Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of removing barriers to renting for people with pets.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government recognises the importance of pet ownership to many renting in the private rented sector. We have therefore taken steps to make it easier for responsible tenants to keep pets in the private rented sector, as part of a broader mission to improve life for tenants.
We have revised the national Model Tenancy Agreement, the Government's recommended contract for assured shorthold tenancies in the private rented sector, in order to make it easier for tenants with pets to find private landlords who will accept them. The revision aims to strike the balance between protecting private landlords from situations where their properties are damaged by badly behaved pets and ensuring responsible pet owning tenants are not unfairly penalised.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department is providing to homeless people during the period of covid-19 lockdown restrictions announced in January 2021.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Given the new variant of COVID-19, and the current national lockdown, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure that people who sleep rough are kept as safe as possible and that we do everything we can to protect the NHS. This is backed by £10 million to protect rough sleepers and ensure their wider health needs are addressed.
We have asked all local authorities to ensure that even more rough sleepers are safely accommodated, and will be asking that this opportunity is actively used to make sure that all rough sleepers are registered with a GP where they are not already and are factored into local area vaccination plans, in line with JCVI prioritisation for COVID-19 vaccinations.
We have taken unprecedented steps to protect rough sleepers during the pandemic. This work has not stopped, and through Everyone In, by November we had supported around 33,000 people with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and over 23,000 already moved on into longer-term accommodation.
This additional support builds on the package of winter support announced last year. This includes a £10 million Cold Weather Fund for all local authorities to bring forward COVID-secure accommodation this winter and to keep vulnerable people safe. This sits alongside the Protect programme, which provides targeted support to local authorities with higher numbers of rough sleepers to meet the specific challenges they face. Through the Next Steps Accommodation Programme we have provided support to ensure that as few people as possible return to the streets. This includes bringing forward 3,300 new homes this year for rough sleepers, backed by £150 million, leaving a national legacy of this Government’s support. £91.5 million was also allocated to 274 councils in England to provide immediate accommodation and support to vulnerable people during the pandemic.
The Government has also established an unprecedented package of support to protect renters. This includes legislating through the Coronavirus Act 2020 to delay when landlords can evict tenants, a 6 month stay on possession proceedings in court, a pause on bailiffs enforcing eviction notices, and a range of financial support to enable renters to continue paying their living costs, including rental payments.
In total, we are spending over £700 million in 2020/21 on homelessness and rough sleeping. We will also be spending over £750 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping next year, further demonstrating the Government’s commitment to end rough sleeping this Parliament and fully enforce the Homelessness Reduction Act.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the latest guidance on places of worship in tier 3 remaining open, what acts of collective worship are allowed in areas in tier 3.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
We are pleased that from 3 December, places of worship can open for communal worship in all tiers, including tier 3. They must ensure that they are Covid-secure, taking account of the social distancing guidance. Marriage and Civil Partnership ceremonies are also permitted in places of worship in all tiers, with up to 15 people in attendance, as are funerals, with up to 30 people in attendance.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to publish the report on the causes of the fire at the Cube building in Bolton on 15 November 2019.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 117360 on 23 November 2020.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing communal worship to continue during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
With regret, places of worship will be closed for communal prayer. As the rate of infection is rising, we have made the decision to close a broad range of premises, including places of worship. These measures are designed to limit the number of interactions that people have and therefore reduce the risk spread.
Places of worship are permitted to open for individual prayer and for the recording or live streaming of services so that worshippers can participate at home. In addition, funerals are also permitted and can be attended by a maximum of thirty people.
The regulations now in force will expire on 2?December, at which point we hope to be able to ease restrictions.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department is providing to coastal communities during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
This Government recognises the unique challenges facing coastal communities and is committed to levelling up all areas of the UK. Through our £229 million Coastal Communities Fund we are supporting communities across England. Now, through the £3.6 billion Towns Fund we are investing up to £25 million in 23 coastal towns - including Towns Deals recently announced for Blackpool and Torquay.
On top of this, the Government has provided £6.4 billion to councils for their ongoing work to support communities during the pandemic.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has an evidential basis for removing the statutory requirement to publicise planning applications in local newspapers.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Local planning authorities are required to publicise certain types of planning applications in local newspapers as set out in Article 15 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.
In the response to coronavirus restrictions, temporary regulations have been introduced to supplement the existing statutory publicity arrangements for planning applications. Local planning authorities now have the flexibility to take other reasonable steps to publicise applications if they cannot discharge the specific requirement for newspaper publicity – for instance, if the local newspaper is not now in circulation.
These steps can include the use of social media and other electronic communications, such as local online news portals, and must be proportionate to the scale and nature of the proposed development. However, if a local planning authority is required to publicise a planning application in a local newspaper, and that paper is still in circulation, then they must continue to do so.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of removing the statutory requirement to publicise planning applications in local newspapers.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Local planning authorities are required to publicise certain types of planning applications in local newspapers as set out in Article 15 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.
In the response to coronavirus restrictions, temporary regulations have been introduced to supplement the existing statutory publicity arrangements for planning applications. Local planning authorities now have the flexibility to take other reasonable steps to publicise applications if they cannot discharge the specific requirement for newspaper publicity – for instance, if the local newspaper is not now in circulation.
These steps can include the use of social media and other electronic communications, such as local online news portals, and must be proportionate to the scale and nature of the proposed development. However, if a local planning authority is required to publicise a planning application in a local newspaper, and that paper is still in circulation, then they must continue to do so.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the list of businesses allowed to open in phase three of the covid-19 lockdown restrictions; and whether he plans to issue guidance to those companies on being covid-19 secure.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Following scientific evidence and advice, on 10 May, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap for reopening. As part of Step three of the roadmap, the ambition is to open at least some of the remaining businesses and premises that have been required to close, including personal care (such as hairdressers and beauty salons) hospitality (such as food service providers, pubs and accommodation), public places (such as places of worship) and leisure facilities (like cinemas).
They should seek to meet the COVID-19 Secure guidelines provided by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to continue to limit the spread of the virus. Some venues where it may prove difficult to enact distancing may not be able to re-open safely at this point, or may be able to open safely only in part.
The Government’s current planning assumption is that this step will be no earlier than 4 July, subject to the five tests, and further scientific advice provided closer to the time.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what financial support will be provided to Business Improvement Districts facing a reduction in income caused by businesses not paying business rates during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We have announced a substantial package of support to businesses, and we are exploring other ways we can support them.
At present, businesses within a Business Improvement District (BID) will still need to pay into their BID to ensure the BID body can still provide vital support to their local business communities.
We know that a number of BIDs are currently in the process of issuing their bills to members, and we would hope that they can come to sensible arrangements on charging given the current circumstances.
The Coronavirus Act also includes new measures to support BIDs: we have introduced a delay to BID ballots due to take place between now and 31 December 2020 until March 2021. This will ensure that they are conducted in a safe and effective way.