Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number (a) police stations, (b) fire stations, (c) hospitals, (d) ambulance stations, (e) residential care homes, (f) children’s homes and (g) social services homes that have a flood risk vulnerability classification of "Highly Vulnerable".
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Uses that are classified as ‘highly vulnerable’ are set out in annex 3 of the National Planning Policy Framework and includes police, fire and ambulance stations. Hospitals and residential institutions are classified as ‘more vulnerable’ in the Framework.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2021 to Question 80317 on UK Community Renewal Fund, what assessment he has made of the impact on the roll out of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund of delays to and the deadline extension to 30 June 2022 for the delivery of projects under the Community Renewal Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
To ensure that successful applicants still have the same delivery window as set out in the fund prospectus, we have extended the delivery timeline for the UKCRF by three months to 30 June 2022. Later this year we will publish an Investment Framework for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which will commence in 2022.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many projects allocated funding under the Towns Fund have been completed.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Towns are in the process of completing their business cases and supplying the department with Summary Documents which, once approved, will allow DLUHC to release funding for projects.
The Town Deal programme is scheduled to run until financial year 25/26 with projects set to be delivered by that deadline. Some projects will also be delivered before then according to the timelines established by the towns.
It is expected that all funding provided from the Levelling Up Fund will be spent by 31 March 2024, and, exceptionally, into 2024-25 for larger schemes.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will publish the details of all successful and non-successful bids made to the Community Renewal Fund by lead authorities.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The successful list of 477 bids made to the UK Community Renewal Fund were published on Gov.uk on the day of announcement: 3 November 2021
I wrote to all lead authorities who bid into the UK Community Renewal Fund immediately after the announcement, notifying them of the outcome of their bids.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will publish all correspondence with Ministers of State for (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales in respect of the draft shortlist of bids to be considered for funding under the Community Renewal Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Shortlists were provided to Ministers of State for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to confirm the successful bids to the UK Community Renewal Fund, however it is not standard practice to publish correspondence between Ministers.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will publish an updated timetable for delivery of each project under the Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Towns are in the process of completing their business cases and supplying the department with Summary Documents which, once approved, will allow DLUHC to release funding for projects.
The Town Deal programme is scheduled to run until financial year 25/26 with projects set to be delivered by that deadline. Some projects will also be delivered before then according to the timelines established by the towns.
It is expected that all funding provided from the Levelling Up Fund will be spent by 31 March 2024, and, exceptionally, into 2024-25 for larger schemes.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 trends in the number of property developers who form limited companies and avoid ongoing liability for development sites with which they have been involved in by voluntarily striking off or winding-up those companies.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Companies House publishes regular statistical releases on, among other things, trends in the number of companies removed from the Register over time. The latest release can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/companies-register-activities-statistical-release-2020-to-2021.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2021 to Question 30362 on Community Renewal Fund, what recent assessment he has made of the likelihood of all projects allocated funding by the Community Renewal Fund to be completed by March 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have extended the delivery timeline for the UK Community Renewal Fund by 3 months to ensure that successful applicants still have the same delivery window as set out in the fund prospectus.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2021 to Question 30362 on Community Renewal Fund, whether funding will be withdrawn from projects granted funding by the Community Renewal Fund in the event that those projects are not completed by March 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In recognition of the three month delay to announcements and to enable successful bidders to have sufficient time in which to deliver their projects, we have amended the delivery timeline beyond 31 March 2022. Projects will now have until the 30 June 2022 to deliver. We will work with lead authorities (mayoral combined authorities, county councils or unitary authorities) and directly with applicants in Northern Ireland in managing any change to their projects.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which Minister in his Department is responsible for the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) welcome programme.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Lord Greenhalgh is responsible for the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) Welcome Programme.