Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 effectiveness of support provided to LGBTQ+ homeless people using Homelessness Case Level Information Collection data.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
We recognise that?LGBT?homelessness is an important issue, particularly among young people, and that?LGBT?people who find themselves homeless may have a different experience of homelessness. However, data on this issue is limited.?Sexual orientation is not a mandatory field collected through the Homelessness Case Level Information Collection. We therefore do not hold robust or consistent data across local authorities on LGBT homeless households.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that people with no recourse to public funds do not return to homelessness when the covid-19 lockdown is lifted.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is aware of concerns about those with no recourse to public funds experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis.
We are ensuring local authorities are supported, with £3.2 million in targeted funding to help support individuals who are sleeping rough off the streets, and an additional £3.2 billion provided to local authorities as part of the wider government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This funding has been provided to help local authorities to reduce risks to public health and to support individuals on the basis of need.
The legal position on those with no recourse to public funds has not been amended.
The Government recognises that these are unprecedented times, and expects local authorities to support people who are sleeping rough, and also to minimise unnecessary risks to public health, acting within the law.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 provides to local authorities in relation to support for people with no recourse to public funds that have been placed in temporary accommodation during the covid-19 outbreak; and whether officials in his Department have held discussions with representatives of Public Health England on that matter.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is aware of concerns about those with no recourse to public funds experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis.
We are ensuring local authorities are supported, with £3.2 million in targeted funding to help support individuals who are sleeping rough off the streets, and an additional £3.2 billion provided to local authorities as part of the wider government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This funding has been provided to help local authorities to reduce risks to public health and to support individuals on the basis of need.
The legal position on those with no recourse to public funds has not been amended.
The Government recognises that these are unprecedented times, and expects local authorities to support people who are sleeping rough, and also to minimise unnecessary risks to public health, acting within the law.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 27 April 2020 to Question 34975 on Homelessness: Coronavirus, what proportion of rough sleepers known to local authorities have accepted the offer of accommodation.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Over 90% of those on the streets and in communal night shelters known to local authorities at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis have now been made offers of safe accommodation – ensuring some of the most vulnerable in society are protected from the pandemic.
This data is based on information provided to MHCLG by local authorities. We do not currently hold information on how many accepted these offers.
We announced that councils across England will receive another £1.6 billion in additional funding to?enable them to respond to Covid-19 pressures across the services they deliver,?stepping up support for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people.?This takes the total funding to support councils to respond to the pandemic to £3.2 billion.??This is in addition to £3.2 million in targeted funding to ensure that we minimise the risk to those currently unable to self-isolate.?With this funding councils can provide support to those who need it most, including getting rough sleepers off the street.
The Government has made clear that no one should be without a roof over their head, and this funding further demonstrates our commitment to assist the most vulnerable in society.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to provide (a) support and (b) accommodation for people experiencing homelessness with no recourse to public funds during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is aware of concerns about those with no recourse to public funds experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis.
We are ensuring local authorities are supported, with £3.2 million in targeted funding to help support individuals who are sleeping rough off the streets, and an additional £3.2 billion provided to local authorities as part of the wider government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This funding has been provided to help local authorities to reduce risks to public health and to support individuals on the basis of need.
The legal position on those with no recourse to public funds has not been amended.
The Government recognises that these are unprecedented times, and expects local authorities to support people who are sleeping rough, and also to minimise unnecessary risks to public health, acting within the law.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps they are taking to provide people experiencing homelessness with units to self-isolate during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Government has been working at pace with the GLA and a number of hotel chains across the country to secure accommodation for rough sleepers and we have now introduced a centrally coordinated booking process.
The vast majority of rough sleepers known to local authorities have now been made offers of safe accommodation – ensuring some of the most vulnerable in society are protected from the pandemic. This includes those rough sleeping or who have been living in accommodation with communal sleeping spaces such as night shelters.
This response is backed by £3.2 billion of additional funding for local authorities to enable them to respond to other COVID-19 pressures, including stepping up support for the adult social care workforce and for services helping the most vulnerable, such as those who find themselves experiencing homelessness during this time. This is in addition to £3.2 million in targeted funding to ensure that we minimise the risk to those currently unable to self-isolate.
This funding will assist local authorities with providing accommodation and support to vulnerable people who are at risk of, or who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. We will continue to work closely with local authorities to help ensure that they have the resources they need to protect people who are currently, or at risk of, sleeping rough.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to ensure that personal protective equipment is provided to people working in homelessness services during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
We are working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to provide?personal protective equipment (PPE) to all those that need it, including those working in homelessness services.
To ensure that those facing supply issues and conducting essential work receive the PPE they need, DHSC have set up a cross-government PPE board, that includes the Devolved Administrations, to prioritise requests for PPE. They are using a clinical framework based on the UK guidance to help make these prioritisation decisions and we are distributing this supply as quickly as possible.
This guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control.
The Government has arranged a priority drop of millions of items of PPE to Local Resilience Forums (LRFs): local partnerships that bring together the NHS, councils and the police to coordinate the emergency response locally and plug local gaps. The LRFs are prioritising delivery to key frontline workers according to local need.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the Disabled Facilities Grant is more easily accessible for (a) older tenants and (b) landlords of those tenants in the private rented sector.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Anyone can apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant, including older tenants living in private rented accommodation, subject to a means test and an assessment of need.
Tenure should not impact a person’s ability to access the home adaptations they need. The Government also funds Foundations, the national body for home improvement agencies.
Foundations works closely with local authorities to promote best practice in the delivery of home adaptations, including providing information and advice to older people living in private rented accommodation and their landlords.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all new homes are built to the Lifetime Homes Standard.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We will consult shortly on various options to raise accessibility standards in new homes. This will include considering the use of M4(2), the standard in building regulations for accessible and adaptable homes, which is broadly equivalent to the Lifetime Homes standard.
We also published planning guidance, in June 2019, to help councils meet accessible housing standards in England. This sets an expectation that planning policies on housing should make use of the optional technical standards in the Building Regulations for accessible and adaptable homes.
The Government is also currently undertaking a full review of Part M, the regulation which now includes much of Lifetime Homes.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that new homes are being built to high EPC standards.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is fully committed to meeting its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and recognises the important contribution that the energy efficiency of buildings has to make in meeting it.
We have committed to introduce a Future Homes Standard from 2025 which means that new homes will be fit for the future, with low carbon heating and lower energy use through high levels of energy efficiency. In October 2019 we published a consultation on the Future Homes Standard which proposed that new homes built to this standard should have carbon dioxide emissions 75-80 per cent lower than those built to current building regulations standards.
As a stepping stone to the Future Homes Standard, we have also consulted on a meaningful and achievable increase to the energy efficiency standards for new homes to be introduced through the Building Regulations in 2020, with a further strengthening by 2025.
The Future Homes Standard consultation closed on 7 February 2020. The responses we have received will be considered carefully and a Government response will be published in due course.