Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to end Government support for the Whitehaven Coal Mine in the context of the UK’s climate commitments under the Paris and Glasgow COP Agreements.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
A public inquiry examining the proposal for a new coking coal mine in Cumbria took place in September and October. Following the close of that inquiry, the independent planning Inspector who oversaw it is preparing a report and recommendation for Ministers to consider. As with all planning cases that come to Ministers to decide, once that report is received a timetable for issuing a final decision will be set.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to end Government support for Oil Drilling in Horse Hill, Surrey in the context of the UK’s climate commitments under the Paris and Glasgow COP Agreements.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
As the case remains before the Courts following the recent hearing, it would not be appropriate to comment.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to strengthen the powers of local authorities to intervene in unsafe workplaces during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
This is the policy responsibility of my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many deaths have been recorded as a result of homeless people taking shelter in bins which are then removed by refuse workers in each of the last twelve months; what steps he is taking to help prevent further such deaths; and whether he plans to provide training to refuse workers to help reduce the risk of further deaths.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Every premature death of someone homeless is one too many and we take this matter extremely seriously.?It should not happen that people die prematurely?and on the street?because they are homeless.
We are absolutely committed to ending rough sleeping by the end of this parliament. To achieve this, we are providing £437 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in 2020/2021.This marks a £69 million increase in funding from the previous year.
This year we have expanded the Rough Sleeping Initiative with investment of £46 million for 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff. Next year, we are allocating a further £112 million to around 270 areas, funding up to 6,000 bed spaces and 2,500 staff. And this is having an impact.?The RSI?impact evaluation?shows that the Initiative has reduced the number of people sleeping rough by 32 per cent in the areas funded, compared to the number it would have been had the RSI not been in place.
We do not hold data on the?number of deaths as a result of people taking shelter in refuse bins.?However, we understand some local councils and businesses have conducted research and supplied advice on this issue in recent years.
This Government is aware that a skilled frontline workforce is essential to delivering good services and ultimately reducing homelessness.?Delivery of the?Key Groups?Training programme launched in Summer 2019. ?The training programme is expected to cater for 3,450 members of the frontline homelessness workforce by the end of June 2020.
Local authorities and outreach teams work tirelessly to ensure that appropriate support is given to all rough sleepers regardless of where they are found, be that in tents, doorways, bins or on the street.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the effect on regional disparities of the proposed move to 100 per cent business rate retention.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is continuing to work with the sector on the aim to increase retention of locally retained business rates from 50 per cent to 75 per cent from April 2021. The current Local Government Finance system has measures in place to ensure that funds are distributed according to assessed relative needs. Ensuring that the system continues to provide incentives for local growth, while ensuring funding appropriately matches spending needs, is an important objective for the Government.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with local authority leaders on the effect on Leicester City Council’s budget of (a) the 75 per cent business rate retention pilot and (b) 100 per cent business rate retention.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities taking part in the 2019-20 one year business rates retention pilot programme retain an additional level of growth in business rates compared to other authorities. These areas have flexibility over how they spend this additional income. These pilot areas have provided us with useful information which will help inform the future direction of business rates retention reform. There will be no further pilots in 2020-21.
The Government is continuing to work with the sector on the aim to increase retention of locally retained business rates from 50 per cent to 75 per cent from April 2021. This would give local authorities greater control over locally raised taxes. We are continuing to work collaboratively with the local government sector on the future direction of reform.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department is providing to meet the demand for social care in Leicester.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government has recognised and responded to the pressures local authorities are facing on social care and other frontline services: the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2020-21 gives them access to the largest year-on-year increase in Core Spending Power (CSP) for almost a decade, an estimated 4.4 per cent real terms increase.
This includes an additional £1 billion in grant funding for adult and children’s social care, £10 million of which has been allocated to Leicester City Council. This is on top of the continuation of existing social care grant funding, and the 2 per cent Adult Social Care precept which will enable councils to access a further £500 million. Longer term funding decisions will be made at the next Spending Review.