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Written Question
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council: Correspondence
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will encourage the Chief Executive of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council to respond to correspondence from the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish on (a) Denton Community College academisation, (b) Tameside Children’s Services scorecard data and (c) Denton Christmas lights.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Councils are independent, democratic bodies accountable to the communities they serve and responsible for managing correspondence.


Written Question
Local Government: Correspondence
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department provides to local authority chief executives on responding to correspondence from Rt hon. and hon. Members.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Councils are independent, democratic bodies accountable to the communities they serve and responsible for managing correspondence.


Written Question
Empty Property
Wednesday 7th June 2023

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department expects all local authorities to have an empty homes strategy in place.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The number of long-term empty homes remains substantially lower than when records began in 2004. As of May 2010, over 300,000 homes in England had been standing empty for longer than 6 months. As of October 2022, the number of long-term empty properties had fallen to 248,633.

The Government wants to encourage empty homes back into use and to empower local leaders to reinvest in their communities. Local authorities already have many powers and strong incentives to tackle empty homes. Through the New Homes Bonus, they receive the same level of reward for bringing an empty home back into use as building a new one.


Written Question
Empty Property
Wednesday 7th June 2023

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help ensure councils bring empty homes back into use.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The number of long-term empty homes remains substantially lower than when records began in 2004. As of May 2010, over 300,000 homes in England had been standing empty for longer than 6 months. As of October 2022, the number of long-term empty properties had fallen to 248,633.

The Government wants to encourage empty homes back into use and to empower local leaders to reinvest in their communities. Local authorities already have many powers and strong incentives to tackle empty homes. Through the New Homes Bonus, they receive the same level of reward for bringing an empty home back into use as building a new one.


Written Question
UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Tuesday 25th October 2022

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department has provided to councils on engaging with local MPs applications to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

The department has set out in the UKSPF prospectus, that Members of the UK Parliament play an important role in representing the views of their constituents, working collaboratively with local authorities and other local partners to work for the good of local places. The prospectus indicates that they should be closely engaged in the design and delivery of the Fund.

Each area’s investment plan sought details on the MPs involved in the local partnership group and whether each are supportive of the final plan. I expect that the investment plan demonstrates local consensus for the plan.

Lead local authorities are also encouraged to engage proactively and constructively with MPs on a periodic basis, post investment plan sign-off.


Written Question
UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Tuesday 25th October 2022

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled UK Shared Prosperity Fund: prospectus, published in August 2022, whether local authorities should give Members of Parliament the opportunity to (a) challenge or (b) suggest changes to UK Shared Prosperity Fund bid proposals before they are submitted.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

In England, Scotland and Wales, local government (including mayoral combined authorities) has responsibility for developing an Investment Plan for consideration by the UK Government, and responsibility for delivery of the fund thereafter – including assessing and approving project applications, processing payments and day-to-day monitoring. This recognises that pride in place can be best achieved by delivery close to local people and businesses, by authorities that understand each place’s unique local context.

Lead local authorities are tasked with working with a diverse range of local and regional stakeholders, civil society organisations, employer bodies responsible for identifying local skills plans, and businesses or business representative groups to achieve Fund outcomes in their areas. In guidance, we set out the types of groups we would suggest are involved in the delivery of the fund, but the precise composition will be for each place to determine, based on their needs.


Written Question
UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Tuesday 25th October 2022

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled UK Shared Prosperity Fund: prospectus, published in August 2022, whether Members of Parliament should be given full rationale and explanation of the selection of bids submitted to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund before they are submitted.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

In England, Scotland and Wales, local government (including mayoral combined authorities) has responsibility for developing an Investment Plan for consideration by the UK Government, and responsibility for delivery of the fund thereafter – including assessing and approving project applications, processing payments and day-to-day monitoring. This recognises that pride in place can be best achieved by delivery close to local people and businesses, by authorities that understand each place’s unique local context.

Lead local authorities are tasked with working with a diverse range of local and regional stakeholders, civil society organisations, employer bodies responsible for identifying local skills plans, and businesses or business representative groups to achieve Fund outcomes in their areas. In guidance, we set out the types of groups we would suggest are involved in the delivery of the fund, but the precise composition will be for each place to determine, based on their needs.


Written Question
UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Tuesday 25th October 2022

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled UK Shared Prosperity Fund: prospectus, published in August 2022, whether (a) leaders of local councils and (b) the leader of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council to have full involvement and sight of UK Shared Prosperity Fund bid proposals before they are submitted.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

In England, Scotland and Wales, local government (including mayoral combined authorities) has responsibility for developing an Investment Plan for consideration by the UK Government, and responsibility for delivery of the fund thereafter – including assessing and approving project applications, processing payments and day-to-day monitoring. This recognises that pride in place can be best achieved by delivery close to local people and businesses, by authorities that understand each place’s unique local context.

Lead local authorities are tasked with working with a diverse range of local and regional stakeholders, civil society organisations, employer bodies responsible for identifying local skills plans, and businesses or business representative groups to achieve Fund outcomes in their areas. In guidance, we set out the types of groups we would suggest are involved in the delivery of the fund, but the precise composition will be for each place to determine, based on their needs.


Written Question
UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Greater Manchester
Monday 24th October 2022

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will meet the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish to discuss the level of consultation by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council with Members of Parliament on the formulation of UK Shared Prosperity Fund bids.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

The Department has set out that Members of the UK Parliament should be closely engaged in the design and delivery of the Fund.

In most cases, all MPs in the area should be invited to join a local partnership group for UKSPF. Where an authority or strategic geography is so large that this is impractical (in places like Greater Manchester), the Department has indicated that lead local authorities should invite all MPs for the place to a convened engagement group, and ensure their views are represented on the local partnership group.

We have delegated responsibility for designing the fund to each lead local authority. For Tameside, this is the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which will be able to provide you with greater detail around the level of consultation and ongoing involvement in fund delivery.

I would be delighted to meet to discuss this further.


Written Question
Local Plans: Tameside
Wednesday 25th May 2022

Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the difference in status will be between Greater Manchester's Places for Everyone and Tameside's Local Plan.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Both the submitted Places for Everyone Plan and an emerging Tameside Local Plan are development plan documents. If both Places for Everyone and the Tameside Local Plan are found sound and adopted they will together form the development plan for the Tameside area.

Plans gain weight in decision making as they progress through the plan making process.

Places for Everyone has been submitted for examination, but until a plan is found sound and has been adopted it has limited weight in decision making. The Tameside Local Plan is still at an early stage of preparation and there has been no consultation on a draft plan as yet.