Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to review regulations on the purchase of (a) leasehold properties and (b) the sale of freeholds to third parties by property developers.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Government identified that tackling onerous ground rents and leasehold houses were priorities in the Housing White Paper.
We are also working closely with the Law Commission on leasehold reform, building on their 13th programme of law reform consultation which had a significant response – over 1,000 submissions – on residential leasehold.
We are reviewing issues relating to leasehold and will provide further information shortly.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average (a) annual and (b) monthly cost of private renting in (i) St Helens North constituency, (ii) Merseyside and (iii) the UK was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Statistics on the private rental market in England, Merseyside (Metropolitan County) and in each local authority district including St. Helens, are published by the Valuation Office Agency and are available at the following link:
The Valuation Office Agency advises that because the composition of this sample changes over time, it is not possible to compare median rents provided in this publication with statistics in previous publications to infer trends in the rental market over time. The statistics therefore provide a snapshot that shows the range of rents across England.
The official source on change over time in cost of renting in Great Britain is the Office for National Statistics Index of Private Housing Rental Prices available at the following link:
Statistics are not available at the level of parliamentary constituency or the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 5.5 of Spring Budget 2017, what criteria his Department plans to use to determine the allocation to local authorities of the £2 billion of social care funding.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Department published the allocations for the additional funding for adult social care announced at the Spring Budget 2017 online on 9 March, together with an Explanatory Note.
This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-allocations-of-the-additional-funding-for-adult-social-care.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 5.5 of Spring Budget 2017, what estimate his Department has made of how much of the £2 billion of social care funding will be allocated to (a) St Helens and (b) Merseyside.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Department published the allocations for the additional funding for adult social care announced at the Spring Budget 2017 online on 9 March, together with an Explanatory Note.
This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-allocations-of-the-additional-funding-for-adult-social-care.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will estimate the proportion of land designated as greenbelt in each local authority area in the North West.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Published statistics on the area of designated Green Belt within each local authority area as at 31 March 2016 are available from Annex Table 1 at:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-green-belt-statistics-for-england-2015-to-2016.
Published statistics on the area of each local authority as at 31 December 2016 are available from: http://ons.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=a79de233ad254a6d9f76298e666abb2b on the ONS Open Geography Portal. The ‘area to mean high water (coastline)’ measure is used to calculate the National Statistics figure on the proportion of England that is designated Green Belt.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department has given to support children and young adults in social care in (a) St Helens North, (b) Merseyside and (c) the UK in each year since 2010.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We do not provide funding specifically for children and adults in social care. Local authorities were provided with formula grant in the period 2010-11 to 2012-13, and Revenue Support Grant from 2013-14 onwards, both of which are unringfenced and it is a matter for local discretion how this is spent.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding per head his Department has given to support children and young adults in social care in (a) St Helens North, (b) Merseyside and (c) the UK in each year since 2010.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We do not provide funding specifically for children and adults in social care. Local authorities were provided with formula grant in the period 2010-11 to 2012-13, and Revenue Support Grant from 2013-14 onwards, both of which are unringfenced and it is a matter for local discretion how this is spent.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
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 potential effect of his proposed changes to business rates on (a) Merseyside and (b) the UK.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government intends to move to 100% business rates retention in England by the end of this Parliament. We have confirmed that as part of the new system there will continue to be redistribution of local tax revenue between authorities and protections in place for authorities that see their business rates income fall significantly. Over the coming months we will be working with local government on the details of the scheme.
Ahead of final decisions it is too early to assess what the impact will be on individual areas or authorities, but before the start of the financial year, local authorities in Merseyside estimated that the total business rates income for 2015-16 would be £413.3 million.