Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill on local authority powers regarding empty high street properties with owners and leaseholders residing overseas.
Answered by Lia Nici
This Government is committed, through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, to empower local authorities to reinvigorate their high streets and town centres.
High Street Rental Auctions will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs and community groups.
Through the Register of Overseas Entities which is being developed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, local authorities will be able to gather information on overseas landlords. If overseas landlords own UK property via an overseas entity in scope of the Register of Overseas Entities, they will be required to register details with Companies House, including about their beneficial owners.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to South Cambridgeshire District Council not signing off its 2018-19 accounts and not publishing audited accounts for 2019-20 and 2020-21, what steps he is taking to help ensure that local councils are required to resource and prioritise the production of annual accounts within statutory deadlines.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
It is vital that local authorities continue to fulfil their responsibilities in the timely completion of audits to maintain transparency and assurance of local authority accounts.
It is for local authorities to do all they can to clear the backlog of delayed audits. In the meantime, the Department continues to prioritise measures to improve timeliness of completed audits, and have taken several steps to improve the situation, including extending the publication deadline for 2019/20 accounts from July to November to ease pressures on councils and audit firms as a result of COVID19. We are also making available an additional £15 million in 2021/22 to help affected bodies meet the growing cost pressures in the audit market and will consider in due course funding arrangements for future years. In October 2021, we laid regulations to allow for greater flexibility around fee-setting and fee variations.
In its capacity as interim system leader for local audit, the Department recently wrote to s151 officers of local authorities to stress the need for local authorities to prioritise clearing outstanding audits and the timely completion of draft accounts going forward in preparation for external audit.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 2.124 of the Budget 2021 Red Book, if he will provide an update on when the (a) bidding prospectus for the Community Ownership Fund will be published and (b) first bidding round is due to open.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The bidding prospectus for the Community Ownership Fund was published on 15 July and the first bidding round is now open. Applicants will be able to complete the online application form from 30 July and the first bidding round will close on 13 August. There will be future bidding rounds in December 2021 and May 2022.