Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to accommodate the planned maximum population of 1,700 asylum seekers at MDP Wethersfield, and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is using a phased approach; increasing the number of asylum seekers accommodated at the site over time, with the practicalities of managing the site under constant review. The site can accommodate 1,700 individuals when fully operational.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that residents on the Bibby Stockholm can access outside space and the surrounding community without requiring inspection by staff or the use of scanners each time.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Those accommodated on the vessel are non-detained. However, movement in and around the Port will need to adhere to the health and safety requirements of the Port itself. Through our service supplier, the Home Office provides a bus service to take asylum seekers from the Port to destinations agreed with local agencies.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 11 December 2023 (HL597), how often is the doctor at the onsite primary healthcare available to hold in-person consultations for residents.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The site has on-site primary healthcare delivered by a local healthcare provider during working hours Monday to Friday. The medical centre is open for 12 hours on arrival days.
Healthcare provision on site is designed to be comprehensive and minimise any impact on local services. It is analogous to a conventional GP’s surgery with additional, bespoke, health screening capability.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many days is a GP on site on the Bibby Stockholm each week; and whether they have plans to review this level of provision.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The medical facility on the barge is staffed 5 days a week to provide an onsite primary healthcare service with which the asylum seekers will register; this means individuals will not need to register with a local GP practice. The medical team has previous experience of working with asylum seekers.
This team provides care to the asylum seekers either on the vessel itself between the hours of 9am-5pm, or remotely (including outside of these hours).
Medical provision includes:
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government on how many occasions an asylum seeker has been given fewer than five days' notice before a transfer to the Bibby Stockholm.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
All asylum seekers are given 7 days' notice of a move to the Bibby Stockholm and within this have 5 working days to submit any representations.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for annually indexing Local Housing Allowance to rent levels.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State (SoS) has recently completed his review of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for 2024/25. As announced by the Chancellor in the recent Autumn Statement, from April 2024 the Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This ensures 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit, or the Housing Element of Universal Credit will gain, on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. This is a significant investment of £7bn over five years.
The SoS has committed to reviewing LHA rates annually, usually in the Autumn. The rates for 2025/26 have not yet been reviewed.
The department works closely with stakeholders, jobcentres, and local authorities to understand the impact of its policies.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what risk assessments are carried out when facilitating room-sharing on the Bibby Stockholm, and at what intervals this is repeated after the outset of an asylum seeker’s relocation to the vessel.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The welfare of asylum seekers is our utmost priority. The Home Office ensures that accommodation provided is adequate and regularly reevaluates to ensure it meets the regulatory standards.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for 10-year rent settlements for social homes to create certainty for social housing providers.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The government recognises the value of longer-term rent certainty for Registered Providers of social housing, and continues to support the principle that social housing rents should be index-linked over the long-term. We will consult on future social housing rent policy in due course. That policy will need to strike an appropriate balance between protecting tenants, protecting taxpayers by limiting the costs associated with social housing rents, supporting investment in and management of social housing and supporting the delivery of new homes.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for establishing a commission on affordable housing to set levels of grant for affordable housing based on expert projections.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government does not set grant rates for affordable housing in our Affordable Homes Programme. Grant rates are assessed on a scheme-by-scheme basis and are benchmarked against national, local and scheme type averages to ensure bids are competitive on both costs and outputs.
It is right that we keep grant rates flexible to best support the sector to deliver a wide variety of interventions, whilst also ensuring that our assessment criteria drives good value for money.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Chelmsford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase grant funding for social housing delivery to reflect the decrease in the number of planning applications being made, and a probable decrease in the number of section 106 social homes being built as a result.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The provision of affordable housing is part of the Government's plan to build more homes and provide aspiring homeowners with a step onto the housing ladder.
Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.
The Levelling Up White Paper committed to increasing the supply of social rented homes and a large number of the new homes delivered through our Affordable Homes Programme will be for social rent.
For the first time we are allowing the use of grant towards replacement homes on regeneration schemes where there is a positive impact on overall housing supply. This will mean that more regeneration schemes become viable and we can begin to replace outdated, inefficient, and poor quality stock with new housing, whilst meeting the Affordable Homes Programme objective of increasing supply.
The housing sector has experienced an increase in the cost of borrowing and materials due to wider economic pressures. The Government continuously works with its delivery agencies to ensure that the Programme is delivering effectively in light of these economic challenges.
Since 2010, we have delivered over 684,800 new affordable homes, including over 475,500 affordable homes for rent, of which over 171,100 homes for social rent.