Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 incorporate the Government's new loneliness strategy into its policy formulation process.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is one of nine Government departments contributing to the cross-government work on loneliness. ‘A connected society: a strategy for tackling loneliness - laying the foundations for change’, sets out the Department’s commitment to tackling loneliness across a range of areas, including funding research into the impact of community-led housing and cohousing solutions on loneliness and working with the Local Government Association (LGA) and National Association of Local Councils (NALC) to explore an effective means of sharing learning and good practice.
The loneliness strategy takes action on the Jo Cox Commission’s recommendation for a family test: it requires government departments to report on their work on tackling loneliness in their annual Single Departmental Plans from 2019/20 and commits to including loneliness in the guidance for the Family Test.
The Inter-Ministerial Group on Loneliness will be continuing to explore additional options to ensure social relationships are considered across Government’s wider policy-making. The Ministerial Group will publish an annual progress report on the loneliness agenda, recognising that this is just the start of government’s work on this issue.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information he holds on the number of hostel beds which have been available to tackle rough sleeping in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Homeless Link is commissioned by MHCLG to conduct an annual review of hostel bed spaces: in 2017 Homelessness Link reported that there were 35,727 bed spaces. We expect the next review will be released in March 2019. This review has been performed annually since 2008 and the data is publically available. The latest information can be found here:
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of rough sleepers in (a) towns and cities with a population above 150,000 and (b) towns and cities with a population of under 150,000 in each of the last seven years.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Rough sleeping statistics for England are published at local authority level and are not based on population size. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes this information annually and the latest statistics for autumn 2017 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2017.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, Providing personalised support to rough sleepers, what assessment he has made of the viability of personalised support and direct cash transfers as a policy to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
We recognise the importance of providing personalised support and its role in helping people who are rough sleeping or have a history of doing so.
As this is a devolved issue, MHCLG does not cover homelessness and housing policy in Wales and therefore, the following information relates only to England.
In August, we announced funding for ‘navigators’ who will support individuals from their first contact with services through to settled accommodation and will be able to make use of personalised budgets where appropriate. We recently launched a prospectus for our Rapid Rehousing Pathway, which will include navigators and we expect early adopters to start delivering in early 2019.
We are also funding seven Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) to work with long-term rough sleepers who have multiple complex needs towards positive accommodation, employment and health outcomes. The SIB model includes a personalised budget that can be flexibly used to best support individuals to maintain their accommodation and improve their wellbeing.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the amount of funding per head of population his Department has allocated to each local authority in ranked order for each year since 2010.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
Core Spending Power is a measure of the resources available to a local authority to fund its services. It includes Settlement Funding Assessment (business rates baseline funding level plus Revenue Support Grant), Council Tax and other central government grants. There is no consistent measure of Core Spending Power prior to 2015-16. Figures for the period 2015-16 to 2019-20 are available at the below link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679611/Core_Spending_Power_Supporting_Information.xlsx.The Department does not publish Core Spending Power per capita. The Office for National Statistics has published population statistics which can be found at the below link:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationestimatesforukenglandandwalesscotlandandnorthernireland.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of rough sleepers who have spent time in foster care.
Answered by Nigel Adams
It is vital we ensure all young people, particularly those who have been in care, have the right support and skills to live independently in later life. In the recently announced Rough Sleeping strategy, the Government has committed to fund £3.2 million in 47 areas to employ specialist personal advisers to provide intensive support, appropriate to needs of the most at-risk care leavers.
The Government’s most recent annual rough sleeping statistics for England were published in autumn 2017 and can be found on the gov.uk website. Statistics for Wales are published by the Welsh Government and the annual rough sleeping snapshot for Wales, published on 1 February 2018, can be found on gov.wales. In addition, CHAIN, which records information about people sleeping rough in London, shows 580 people seen rough sleeping in 2017/18 had previous experience of living in care at some point in their lives.
In April 2018 the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Governments introduced a new case-level data collection called H-CLIC (Homelessness Case Level Information Collection). This will give local authorities and Government more information regarding homelessness and those presenting as homeless, including those individuals who have been in care and who have slept rough.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many rough sleepers there were in each region of the UK in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes annual statistics on rough sleeping. Rough sleeping counts and estimates are single night snapshots of the number of people sleeping rough in local authority areas and are published at local authority level. The latest statistics for autumn 2017 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2017
This is the eighth annual statistical release presenting rough sleeping counts and estimates following the introduction of revised guidance in September 2010.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 Written Statement of 24 July 2018 on Local Growth, HLWS898, what the timeframe is for the start of the consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Jake Berry
We continue to work on the design and priorities of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund ahead of an intended public consultation later this year, as announced in the Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library a copy of the consultation process on proposed funding mechanisms which will replace EU structural funding after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government continues to develop the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), a domestic programme of investment to reduce economic inequalities across our four nations following our departure from the European Union.
We will consult widely on the design of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2018, as announced in the Industrial Strategy white paper. The Government has committed to engage with the devolved administrations on the design of the UKSPF prior to this public consultation.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many banning orders for landlords were (a) issued and (b) accepted in each nation and region of the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The regulations made under the Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduced banning orders for private landlords and property agents who have been convicted of serious housing, immigration and other criminal offences. The regulations came into force on 6 April 2018 and apply to England only.
A relevant offence must have been committed on or after 6 April 2018 for a local housing authority to be permitted to apply for a banning order. A notice of intent must be made by the local authority within 6 months of the landlord being convicted of the offence followed by an application to the First Tier Tribunal which has the power to issue the banning order.
To date no banning orders have been made by the First Tier Tribunal.