Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which local authorities are failing to make savings while continuing to provide excellent services to local communities in line with the government's stated expectations; and what remedial action, if any, they propose.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Councils have done fantastically well in reforming the way they work to become more efficient, both in back-office functions and front-line service delivery – and we welcome that. But with councils accounting for a quarter of all public spending, we and the sector know there is more to do. Councils need to continue playing their part in tackling the deficit, and we will be supporting them to do so. Across the country, councils are looking at ways to:
In terms of specific councils, there is no definitive list or “right answer” on this, and it is local areas that are responsible for managing their own resources and performance. My department looks at risk levels in councils so that we can work with the Local Government Association and across Government to support them and prevent financial or service delivery failure.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 11 February (HL13242), whether local authorities are meeting the government's stated expectations of making savings while continuing to provide excellent services to local communities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Councils have done fantastically well in reforming the way they work to become more efficient, both in back-office functions and front-line service delivery – and we welcome that. But with councils accounting for a quarter of all public spending, we and the sector know there is more to do. Councils need to continue playing their part in tackling the deficit, and we will be supporting them to do so. Across the country, councils are looking at ways to:
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the town and country planning framework to achieve more efficient decision making.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
In July last year we published a revised National Planning Policy Framework to provide a clear basis for locally-produced plans and planning decisions. We are continuing to explore improvements to procedures, building on recent reforms such as streamlining the use of pre-commencement planning conditions. We recently consulted on further permitted development rights and changes to use class orders to support the high street and encourage more development, and published the outcome of Bridget Rosewell’s independent review into speeding up planning appeal inquiries.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to (1) regulating property guardianship, (2) curbing the practice of housing low-income workers in sub-standard, unsafe and unsanitary living conditions, and (3) reclassifying property guardianship under the regulatory framework applicable to houses in multiple occupation.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Department is reviewing guidance for current and prospective guardians, to ensure it is as clear and useful as possible.
Officials are also currently reviewing and refreshing the guidance to local authorities on their enforcement powers, including property guardianships. Under the Housing Act 2004, local authorities have a legal duty to keep the housing conditions in their area under review and identify any action that may need to be taken. Electrical safety, gas safety and fire safety requirements apply to all private rented sector properties, including guardian properties. The Housing Health & Safety Rating System (HHSRS) can be used to assess hazards in residential premises including those let to property guardians and applies to all parts of a building that are occupied as a dwelling. If a local authority identifies a serious ‘category 1’ hazard, they have a duty to take action and have the power to take action to address ‘category 2’ hazards.
Whether or not a property is a house in multiple occupation (HMO) is set out in the Housing Act 2004, and this definition can include guardian properties occupied by tenants who hold licences, provided the property being occupied meets one of the HMO tests set out in Section 254 of the Act. There are no plans to change this classification.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (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 extent of overcrowded living conditions in private rented accommodation as well as social housing; and what remedial actions might be necessary.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
In 2015 The Government made an assessment of overcrowded living conditions in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). Following extensive consultation, we acted by extending the scope of mandatory HMO licensing so that properties used as HMOs in England which house 5 people or more in two or more separate households would require a licence. These regulations came into force on October 1 2018.
The Government is combatting overcrowding through £9 billion of funding for the affordable homes programme; £2 billion of long-term funding certainty for housing associations up to 2028/2029; and abolishing the housing account revenue cap. This is in addition to measures already in place such as the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenancy Standard which requires social landlords to develop and deliver services to address over-crowding in their homes.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government by how much local government funding has been reduced since 2010; and what assessment they have made of the effect on vulnerable communities of such reductions.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Since 2010 there have been changes to the financing and functions of local government, and therefore spending power, the measure of funding available to local authorities, is not directly comparable over this period.
Prior to 2013-14, Formula Grant was non-ring fenced money for local government services. It was funded by central government grant and redistributed business rates. From 2013-14, Settlement Funding Assessment became the way central government provided local authorities with non-ring fenced funding for local government services.
Councils will have had access to over £200 billion over the five-year period 2015-16 to 2019-20, and funding for local government will increase in real-terms next year.
As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent of central government and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities. However, the Government expects local authorities to meet the challenge of making savings, while continuing to provide excellent services to local communities. It is for local authorities to conduct their own impact assessments of local decisions on residents, including vulnerable adults and children.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to safety concerns for residents in tower blocks where responsibility for the removal of combustible cladding is disputed.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is committed to ensuring that residents are safe, and feel safe, in their homes.
We are working closely with local authorities and Fire and Rescue Services to ensure that interim safety measures are in place in all buildings until the cladding is replaced. We are backing local authorities to take enforcement action where building owners are refusing to remediate high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding. This will include financial support where this is necessary for the local authority to carry out emergency remedial work. We have also established a Joint Inspection Team to support local authorities and give them the confidence to pursue enforcement action.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what formula they use to determine the funding to be provided for integration initiatives in areas with higher levels of migration.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Funding for integration initiatives supported through the Controlling Migration Fund and the Integrated Communities Innovation Fund is in response to the case made by the areas themselves about local need. Local need also informs the priorities set by the five Integration Areas named in the Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are being introduced to reduce the number of children in bed and breakfast, and hotel temporary accommodation.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government has been clear that in normal circumstances the long term use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families with children is inappropriate and if for longer than 6 weeks - unlawful.
There are some councils who are successfully reducing the number and length of time families are spending in B&B accommodation and the numbers of children in temporary accommodation; we expect areas in similar situations to follow their example.
Our new Homelessness Advice and Support Team, drawn from local authorities and the homelessness sector, are providing support to help authorities to end the placement of families in B&B accommodation for more than 6 weeks. The number of families in B&B has shown a reduction over the last published quarter, from Sept 2017 to Dec 2017. The total number of households in B&B is down 11 per cent; households with dependent children in B&B is down 24 per cent; and households with dependent children in B&B over 6 weeks is down 21 per cent.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures, if any, they intend to introduce to enable local authorities to access the resources needed to build stocks of social housing.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government wants to support local authorities in delivering a new generation of council housing. In October last year, the Prime Minister announced a long term rent deal for local authorities and housing associations. At Autumn Budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that we will raise the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap by a total of up to £1 billion in areas of high affordability pressure for local authorities that are ready to start building new homes. In March we announced plans to consult on options for allowing local authorities more flexibility in the use of their Right to Buy receipts.
Local authorities, as well as housing associations, can bid for funding from the £9bn Affordable Homes Programme to deliver more affordable homes - including at social rent - with funding for social rent targeted at areas with the most acute affordability pressures.
Taken together this substantial package of measures gives local authorities the resources, security and certainty they need to plan investment, and deliver their future house building plans.