seat and help them deliver housing that is affordable to the local community. My officials are working up proposals and a decision on how the Fund will be delivered from 2017/18 will be made in due course.
In 2016/17, over 140 local authorities received grants under the Fund for a wide variety of purposes relating to increasing the capacity of the community-led housing sector in their areas as well as directly supporting the delivery of specific community-led housebuilding projects. We anticipate the first completions from schemes supported in this way to come through early next year.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions the Department for Work and Pensions has had with disability charities ahead of the recently announced changes to mobility activity 1 and 3 of the Personal Independence Payment assessment.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Department for Work and Pensions has regular and ongoing discussions with disability organisations on a range of issues related to Personal Independence Payment. As part of this on-going engagement Ministers have been in contact with a number of stakeholders, including disability charities, to discuss and explain the changes that we have introduced.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the percentage of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipients who have received a reduced award as a result of recently announced changes to mobility activity 3 of the PIP assessment.
Answered by Lord Henley
The recently announced changes refer to daily living activity 3 and mobility activity 1 of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment. No recipients of PIP awarded by the Department for Work and Pensions have received a reduced award as a result of recently announced changes to these activities.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the percentage of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipients who have received a reduced award as a result of recently announced changes to mobility activity 1 of the PIP assessment.
Answered by Lord Henley
The recently announced changes refer to daily living activity 3 and mobility activity 1 of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment. No recipients of PIP awarded by the Department for Work and Pensions have received a reduced award as a result of recently announced changes to these activities.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government with reference to the mobility activity 1 of the Personal Independence Payment assessment, how many people have scored points on descriptors d or f for (1) new claims, and (2) Disability Living Allowance reassessments, (a) before, and (b) since, November 2016.
Answered by Lord Henley
The table below give statistics on the number of people who scored on descriptors d or f on Activity 11 (mobility activity 1) of their assessment for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for both new claimants and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) reassessments from April 2013 to 8th September 2016.
Table 1 – Number of PIP claimants who scored on descriptor d or f on Activity 11 of their PIP assessment
Number scoring d or f on Activity 11 | April 2013 to 8 September 2016 |
New claims | 69,250 |
DLA Reassessments | 82,080 |
Note: Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Data beyond September 2016 is not readily available.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, with reference to the daily living activity 3 of the Personal Independence Payment assessment, how many people have scored points on descriptors c, d, e or f for (1) new claims, and (2) Disability Living Allowance reassessments, (a) before, and (b) since, November 2016.
Answered by Lord Henley
The table below give statistics on the number of people who scored on descriptors c, d, e or f on Activity 3 of their assessment for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for both new claimants and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) reassessments from April 2013 to 8th September 2016.
Table 1 – Number of PIP claimants who scored on descriptor c, d, e or f on Activity 3 of their PIP assessment
Number scoring c, d, e or f on Activity 3 | April 2013 to 8 September 2016 |
New claims | 71,140 |
DLA Reassessments | 19,210 |
Note: Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Data beyond September 2016 is not readily available.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that commercial short-term lettings of accommodation, such as those offered by the AirBnB website, are safe and comply with fire regulations.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to houses or flats where the premises are not occupied as a private dwelling, including properties offering short term accommodation to paying guests.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received representations regarding a specific case in which parish councillors who are also members of a Community Land Trust (CLT) have been told to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest even though the CLT is legally established as a not-for-profit Industrial and Provident Society that requires members to take out £5 par value (not investment) shares and allows no income for members or directors from its activities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We are not aware of having received representations on such a case. The national rules on local authority members’ pecuniary interests, as set out in the Localism Act 2011, require local authority members, including parish councillors, to register and disclose certain pecuniary interests, as defined in the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012. A guide for councillors on openness and transparency on personal interests is available on my department’s web-site. Local authority members who contact my department for advice are directed to the regulations and to the guide and are advised to contact the monitoring officer of their relevant local authority, who can advise them on their specific queries.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to discuss European structural and investment funding with the Local Government Association and other interested parties.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government meets regularly with representatives of the Local Government Association and other partners, who are members of national and local European Structural and Investment Funds committees where these EU funds are discussed.