Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much of the £4.8 billion increase in local government spending announced in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 is available in each of the next three years; and whether those amounts include funds from the National Insurance levy.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
In his spending review announcement on 27 October 2021, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced around £1.6 billion additional LGDEL funding for each year of the Spending Review for social care and other services.
This is in addition to the £5.4 billion announced on 7 September to support reforms for adult social care. This includes £3.6 billion to reform the social care charging system and enable all local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair rate for care; and a further £1.8 billion to institute major improvements across the social care system in England, including at least £500 million investment in the workforce. Further details will be announced later this year in the Adult Social Care Reform White Paper.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to take steps to increase (a) consumer protection in respect of and (b) information on older people’s housing; and whether the Government plans to implement the recommendations made by the Law Commission in its report, Event fees in retirement properties, published in March 2017.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill currently in Parliament will put an end to ground rents for new residential leasehold properties as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation. The Bill's provisions will lead to fairer, more transparent homeownership for thousands of future leaseholders.
This includes retirement properties, where purchasers of new leases will not be faced with financial demands for ground rent.
In 2017, the Law Commission published a report of their review of event fees on behalf of this Department. This followed concerns raised by the Competition and Markets Authority about the fairness of some retirement property leases that have resulted in leaseholders paying an event fee of between 0.25% and 30% of the sale price of the property when selling or sub-letting. Concerns were also raised about the lack of transparency of event fees for older people and their families when purchasing a leasehold retirement property. The Law Commission made a number of recommendations in its report, which can be downloaded at http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/event-fees-in-retirement-properties.
The Government responded to the Law Commission, thanking them for the report and agreeing to implement the majority of the recommendations.
The Government is considering two further recommendations, on succession rights and a database of leasehold retirement properties with event fees, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of a C2R planning classification for housing-with-care, recommended by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee in its report The future of the planning system in England, published on 10 June 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
National planning policy is clear that plan making authorities are expected to have clear policies for addressing the housing needs of older and disabled people
The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended) puts uses of land and buildings into various categories known as 'Use Classes'. In planning terms, homes for older people or those with a disability etc, may be C2 residential institutions or C3(b) dwellinghouse for up to six people living together as a single household, including cases where there is an element of care, or they may not be in a use class.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with refence to the Plan for Health and Social Care, published September 2021, what is the net change in funding to local authorities resulting from the proposals in that Plan; what estimate he has made of the specific increases and decreases in funding to local authorities relating to that Plan resulting in (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
This Government intends to compensate public sector employers for the increased cost of the Levy.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the increase in employers National Insurance payments on local authority contracts as a result of the changes in the NHS and Social Care plan in financial years (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
This Government intends to compensate public sector employers for the increased cost of the Levy.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to local authorities of the increase in Employers National Insurance payments as result of the changes in the NHS and Social Care Plan in each of the following financial years (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
This Government intends to compensate public sector employers for the increased cost of the Levy.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received from (a) local authorities and (b) local government groups on extending the power to allow councils to continue meeting remotely after the expiry of the relevant powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020 on 6 May 2021.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government keeps all policy under review. To extend the facility for all local authorities to continue to meet remotely or in hybrid form after 7 May 2021 would require primary legislation. We have received representations from local authorities and sector representative organisations making the case for the continuation of remote meetings beyond 7 May 2021 and we are carefully considering next steps in this area.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to extend the power to allow councils to continue meeting remotely after the expiry of the relevant powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020 on 6 May 2021.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government keeps all policy under review. To extend the facility for all local authorities to continue to meet remotely or in hybrid form after 7 May 2021 would require primary legislation. We have received representations from local authorities and sector representative organisations making the case for the continuation of remote meetings beyond 7 May 2021 and we are carefully considering next steps in this area.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the potential cost to leaseholders of essential non-cladding work to make buildings fire safe.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 10 February, the Secretary of State announced an unprecedented investment in building safety and hundreds of thousands of leaseholders will be protected from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes. The Government has rightly targeted funding at the removal of dangerous cladding to make homes safer, quicker – the costs for remediating this are high, and the risks posed by it are also high.
Our approach prioritises action on buildings 18 metres and above, where risk to multiple households is greater when fire does spread. This is in line with longstanding expert advice on which buildings are at the highest risk.
We want to go further, and through an additional package we will provide a financing scheme for the remediation of dangerous cladding to support remediation of buildings of between 11 and 18 metres in height. As part of this financing scheme, leaseholder payments towards remediation costs will be capped at a maximum of £50 per month.
We are also providing £30 million in funding to pay for the costs of installing an alarm system in high rise residential buildings with unsafe cladding. Common alarm systems will enable costly waking watch measures to be replaced in buildings waiting to have unsafe cladding removed.
Section 11 of the Building Safety Bill: Impact Assessment provides estimates of the average costs per building for addressing safety remediation in high rise (18m and above) buildings. These estimates consider all necessary remediation, which goes beyond façade remediation.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his oral statement of 10 February 2021, Official Report, Column 329 on Building Safety, whether the money raised from the proposed developer levy is in addition to the £3.5 million announced for the removal of cladding on buildings over 18 metres in height.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We announced on 10 February 2021 plans to introduce a developer levy at Gateway 2 of the new Building Safety Regime. This will help to ensure that the industry takes collective responsibility for historical building safety defects. We will be setting out details of the levy and it will be implemented through the forthcoming Building Safety Bill.