Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many affordable homes and units of social housing have been built with public funds in each year since 2015; and how this compares to the targets set for each of those years.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government does not publish annual targets for affordable housing.
The delivery of affordable housing in England, including those that have been built with public funds, are reported in our live tables which can be (attached) found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to redress resource deficits faced by local authorities in deprived areas resulting from relatively weaker tax bases and having to respond to greater demands for social care provision, as evidenced by the most recent data from the official Health Survey for England.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Funding baselines for local authorities in England are based on an assessment of their relative needs and resources, including deprivation levels and council tax income. Our fair funding review is looking again at how we do this and is working towards implementation in 2020/21.
A 12 week technical consultation on relative needs was published on 19 December 2017 which sets out the Government’s approach to the fair funding review and seeks views on what factors should be reflected by a new local government funding formula.
Furthermore, the improved Better Care Fund is allocated in such a way that the overall distribution of adult social care funding, including the council tax precept, will reflect adult social care pressures across the country and relative tax bases.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what key factors they have identified as leading to an increase in homelessness; and what plans they have to achieve its reduction.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
One person without a home is one too many – that is why we are taking a new approach, with prevention at its heart. We supported and will implement the Homelessness Reduction Act, which will ensure that more people get the help they need earlier to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.
We know that homelessness is more than just a housing issue. That is why we are working across Government to ensure that homeless people, particularly those with complex needs, can access the support they need. Our £50 million Homelessness Prevention Programme is funding 84 projects to provide support to homeless people, including mental health, substance misuse and employment support. We are going further by committing to halving rough sleeping by 2022, and piloting a Housing First approach, which operates on the principle that the individual is first housed in self-contained accommodation, and then provided with case-worker support for as long as they need it.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (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 reduce the increasing numbers of rough sleepers; and what assessment they have made of further predicted increases this winter.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why Government is committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it altogether by 2027.
We are investing £30 million in projects specifically to support rough sleepers. Our £20 million Rough Sleeping Grant is funding 48 projects across England, and our £10 million Social Impact Bond funding will provide personalised support for up to 1,200 homeless people with the most complex needs.
DCLG publishes regular statistics on rough sleeping, statutory homelessness and homelessness prevention and relief in England.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making in reducing the levels of homelessness among single young people and families living in temporary accommodation; and what assessment they have made of the need to increase the provision of (1) affordable accommodation, and (2) private rented accommodation at rent levels proportionate to household incomes.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what programmes are being run as a result of <i>The Casey Review: A review into opportunity and integration, </i>published in December 2016; and, in the light of the report by The Challenge, <i>Understanding School Segregation in England: 2011 to 2016</i>, published in March, whether those programmes are appropriate or require new consideration.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
My Rt. Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has made clear that he is studying Dame Louise Casey’s review of opportunity and integration closely. The Government intends to bring forward a new integration strategy in the coming months.
As part of that process, we will carefully consider Dame Louise’s recommendations for promoting greater integration in our schools. My advisers have met with The Challenge and this will help to inform our approach.
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 impact of the increased social care precept on the ability of local authorities to provide adult social care.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
If all councils make the maximum use of the additional flexibility the Government has offered, this will raise over £1 billion for adult social care in 2017-18. However the social care precept is only one stream of funding for local government which also includes unhypothecated central grant as well as other local taxes and, for 2017-18, the Adult Social Care Support Grant. It is for local government to determine how best to manage its own finances to ensure it delivers the appropriate level of services for its residents.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the estimate made by the Local Government Association of a £5.8 billion funding gap for local authorities by 2020 in their briefing published on 23 November 2016, what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities remain able to finance essential public services.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
To provide local government with greater certainty over their income in the medium term, the Government has offered a guaranteed budget for every year of the Parliament. 97 per cent of eligible local authorities have accepted this four year offer and the Government's settlement for local government provides councils with more than £200 billion over the lifetime of this Parliament to support local services.
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 level of take-up, and effectiveness, of (1) the Help to Buy, (2) the Starter Homes, and (3) other shared ownership, schemes.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Help to Buy: Equity Loan has been available across England since April 2013. It is intended to increase housing supply and promote home ownership and in particular it can help homeowners who cannot afford a large deposit but can afford regular mortgage payments. The scheme offers an equity loan of up to 20 per cent (up to 40 per cent in London) and enables people to buy a home with a deposit as low as 5 per cent. Across England, over 91,000 households have purchased a home through the scheme to end June 2016, of which 81 per cent were first-time buyers. In the 2016 Autumn Statement, the Chancellor confirmed continued support for home ownership through the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme.
Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee has been available across the United Kingdom since October 2013. It enables people to purchase a home with an 80-95 per cent mortgage. Across the United Kingdom, over 86,000 households have purchased a home through the scheme to end June 2016, with 79 per cent of sales to first-time buyers. Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee was introduced as a temporary intervention to increase the availability of high loan-to-value loans, following a drop off in the years after the financial crisis. The Bank of England Financial Policy Committee’s annual assessment of the scheme in September 2016 confirmed that the scheme had been successful in returning confidence to the mortgage market and it is due to close to new loans at the end of December 2016.
Help to Buy: ISA is available across the United Kingdom and enables people to save toward their first home. The government offers a 25 per cent bonus on savings, up to a maximum of £3,000 bonus. Over 15,000 Help to Buy: ISA bonuses have been claimed to the end of June 2016, which has supported more than 11,000 home purchases.
We are committed to building starter homes with a minimum 20 per cent discount for first-time buyers between the ages of 23 and 40 to help them into home ownership. Over the last twenty years, the proportion of under 40 year olds who own their home has fallen by over a third from 61 per cent to 38 per cent. We have made strong progress on delivery, through the Housing and Planning Act, planning reforms, and working through the Homes and Communities Agency to deliver the first starter homes. We expect the first starter homes to start being built in 2017.
Help to Buy: Shared Ownership enables people to part-buy, part-rent a home, starting with a minimum 25 per cent share, with the option of moving up to 100 per cent ownership. Since 2010, around 45,000 new Shared Ownership homes have been delivered.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to continue with the Troubled Families Programme in the light of the National Institute of Economics and Social Research's recent analysis.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
At the Spending Review 2015, £720 million was allocated to fund the remaining four years of the new Troubled Families Programme (2015 – 2020). We are absolutely committed to continuing to help this group of people, to help these vulnerable families that have some of the most complex needs of people in the country. We are looking at the evidence from the evaluation of the first Troubled Families Programme (2012-2015) to see how things could be done differently, to learn from it and see if there is even more we can do to improve the lives of troubled families.
We have already learnt lessons from the first Troubled Families Programme and reflected them in the design of the new programme. We have published an overview of the first programme (attached) which highlights the improvements that have been made: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-first-troubled-families-programme-2012-to-2015-an-overview