Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what financial support they provide to local authorities to ensure that they have the resources to grit roads and pavements adequately during icy weather; and whether there has been any change in the level of the resources provided in the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Section 41(1A) of the Highways Act 1980 places a duty on local authorities to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway, including pavements, is not endangered by snow or ice.
The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available an additional £5 billion to councils in England, an increase of 9% in cash terms compared to 2022/23. Taking 2022/23 and 2023/24 together, we have increased the funding available to local government in England in real terms.
The majority of this funding is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities, including the gritting of roads and pavements.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of siloed working in the public sector, at a local and national level, regarding the response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and what steps they are taking to address any such siloed operations.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Department has ensured that there has been regular and significant contact between Ministers, regional mayors and council leaders throughout this crisis to respond to the Covid-19 emergency.
This includes calls between the Secretary of State and Ministers, and regional mayors, as well as regular teleconferences hosted by the Secretary of State for local government representatives, including leaders and chief executives. My Department is also discussing priorities and support measures with councils in each of the nine English regions, alongside a Ministerial-led Covid-19 local delivery board with councillors. Further to this, a Ministerial-led Economic Recovery Working Group has been established, made up of local government leaders from across England including several Metro Mayors to help inform Government’s plans for economic recovery.
Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) are making a vital contribution to the efforts to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus emergency on local communities. The Government has also supported the embedding of a number of highly experienced military planners into each LRF, who are providing on-the-ground strategic and logistical support. These are further supported by senior Departmental leaders and experts in local engagement and response, ensuring key issues are raised and responded to as appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Government-funded social science research on deprived communities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Since 2017, the department has commissioned around 20 studies to investigate and understand the needs of deprived communities and communities who face specific integration challenges. Key examples include the update to the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), The Integrated Communities Innovation Fund evaluation, a number of studies on reducing homelessness, and the ongoing troubled families evaluation. The results of these projects have provided invaluable insight into the issues and the findings are incorporated into policy development.
For example, the Randomised Control Trial research on community based English Language programmes has informed the development of the current English Language programme of support, providing people who don’t speak English with the skills and confidence to improve their integration outcomes.
Our Integrated Areas evaluation will test the impact of different interventions designed to improve real life social outcomes, including social mixing outcomes across different communities residing in the same place.
The previous 2015 version of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation fed directly into MHCLG and more widely into other Departments’ policy development, particularly where policies have been focused on working with the most deprived communities across the country.
More generally, much of our commissioned research aims to understand and address the needs of communities that most need our support and promote growth. Key examples include the English Housing Survey and European Regional Development Fund.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they are doing to encourage local agencies, both statutory and non-statutory, to provide more integrated local services.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
This Government fully supports the provision of more integrated local services.
The Better Care Fund, for example, is enabling local areas to integrate and transform local health and social care services by 2020. Clinical Commissioning Groups and local authorities pool budgets and agree together how to focus funding to support more person-centred, coordinated care, so people can manage their own health and wellbeing and live independently in their communities for as long as possible, relieving the pressure on acute services. There are 150 Better Care Fund plans, covering each Health and Wellbeing Board area of England. In 2016-17, the Better Care Fund is funding 1,326 schemes across all local authorities with the largest focus for schemes being in developing integrated care solutions.
The Troubled Families Programme also encourages a different, more effective way for public services to work with families who place a disproportionate burden on them. By doing so, it helps to reduce demand and dependency of complex families on costly reactive public services and deliver better value for the taxpayer. This ‘service transformation’ in early help for complex families, which encourages the integration of local services, is an explicit aim of the programme. On 17th November, guidance for local authorities and their partners was published that sets out the key principles of, and ways to assess, service transformation in early help services for complex families.
There are also a number of public service reform related commitments in devolution deals, including around accelerating partnership working on the integration of health and social care; innovative employment trials; improving integration of employment support with other local services such as health; greater local influence over public protection including offender management and rehabilitation; and a range of other commitments to transformation and improvement in areas such as children’s services.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what evidence there is that practical lessons have been learnt from past research conducted into integration in British communities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Dame Louise Casey's Review into integration and opportunity published on the 5 December takes account of academic and other research and considers previous community cohesion reports and programmes. The government will be studying her Report carefully and will publish a response in the spring.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what lessons they have learned from projects with hands-on practical experience of building integrated communities; how they will build on the success of those projects; and what role those projects will play in achieving the changes that are recommended in <i>The Casey Review: a review into opportunity and integration</i>.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The government is committed to building more integrated communities and widening opportunity. We have spent over £60 million on integration projects since 2010/11, helping to create the conditions for people to live successfully alongside each other.
This includes funding for community – based tuition to help isolated adults to learn English and the Near Neighbours programme, supporting well over 1,000 small projects bringing people together across faith, social and ethnic boundaries.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has made clear he will be studying Dame Louise’s findings closely. As part of those considerations, we will look to learn from our existing integration projects. In spring, we will come to the House with our plans for tackling the issues raised by Dame Louise, so that we can continue to build a country that works for everyone.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to work together on projects and programmes in local communities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The government is committed to building more integrated communities and widening opportunity. We have spent over £60 million on integration projects since 2010/11, helping to create the conditions for people to live successfully alongside each other.
This includes funding for community – based tuition to help isolated adults to learn English and the Near Neighbours programme, supporting well over 1,000 small projects bringing people together across faith, social and ethnic boundaries.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has made clear he will be studying Dame Louise’s findings closely. As part of those considerations, we will look to learn from our existing integration projects. In spring, we will come to the House with our plans for tackling the issues raised by Dame Louise, so that we can continue to build a country that works for everyone.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been spent over the last five years on studies about integration in British communities and what impact this has had, if any.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The only comprehensive study, in the last five years, has been Dame Louise Casey's Review into integration and opportunity, published on 5 December 2016.
A number of Departments will have undertaken studies in support of policy objectives related to integration, however information on the cost of these studies is not held centrally.