Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what powers his Department has devolved to the Mayor of London to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Greater London Authority (GLA) Act sets out the Mayor of London’s powers in relation to housing and planning which can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/24/contents (section 6 and 7).
The Act determines that the Mayor must prepare and publish a London Housing Strategy, which outlines plans for tackling rough sleeping and homelessness in the capital. This can be found here: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2018_lhs_london_housing_strategy.pdf
We are currently funding the GLA to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the capital in a number of ways including:
In addition to this, at Spring Statement 2018, the Chancellor announced that we will be providing London with an additional £1.67 billion from the Affordable Homes Programme to support the Mayor to build a further 26,000 affordable homes – two-thirds will be homes for rent.
This has increased our investment in London to over £4.8 billion for at least 116,000 affordable homes by March 2022.
The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough and that is why this summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to introduce any proposals in the revised National Planning Policy framework to make changes to the Waste Planning Policy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dominic Raab
As part of the consultation on the draft revised National Planning Policy Framework, the Government has asked at question 42 if any consequential changes should be made to the National Planning Policy for Waste, as a result of the proposed changes to the Framework. The consultation closes on 10 May 2018. We welcome views on this issue in response to the consultation.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when the Government's guidance on abandonment of properties under the provisions of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 is planned to come into force.
Answered by Lord Sharma
No date has yet been planned for publication of guidance on abandonment of properties under the provisions of the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans for the provisions of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 relating to client money protection to come into force.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Government is committed to making membership of a Client Money Protection scheme mandatory for letting and managing agents to ensure that tenants and landlords get the financial protection they want and deserve. A consultation seeking views on the detail of implementation was launched on 1 November ahead of bringing legislation forward.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to his letter of 16 July 2015 to Joanne Demetrius of Veolia ES (UK) Ltd, reference APP/M1900/V/13/2192045, if he will place in the Library copies of documents (a) VES/11/1 - Proof of Evidence - Steven Kosky - Planning, (b) VES/11/2 Summary to Proof of Evidence - Steven Kosky - Planning, (c) VES/11/3 Appendices to Proof of Evidence - Steve Kosky - Planning and (d) VES/11/4 Supplementary Proof of Evidence - Steven Kosky - Planning.
Answered by Lord Barwell
I will deposit these documents in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to his letter of 16 July 2015 to Joanne Demetrius of Veolia ES (UK) Ltd, reference APP/M1900/V/13/2192045, if he will place in the Library a copy of the correspondence between his Department and Mr Kosky referred to in paragraph 250 of that letter.
Answered by Lord Barwell
At the point in his Report where the Inspector refers to Mr Kosky’s opinion, the Inspector was paraphrasing the closing submission made on behalf of Veolia, rather than referring to any correspondence between Mr Kosky and the department. No such correspondence exists.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment he has made of which of his Department's agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Government's view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed.
The Government will be setting out this view in a consultation which will be published shortly.
The changes proposed under the Directive should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. HM Treasury regularly raises these issues with financial institutions and the regulator, and we encourage financial institutions to take a proportionate, risk-based approach when applying these measures.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has for the future of the homelessness gold standard programme.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Homelessness Gold Standard programme is a voluntary, sector-led initiative delivered by the National Practitioner Support Service and hosted by Winchester City Council to support local authorities to improve the effectiveness of homelessness prevention services. We provided £2.2 million between 2013/14 and 2014/15 to kick start the programme and help to get the scheme off the ground. Nearly all councils in England have signed up to working toward the Gold Standard, thus enabling them to access the support and good practice the programme offers. There are no current plans for future spending.