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 to determine the scale of homelessness in the United Kingdom; how it is being tackled and by whom; and what new or additional initiatives they plan to undertake to facilitate satisfactory outcomes for homeless people.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Local authorities in England collect and report data on the levels of homelessness on a quarterly basis which are published in the homelessness live tables at:
www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.
Homelessness remains lower than in 27 of the last 30 years and figures for 2013-14 show that homelessness acceptances in England fell 3% compared to 2012-13.
England has one of the strongest safety nets in the world, protected in law, requiring local authorities to secure accommodation for any eligible person who finds themselves homeless through no fault of their own and who is in priority need. This Government has increased investment to £500 million to support local authorities and voluntary sector agencies to prevent and tackle homelessness and since July 2010 this has helped prevent 700,000 cases of homelessness by finding new accommodation or helping people stay in their own home. We fund the National Practitioner Support Service to help local authorities continuously improve their frontline housing services so to better support and protect homeless households. We have also invested over £10 million in the National Homelessness Advice Service that ensure that frontline staff receive the support they need to provide a professional service, as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The £8 million Help for Single Homeless Fund is supporting 34 local authority partnerships to improve services for 22,000 individuals with multiple needs across 168 local authorities. We are helping vulnerable single homeless such as ex-offenders and rough sleepers to find and sustain accommodation in the private rented sector through our £13 million funding to Crisis. By 2016 we expect the Crisis scheme to have helped 10,000 single homeless people since it started in 2010. This Government is also doing more to combat youth homelessness through the new, innovative £15 million Fair Chance Fund programme that will help turn the lives around of 1,600 high needs young people.
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 implications for family life for those households considered as being at risk of becoming homeless, in the light of the recent report from Shelter.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
This Government is committed to preventing and tackling homelessness. England has one of the strongest safety nets in the world that remains in place – protected in law – to ensure that homeless families always have a roof over their heads, and we have increased spending on schemes to prevent homelessness, making over £500 million available to help the most vulnerable in society.
Repossessions are 31 per cent lower than this time last year and are predicted to fall even further. County court mortgage possession claims continue to fall to their lowest point in a decade. This is thanks to our work to tackle the deficit and keep interest rates low, helping more families to stay in their hard earned homes.
We are making home ownership an affordable and accessible prospect through Help to Buy and our work to get Britain building. In the last year alone planning permissions have been granted on 230,000 new homes and we have delivered 200,000 affordable homes since 2010.
And we are introducing measures to ensure tenants can be confident they will get a fair deal. Our How to Rent guide helps tenants know their rights and responsibilities, and letting agents are now required to belong to a redress scheme so landlords and tenants have somewhere to go if they get a raw deal.
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 has been given to supporting low income households facing debt, repossession or bankruptcy over unpaid council tax following reductions in council tax benefit.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The provision of support for low-income council taxpayers, as well as decisions on collection and enforcement, are matters for local authorities. It is for them to ensure that the effect of local schemes on specific groups of council taxpayers is proportionate and fair.
We issued guidance to councils last year to provide more protection for people against aggressive bailiffs and other unreasonable practices. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimates have been made of the amount of money local authorities would need to find to retain discounts for those low income households which have failed to date to pay the council tax demanded of them.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The provision of support for low-income council taxpayers, as well as decisions on collection and enforcement, are matters for local authorities. It is for them to ensure that the effect of local schemes on specific groups of council taxpayers is proportionate and fair.
We issued guidance to councils last year to provide more protection for people against aggressive bailiffs and other unreasonable practices. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax
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 has been made of the impact of the levying of council tax on low income households, both on local authorities in collecting such charges and on households unable to pay.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The provision of support for low-income council taxpayers, as well as decisions on collection and enforcement, are matters for local authorities. It is for them to ensure that the effect of local schemes on specific groups of council taxpayers is proportionate and fair.
We issued guidance to councils last year to provide more protection for people against aggressive bailiffs and other unreasonable practices. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax
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 factors contributing to the increased level of racial prejudice in Britain, as reported in the British Social Attitudes 31st report by NatCen; and what advice has been provided or is expected to be provided by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the matter in accordance with its statutory duties.
Answered by Baroness Stowell of Beeston
The figures from the British Social Attitudes survey do not show an increased level of prejudice, but are actually more complex. The figures fluctuate from year to year, but the long-term trends are a decline in self-reported prejudice. Causal factors are likely to include the aftermath of the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks, different attitudes to changing immigration and (in a positive way) the 2012 Olympics. The dataset can be viewed online at:
http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/338779/selfreported-racial-prejudice-datafinal.pdf
The Government has a comprehensive programme of activities to build strong and more united communities, tackle hate crime, harness the work of faith groups and commemorate our common heritage. I have placed in the Library illustrations which summarise our work, which also can be found online at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/communitiesuk/sets/72157644380501531/
The Commission's next periodic report on progress on its statutory duties, including tackling unlawful discrimination and harassment, is due to be published in 2015.