Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the final payments to be made to beneficiaries of the Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Whilst many projects have progressed at pace, we are aware that others have faced difficult delivery conditions which may make it hard to deliver by the original programme end date of March 2026.
With this in mind, we are looking at whether there is scope for places to move some spending into future years. This is dependent on Departmental budgets which will be agreed as part of the Spending Review process for 2026-2029. We will communicate the outcome to grant recipients following Spring Budget.
We still encourage projects to deliver as quickly as they can, so that the positive impacts of this investment can be felt by communities more quickly.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, for each of the past 10 years, what was the total monetary value of land sold, either on a freehold or leasehold basis, in (1) England, (2) Wales, and (3) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
His Majesty’s Government does not hold the information in the format requested to answer question and it could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the percentage turnout of voters in the May county council elections in England, by county.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Electoral Commission is the independent electoral regulator and will be providing their analysis of the running of the May polls 2024. This will include data on turnout.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many refugees from Ukraine have been settled in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As of 5 March 2024, 201,400 people have arrived in the UK under the Ukraine visa schemes, rather than as refugees. 144,400 of them have been sponsored under the Homes for Ukraine scheme with 108,601 being in England, 1,500 in Northern Ireland, 5,847 in Scotland and 4,200 in Wales.
In addition to this, 20,882 Ukrainians have been sponsored by the Scottish Government and another 3,291 by the Welsh Government. Further information including a full breakdown of the data has been published on Gov.UK and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-visa-data-by-country-upper-and-lower-tier-local-authority.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish a table showing, for the most recent period for which figures are available, the 15 local authorities with the lowest percentage of dwellings which have an EPC energy efficiency rating of 'C' or above.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Data tables showing numbers of energy certificates lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Registers and energy efficiency ratings are published online here. The tables were last updated on 27 April 2023.
Local authority level data on Energy Performance certificates is published and available from the Open Data Community.
The Energy Performance of Buildings Register ('the scheme') runs on a cost neutral basis.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish a table showing the number of homes assessed by their energy efficiency scheme in each of the past 10 years and the total cost of that scheme in each of those years.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Data tables showing numbers of energy certificates lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Registers and energy efficiency ratings are published online here. The tables were last updated on 27 April 2023.
Local authority level data on Energy Performance certificates is published and available from the Open Data Community.
The Energy Performance of Buildings Register ('the scheme') runs on a cost neutral basis.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what sums have been allocated to projects in each nation of the UK respectively under the levelling-up strategy.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Levelling Up programme is an ambitious programme of reform with an agenda to transform the United Kingdom and address this country's regional inequalities. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities run some dedicated funding programmes that help us achieve the missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, but they are only one part of a broader set of measures.
Our newer programmes are specifically UK-wide and as of July 2023 we allocated significant funding across the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Community Renewal Fund, Levelling Up Fund and Community Ownership Fund. This includes £4,720 million across England, £261 million across Northern Ireland, £612 million across Scotland and £963 million across Wales.
We are committed to setting aside at least £800 million in Levelling Up Funding for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland until 2024/25 and for the Community Ownership Fund we are committed to targeting a minimum of £4.3 million for Northern Ireland, £12.3 million for Scotland and £7.1 million for Wales over the lifetime of the fund up to March 2025.