Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 support young carers in the UK.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
The carers action plan sets out the Government’s commitment to supporting carers and outlines the cross-government programme of work to support carers in England over the next two years, building on the National Carers Strategy.
Over this spending period councils in England will also be able to access more than £200 billion to spend on local services. The majority of this funding is non-ringfenced as it is for local authorities, who are independent of central government, to manage their budgets in line with locally determined priorities.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 improve support for people who sleep rough who are non-UK nationals.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
No one should ever have to sleep rough, regardless of background or nationality. That is why we have committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and ending it by 2027.
On the 13 August 2018 the government published the Rough Sleeping Strategy in which we laid out a number of new interventions to improve support for non-UK nationals who sleep rough. This includes:
These interventions compliment the £100 million Controlling Migration Fund, which has already supported a number of projects to help non-UK nationals away from the street and is currently open to further bids from local authorities.
The Rough Sleeping Strategy is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733421/Rough-Sleeping-Strategy_WEB.pdf
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 increase the number of affordable homes that are built in the UK.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We have announced a range measures to support housing associations and local authorities to build more genuinely affordable homes across England.
We are lifting the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap so that local authorities can deliver a new generation of council housing and we have made £9 billion available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022 to deliver 250,000 new affordable homes of a wide range of tenures, including social rent homes where they are needed most.
The Prime Minister recently announced a £2 billion long term funding pilot, starting in 2022, committing this funding up to 2028-29. This ten year funding commitment marks the first time any government has offered housing associations such long-term funding certainty.
We have also confirmed long-term rent certainty for social landlords in England and in August we published our consultation on options for allowing local authorities more flexibility in the use of their Right to Buy receipts.
Affordable housing provision in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 reduce the number of people who reach the point of rough sleeping.
Answered by Nigel Adams
No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why this Government has committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and ending it altogether by 2027.
In order to make an immediate impact, in March this year we announced the new Rough Sleeping Initiative which has allocated £30 million this year at 83 local authorities with high levels of rough sleeping. This is funding over 500 new dedicated homelessness workers and will provide an additional 1,750 bed spaces.
Last month the Government published the Rough Sleeping Strategy which, building on the work of the Rough Sleeping Initiative, sets out the initial plans to achieving the manifesto commitments. We have worked across Government, with the homelessness sector and local areas to set out our ambitious long-term vision for how both local and central government will work together, based around three core pillars: Prevention, Intervention and Recovery, with a focus on moving to a 'rapid rehousing' approach. The aims of the pillars are to prevent people from rough sleeping, intervene when individuals find themselves in this position and aid whatever recovery they need to help sustain suitable accommodation solutions.
The Rough Sleeping Strategy details £100 million of investment over the next 2 years to tackle rough sleeping. Some of the main elements include an additional £45 million for the Rough Sleeping Initiative in 2019/20, up to £17 million in funding for Somewhere Safe to Stay pilots, up to £19 million to deliver a new supported lettings fund, £5 million to help local areas take action on migrants who are sleeping rough and £10 million funding for rough sleeping navigators.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2018 to Question 142845 on Social Rented Housing, and the Answer of 15 June 2018 to Question 152763 on Local Government Finance: Somerset, what assessment his Department has made of the ability of Somerset County Council to deliver a consistent quality of service across a range of priorities.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
The Department constantly reviews the challenges facing the sector and individual authorities. Local authorities are independent bodies responsible for setting their own budgets, and for the prudent financial planning and management of their resources to deliver the services required to meet local needs. They can receive sector-led support provided by the Local Government Association to address their challenges.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June 2018 to Question 152765 on Social Rented Housing, what other sources of local authority borrowing used for the purpose of the provision of housing there are aside from (a) the European Investment Bank and (b) Public Works Loan Board.
Answered by Dominic Raab
Primary legislation gives local authorities the power to borrow in sterling, from any lender, without prior government consent, subject only to assuring themselves that their borrowing is affordable.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to ensure that lending alternatives equivalent to those currently provided by the European Investment Bank are available to local authorities for the provision of housing after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Government considers that it may prove to be in the mutual interest of all sides for the UK to maintain some form of ongoing relationship with the EIB Group after leaving the EU. We will explore these options with the EU as part of the negotiations on the future relationship, and will also consider whether any further government support is required.
Most local authority borrowing is from non-EIB sources. The largest source of this borrowing is the Public Works Loan Board, which is a statutory body that exclusively lends to local authorities and other local government entities in the UK.
The UK has a stable and well-established framework for attracting investment into infrastructure, and a recent study suggested that the UK has one of the world’s most dynamic infrastructure markets. We expect these mechanisms to continue to deliver. We will continue to monitor whether any further support is required to continue to ensure good projects can raise the finance they need.