Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 23 January (HL4428), what is the timeframe for their decision on how to respond to the findings of the pilot programmes; and whether the response will be published.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We will decide how best to respond to the findings of the pilot programmes on statutory notices once we have concluded consideration of those findings.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 19 December 2016 (HL3833), whether they plan to publish a formal written response to the findings of the local pilot programmes on statutory notices.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We are in the process of considering the findings of the pilot programmes. Once we have concluded that consideration, we will decide how best to respond.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of unresolved business rates appeals on financial planning in local government.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Since 2013, local authorities have been required to set aside some of their business rates as "provisions" to meet the cost of future business rates appeals. The timing of the settlement of those appeals, therefore, is less relevant to local authorities' financial planning than their ability to estimate the scale of future appeal losses. We have agreed with local government that the difficulty of estimating future appeal losses, together with the way in which the business rates retention scheme deals with those losses, can impact adversely on authorities' financial planning and finances. In designing the new 100 per cent business rates retention scheme, therefore, we are looking again, in collaboration with local government representatives, at the way in which the new system should deal with appeal losses and aim to bring forward proposals shortly.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the 24 local pilot programmes on statutory notices; and what plans they have to make statutory notices more cost-effective.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We are grateful to the local pilots for the work they have done on options for the future of statutory notices, which are important tools to ensure that the public are kept informed of decisions and changes that affect them as individuals and communities. We are considering the reports of the pilot programmes carefully.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the Local Government Association’s State of the Nation 2016 Report on Adult Social Care Funding.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The government values the contribution the recent Local Government Association's report on adult social care adds to this active debate. In relation to the desire for greater guidance and clarity on integration, we have been developing our approach to supporting local systems to meet this ambition, in consultation with partners in the NHS and local government and the new Integration and Better Care Fund policy framework will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to work with the Local Government Association to raise public awareness of the publication <i>Don’t be left in the dark: Adult Social Care</i>.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
My department works closely with the Local Government Association on a wide range of issues to help improve local services, including adult social care.Adult social care provides a vital service to millions of people across the country. We recognise the pressures on these services, which is why this government is providing up to £3.5 billion for adult social care this Parliament, including £1.5 billion extra for the Better Care Fund by 2019-20.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to publish the annual report on devolution required by section 1 of the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government intends to publish and lay before Parliament the Annual Report on Devolution for 2015-16 as required by section 1 of the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 later this month. The Report will show the progress made on devolution up to 31 March 2016 as required by the Act.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the cost pressures on local authorities, and whether in the light of that assessment they have plans to give local authorities greater freedoms to raise income locally by removing the requirement to hold referendums before raising Council Tax above two per cent.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Councils account for around a quarter of all public spending and have an important role to play in tackling the deficit. The 2015 Spending Review looked across all local government spending and as a result the Government provided a £3.5 billion package to tackle the pressures of adult social care. This included giving councils the additional freedom to introduce an adult social care precept worth 2 per cent, which could raise nearly £2billion by 2019-20. The Government remains committed to working with local authorities to keep council tax low for hard-working families and set out its proposals for council tax referendum principles for 2017-18 in the Local Government Finance Settlement Technical Consultation, published on 15 September 2016.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of their proposal to allow local government to retain 100 per cent of the business rates raised locally, they have plans to allow local government to determine the business rates multiplier.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government has previously announced that combined authority mayors will in future be allowed to levy a 2p in the pound supplement on business rates bills to fund infrastructure projects; and that all authorities will be able to reduce the business rates tax rate, thereby allowing them to tailor their local tax regime to local economic circumstances. We are currently consulting on the detail of both proposals.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of extending the council tax referendum provisions introduced by the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 to include levying bodies such as Internal Drainage Boards on (1) the ability of local authorities to raise revenue through council tax or the delivery of their statutory functions, and (2) the ability of Internal Drainage Boards to deliver flood defence and land drainage activities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The referendum threshold is not a cap - councils can set any council tax increase they like provided they obtain the consent of their local electorate in a referendum. Including levying bodies in the council tax referendum legislation increases the transparency and accountability of public bodies for their tax-raising and spending decisions. Local authorities and their levying bodies had shown that they can work together to cut costs and improve services, and this measure placed all local authorities on a common footing when setting council tax.