Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on the design of the (a) Levelling Up Fund and (b) the Community Renewal Fund.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The UK Government is providing an additional £220 million funding through the UK Community Renewal Fund to help local areas prepare for the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022. The Fund aims to support people and communities most in need across the UK to pilot programmes and new approaches and will invest in skills, community and place, local business, and supporting people into employment.
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.
The UK Government intends to continue to work with the devolved administrations to ensure that funding is used to best effect and supports citizens across the UK. For both funds, where appropriate, the UK Government will seek advice from the devolved administrations on bids to ensure that they are deliverable and complementary to other provision.
UK Government officials regularly engage their counterparts in the devolved administrations to discuss any updates, concerns or queries. UK Government ministers recently met with ministers in the Welsh Government to discuss the UK Community Renewal Fund, the Levelling Up Fund and the UK Community Ownership Fund.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a scheme of support similar to that offered by the Government for properties affected by precast reinforced concrete to help homeowners affected by deficient cladding.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has made £1.6 billion of funding available to support the remediation of high rise residential buildings with unsafe cladding in England. This will deal with some of the highest risk and highest cost safety defects in our existing high rise stock, protecting leaseholders from the vast majority of these costs.
However, Government funding is not the only means of funding remediation. The Government expects building owners to meet costs without passing them on to leaseholders wherever possible, through their own resources or by recovering costs from applicable warranty schemes or from the developers or contractors who were responsible for the installation of unsafe cladding, as is happening with more than half of the private sector buildings with Aluminium Composite Material cladding.
The Government is accelerating work on a long-term solution. We are determined to remove barriers to fixing historic defects and identify financing solutions that help to protect leaseholders, whilst also helping to protect the taxpayer. We will provide an update as soon as we are in a position to do so.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what process will be used to allocate funding from the Shared Prosperity Fund across the UK.
Answered by Luke Hall
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will operate across the Union to make sure each of the four nations prosper. The Conservative Manifesto committed to at a minimum matching the size of European structural funds in each nation. Decisions regarding the design of the fund will need to be taken after a fiscal event. In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with interested parties whilst developing the fund.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of changing the tax regulations which allow second home owners to avoid paying full council tax by registering their properties as holiday lets.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Council tax is a devolved matter and the Welsh Government is responsible for the relevant legislation in Wales.
In England, a property may be registered as a holiday let – and therefore assessed for business rates rather than council tax – only if it is available for short-term let for 140 days or more a year.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has consulted on the criteria under which a holiday let is liable for business rates rather than council tax in England and is currently considering responses to that consultation.