Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the need to record people as having been made intentionally homeless on their ability to find new homes.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Where a local housing authority finds an applicant to be intentionally homeless, or intentionally threatened with homelessness, they have a duty to ensure the applicant is provided with advice and assistance in any attempts the applicant may make to secure, or maintain the availability of, accommodation. Where an applicant has a priority need for accommodation the authority also has a duty to secure accommodation for a period that will give the applicant a reasonable opportunity of securing accommodation for their occupation.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to establish a postcode for people made homeless which may be used for job applications and registration with GPs.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Day centres and hostels will frequently operate as a care of address when required. For those people who are homeless and receive support under the main homelessness duty they are provided with temporary accommodation and can use that address.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to establish a time-limit on the housing records of people made intentionally homeless.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We have no plans to set out a time limit. Where a person becomes homeless intentionally, that condition may persist until the link between the deliberate act or omission that caused them to become intentionally homeless and the intentional homelessness itself has been broken. Whether that has happened will depend on the circumstances of the particular case and can be best judged by the local housing authority.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the costs to local authorities of supporting people made intentionally homeless.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Where a household is found to be intentionally homeless, but is in priority need, the local housing authority must also ensure that accommodation is available for long enough to give the applicant a reasonable opportunity to find a home. An applicant can ask the authority to review a decision that they are intentionally homeless and, if still dissatisfied, can appeal to the county court on a point of law. Over the next four years the Government will invest £149 million in central programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness in England. We have also protected and maintained homelessness prevention funding for councils, reaching £315 million by 2019/20, to ensure they can provide advice to all those who approach them for help. In addition, £870 million in Discretionary Housing Payment funding is being provided to councils across the Parliament.
Homelessness data, including households who are intentionally homeless, is published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the costs of cleaning up illegal Traveller sites are recovered from the perpetrators of damage caused.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The government is concerned about unauthorised encampments and the effect that they can have on communities. Local authorities and the police have a wide range of strong powers that enable them to take action and we want to see them working together to address this issue. A summary of the powers is published on the government's website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dealing-with-illegal-and-unauthorised-encampments
This summary includes the powers available to local authorities to clean up after unauthorised encampments. There are also associated powers for local authorities to recover the costs of cleaning up in certain circumstances. Where the perpetrators of fly-tipping can be identified, they can be prosecuted and fined for depositing waste illegally. Swift enforcement action against unauthorised encampments will reduce the opportunities for fly-tipping. Ordering of legal costs and/or damages is at the discretion of the Court.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of helping to provide a legal address at which homeless people can register better to enable them to apply for jobs.
Answered by Marcus Jones
One person without a home is one too many. That is why the Government has increased central investment to tackle homelessness over the next four years to £139 million, including a new £10 million fund to support innovative ways to prevent and reduce rough sleeping, and a new £10 million Social Impact Bond to support rough sleepers with the most complex needs. This will build on the success of the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond in London, which aimed to turn around the lives of 830 entrenched rough sleepers. So far, over half have achieved positive outcomes, including employment outcomes.
Employment can be an important part of an individual’s recovery from a homelessness crisis, and homeless people can use addresses at hostels and day centres to make job applications.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many representations his Department has received from (a) councillors, (b) hon. Members and (c) members of the public expressing concerns over the working of local enterprise partnerships in the last three years.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
This information is not available.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that major property developers provide affordable housing in urban areas.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
National planning policy requires local planning authorities to identify and plan for the market and affordable housing needs in their area. Each Local Plan is examined to ensure that it has robust policies on affordable housing, which may be criteria-based or through specific site allocations. It is then for each local authority to determine, based on the requirement in the Local Plan and the specific viability of individual proposals, the appropriate level of affordable housing for each site on a case-by-case basis.
We will ensure 275,000 new affordable homes are provided between 2015 and 2020. This means we will build more new affordable homes than during any equivalent period in the last twenty years. The Government’s 2011- 2015 Affordable Homes Programme exceeded expectations, delivering nearly 186,000 affordable homes since April 2011, 16,000 more than originally planned.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of specifying that new council homes be allocated half to existing residents on waiting lists and half to new foreign residents.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Social housing is a scarce resource and I believe it is right that available local homes should be allocated to long standing local residents, or those with a well established local association to the area.
The Government’s 2015 Manifesto included a commitment to introduce a new residency requirement, so that EU migrants cannot be considered for social housing unless they have been living here for at least four years; and made clear that this would be taken forward as part of wider EU treaty negotiation on welfare changes.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that housing associations aim to maintain a social mix in an area when selecting tenants.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The key principle behind allocation of social housing is to meet housing need. Allocation of Private Registered Provider (housing association) homes to prospective tenants is done through:
While there is no specific requirement in the Standard regarding maintaining a social mix in the area, Private Registered Providers are required to deliver allocations processes in a way which supports their effective use by the full range of actual and potential tenants. In addition, local authorities are able to use their powers under the Localism Act 2011 to set their own criteria determining who qualifies to go on their waiting list and can use the power to address specific issues identified as problems in the local area.