Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March to Question 132182 on Housing: Finance, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the bidding process for local authorities councils to be allocate housing-related funding.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Government is investing over £9 billion in the Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21, to support councils and housing associations to deliver genuinely affordable homes where they are needed most.
We have confirmed long-term rent certainty for social landlords in England and announced that we will be providing councils with £1 billion of additional borrowing to deliver homes where demand is greatest. These measures, and the additional Affordable Homes Programme funding, will support local authorities to deliver a new generation of council house building.
The programme is flexible and sets no ring-fences on particular forms of tenure, so providers can bid into the programme to develop a wide range of homes to meet the housing needs of a range of people in different circumstances and housing markets – building the right homes in the right places.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for other unitary authorities of its requirement for the population of a unitary council at a minimum being substantially in excess of 300,000.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
It is the statutory guidance, issued by the Secretary of State on 27 March 2018 under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which states that a proposal for unitary local government should seek to achieve unitary authorities with populations as a minimum substantially in excess of 300,000.
The Secretary of State has issued this guidance, including on population size, having regard to past reorganisations, the Northamptonshire County Council Best Value Inspection Report of March 2018, and research, including that from the County Councils Network in 2016 into lessons from previous unitarisations which found that the scale of a unitary council was key, with larger authorities able to deliver economies of scale while smaller unitary councils were more likely to be less resilient, putting key services at potential risk.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the (a) reasons and (b) evidential basis are for the threshold of a population of 300,000 being chosen as a requirement for unitary authorities.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
It is the statutory guidance, issued by the Secretary of State on 27 March 2018 under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which states that a proposal for unitary local government should seek to achieve unitary authorities with populations as a minimum substantially in excess of 300,000.
The Secretary of State has issued this guidance, including on population size, having regard to past reorganisations, the Northamptonshire County Council Best Value Inspection Report of March 2018, and research, including that from the County Councils Network in 2016 into lessons from previous unitarisations which found that the scale of a unitary council was key, with larger authorities able to deliver economies of scale while smaller unitary councils were more likely to be less resilient, putting key services at potential risk.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons his Department has changed the lower parameter of a population of 300,000 for a unitary authority from being set only in guidance to being a requirement; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
It is the statutory guidance, issued by the Secretary of State on 27 March 2018 under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which states that a proposal for unitary local government should seek to achieve unitary authorities with populations as a minimum substantially in excess of 300,000.
The Secretary of State has issued this guidance, including on population size, having regard to past reorganisations, the Northamptonshire County Council Best Value Inspection Report of March 2018, and research, including that from the County Councils Network in 2016 into lessons from previous unitarisations which found that the scale of a unitary council was key, with larger authorities able to deliver economies of scale while smaller unitary councils were more likely to be less resilient, putting key services at potential risk.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will permit people running in local council elections to put their electoral ward as their address for personnel security reasons.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
In its Response (Cm9578) published on the 14 March 2018, to the Committee on Standards in Public Life Review of Intimidation in Public Life, the Government accepts the Committee’s recommendation to remove the requirement for candidates standing as local councillors to have their home address published on the ballot paper, and will look to bring forward secondary legislation to achieve this at a suitable opportunity with the aim of effecting this change in time for the 2019 local elections. The intention is for this secondary legislation to replace the requirement for a specific address with an option to include a statement of residence based on an electoral area where the candidate lives.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the average cost to the public purse of local authority mergers in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The three proposals for merging district councils, which the Department has been considering over the last 12 months, have been assessed as delivering annual savings ranging from £0.8 to £3.1 million with pay back periods for covering one off transition costs from 1 to 3 years.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of the Future Dorset Proposal.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The assessment that the Secretary of State made on 7 November 2017, when the he announced that he was 'minded-to' implement the locally-led proposal for improving local government in Dorset, was that this proposal if implemented is likely to improve local government across the area.
I am now assessing the proposal afresh, carefully considering all of the representations I have received, and I intend to announce my final decision shortly with the aim of achieving the best result for the people of Dorset.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of the proposed future Dorset local government review.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The assessment that the Secretary of State made on 7 November 2017, when the he announced that he was 'minded-to' implement the locally-led proposal for improving local government in Dorset, was that this proposal if implemented is likely to improve local government across the area.
I am now assessing the proposal afresh, carefully considering all of the representations I have received, and I intend to announce my final decision shortly with the aim of achieving the best result for the people of Dorset.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy that local referenda take place in advance of local authority mergers.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
Our policy is to consider against the criteria the Secretary of State announced on 7 November 2017, any proposal for merging district councils when requested. It is for the councils making such a proposal to decide how to demonstrate the level of local support for it.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether tenants will be able to access the database of rogue landlords and property agents due to be published in April 2018.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The national rogue landlord database will be a new tool to help local housing authorities with their housing standards enforcement work. It is part of a package of measures introduced by the Government under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, including new powers to ban landlords and to issue civil penalties for housing offences of up to £30,000.
The Act makes clear that information held on the database may not be published unless it is anonymised and the database will not be made public. Local housing authorities may wish to consider locally publicising successful banning orders they obtain. Once launched, we will keep under review the operation of the database and its use by local housing authorities to tackle rogue landlords