Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how long a Ukrainian national in resident in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can return to Ukraine for before the payment to the UK sponsor of that person ceases.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Lead sponsors are eligible to claim the £350 “thank you” payment for a full month if their guests were residing at their accommodation for at least half of the month before they left. Payments are paid monthly in arrears and paused payments can resume within the remaining 12 month period of sponsorship when guests return to live with their sponsor.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 16 May 2022 to Question 766, what additional funding will be made available in addition to the initial allocation of £10,500 per person, if required by local authorities to help them with additional emergency accommodation costs.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
I refer the Hon Member to UIN 766 published on 16 May 2022.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will provide further funding to help local authorities with additional emergency accommodation costs in addition to the funding announced under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Funding of £10,500 per person is provided to local authorities under the Homes for Ukraine scheme which includes funding for homelessness. Further details are set out in the published guidance for local authorities.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to extend the Homes for Ukraine scheme that would facilitate matching of volunteers with Ukrainian refugees who are not named individual contacts.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to PQ UIN 145857 on 28 March 2022. The Government is working closely with the voluntary sector, local communities and faith groups, as well as local government and the devolved administrations. Resources for learning Ukrainian and Russian are widely available online.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether proposals set out in the Government's amendments to the Building Safety Bill to introduce a warranty on new builds will be retroactive.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The proposed amendments for new build warranties will apply prospectively to strengthen the future regime. The Bill provides a range of other tools to enable existing homeowners to seek redress from those who created building safety risks, such as the extended limitation period for action under the Defective Premises Act 1972 and our new remediation orders and building liability orders.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of the Welcome Back Fund has been distributed to local authorities.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Our £106 million Welcome Back Fund (WBF) is playing a vital role in supporting local authorities and their communities to bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic.
This funding, which is available until 31 March 2022, has been allocated to 314 local authorities in England on a per capita basis. Councils can incur expenditure on eligible activities and claim up to the full amount of their allocation from Government in quarterly arrears. It is up to places to decide what to spend this funding on, having regard to the Fund's eligibility criteria.
More information, including a list of all local authority funding allocations, can be found in the WBF Guidance and FAQs on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/welcome-back-fund.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department applied the Government's rural proofing process when determining recipients of Levelling Up Fund grants.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK. As set out in the Prospectus and Technical Note published on GOV.UK, all applications to the Levelling Up Fund were fairly and robustly assessed against the published criteria. Through the strategic fit criteria, applicants were invited to set out how their plans aligned to local challenges, strategic plans and wider local and national policy priorities.
Round one of the Levelling Up Fund invested £1.7 billion in 105 projects that will benefit a broad range of rural and urban communities, such as Carmarthenshire County Council’s ‘Tywi Valley Path’ project, which will create economic opportunity and improve accessible transport links in rural Carmarthenshire.
The second round of the Levelling Up Fund will open in spring 2022, and further details will be shared in due course
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish the response to his Department's consultation on local authority remote meetings.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Department is reviewing the responses to the consultation and the Government will respond shortly.