Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason the funding allocated to Wirral Council in relation to the covid-19 outbreak was £11,862 million in the first payment and £8,886 million in the second payment.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Following the Government’s announcement on 18 March of an initial wave of £1.6 billion of funding to respond to COVID-19 impacts on local councils, we continued to keep funding pressures under review, using both data collection and ongoing conversations with councils to refine our assessment.
On 28 April, the Secretary of State announced allocations of an additional £1.6 billion to individual local authorities.
Whereas the first funding allocation was primarily allocated to local authorities through the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula, in recognition that the greatest immediate pressures would fall on local authorities with social care responsibilities, this second wave of funding was allocated on a per capita basis. This reflects our latest understanding of the distribution of additional covid-related pressures, which are likely to be distributed in a way that is different from pre-existing needs.
It is important that these two waves of funding are seen together and that false comparisons between the two are avoided. Across both waves, more than 90 per cent of the funding will go to social care authorities. Wirral Council’s share is £20.7 million.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason his Department changed the funding allocation formula for local authorities during the covid-19 outbreak from the cost of social care needs to population figures.
Answered by Simon Clarke
MHCLG continues to work closely with local authorities to manage the impacts of Covid-19 on the most vulnerable in our society.
We are supporting authorities in the fight against coronavirus with over £3.2 billion of additional funding. Our engagement with local councils and latest assessment shows that Covid-19 pressures are not necessarily related to pre-existing needs.? The per capita allocation for the second wave of funding represents a fair and balanced response to the national effort in tackling?coronavirus. Furthermore, both waves of allocations need to be seen together.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions his Department has had with representatives from Wirral Council on the provision of additional funding during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We announced on 18 April an additional £1.6 billion of funding to support councils delivering essential frontline services, taking the total to over £3.2 billion of additional funding. To date, Wirral Council has received £20.8 million of additional funding to support their response to Covid-19. Last month (April), Wirral Council also received an upfront payment of 3 months of social care grants, totalling £2.8 million.
We have continued to engage with local authorities across the sector to develop our understanding of how the additional funding is being used by local authorities, using both monthly data collections and ongoing conversations with councils to refine our assessment. The Department issued a monitoring return to all local authorities, including Wirral Council, on 7 April, and we will issue a second monitoring return later this month. This has been supported by engagement with Local Resilience Forums, councils and their representatives, including our local Delivery Board with Councillors from across the country.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to provide support to (a) Liverpool City Region and (b) Wirral Council in response to the (a) reduction in income and (b) increase in expenditure as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We are supporting authorities in the fight against coronavirus with over £3.2 billion of additional funding. Across both tranches of funding, Liverpool City Region has received £102 million extra to fight this pandemic, whilst Wirral Council has received over £20 million. This funding is unringfenced to allow councils to respond to local priorities, and is in addition to that from other departments – for example to support bus services, Fire and Rescue authorities and local businesses – and the most recent local government finance settlement which provides access to the largest year-on-year increase in Core Spending Power in a decade.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the increase in the costs incurred by Wirral Council as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The additional £20 million for Wirral Council to fight the coronavirus pandemic is expected to cover cost pressures incurred in the first phase of the response. This funding follows the most recent local government finance settlement in which Wirral’s Core Spending Power rose by 6.6 per cent.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the titles of the reviews that his Department is undertaking.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Department is currently undertaking reviews in the following areas:
The Department has also recently undertaken a number of significant reviews. This includes Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, which the Government has committed to taking forward its recommendations. The Building Better Building Beautiful Commission also recently published its final report, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/living-with-beauty-report-of-the-building-better-building-beautiful-commission.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the consultation paper on the Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Government recognises the importance of reassuring local areas on the future of local growth funding as we leave the European Union and of providing clarity on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The Government has been working closely with interested parties across the UK whilst developing the fund. Government officials have held 25 engagement events across the UK, attended by over five hundred representatives from a breadth of sectors, which has helped inform progress on policy design
We will come forward with further details in due course.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the shared prosperity fund will be allocated to (a) the North West and (b) Wirral.
Answered by Jake Berry
Following our departure from the European Union, the 2019 Conservative Manifesto has committed to creating a UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which binds together the whole of the United Kingdom, tackling inequality and deprivation in each of our four nations, and at a minimum match the size of European Structural Funds in each nation.
The Fund will invest in UK priorities and tackle inequalities between communities by raising productivity, especially in those parts of the UK whose economies are furthest behind.
However, the Government has been clear final decisions about the design of the Fund must take place after a cross-government Spending Review.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of children in temporary accommodation in (a) the North West, (b) Liverpool City Region, (c) Wirral and (d) Wallasey constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Luke Hall
The number of children in temporary accommodation in the North West and Wirral at the end of each financial year where figures are available from 2015 to 2019 are provided here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.
Data is collected at the local authority level and therefore not available at lower geographical areas. Figures for Wallasey are therefore not available. Liverpool City Region can be calculated by summing figures for Liverpool, Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens and Wirral. In December 2019 we announced the allocation of £263 million in funding for 2020/21 to local authorities designed to support them to deliver services to tackle homelessness. The purpose of this funding is to give local authorities more control and flexibility in managing homelessness pressures and supporting those who at risk of homelessness, including providing them with temporary accommodation.
England and regional totals include imputations for missing values, including Halton, so the sum of individual figures will not match these totals.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much and what proportion of the Housing Infrastructure Fund funding has been allocated to (a) the North West and (b) Wirral Council.
Answered by Esther McVey
Around £215 million of this has been allocated to the North West, including £6 million to Wirral Council’s Northbank project, which will unlock up to 1,100 homes at Wirral Waters.