Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he has issued to combined authorities on ensuring that they establish adequate audit and governance arrangements.
Answered by Andrew Percy
Both the primary legislation, and secondary legislation applicable to each combined authority which establish combined authorities, provide for their governance arrangements including requiring each combined authority to establish one or more overview and scrutiny committee and an audit committee. We also intend this autumn, subject to Parliamentary approval, to make an order making provision about how overview and scrutiny committees and audit committee must be operated; in addition we are able to issue statutory guidance on these matters and we will consider whether any such guidance is needed.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support he has provided to local authorities and the construction industry to encourage the promotion of self-build schemes for constructing new homes.
Answered by Lord Barwell
We have a strong commitment to supporting and encouraging the growth of self- and custom build homes.
The Government has implemented new legislation requiring most local planning authorities to hold and have regard to registers for those seeking to build their own home in a local authority area. Subject to Parliamentary processes, in the Autumn we will also introduce secondary legislation flowing from the Housing and Planning Act 2016 which will require local planning authorities to find and give permission to suitable land reflecting the demand demonstrated by the registers. We have made available £32 million in new burdens funding over the Spending Review period in order to support local planning authorities in meeting these new requirements.
In the 2015 Spending Review, the Government also announced a £3 billion loan fund of which £1 billion is specifically earmarked for short term loans to support small and medium builders and custom build projects and is designed to provide further support for the legislation that we have introduced.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 the outcome of the EU referendum on house prices in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Lord Barwell
It is too early to tell. We are keeping markets under review and are actively engaged with house builders. The Secretary of State met with leading industry representatives this week to hear their views.
The strong demand for housing which underpins the housing market continues – as does our commitment to getting them built at a rate that can achieve our ambition for a million more homes and a million more home owners by 2020.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 trends in construction of affordable homes within Calderdale since 2010.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The department publishes statistics on affordable housing supply in each English local authority area in Live Table 1008, which is available to download from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 trends in home ownership in Calderdale since 2005.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The department collects information on home ownership via the English Housing Survey (EHS). The size of the EHS sample does not permit us to produce local authority estimates. England figures going back to 1980 can be found in AT1.1 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/501068/2014-15_Section_1_Households_tables_and_figures_FINAL.xlsx
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 effectiveness of local authorities in processing and deciding planning applications within recommended timescales.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Between January and March 2016, local planning authorities decided 82 per cent of major applications on time; the highest figure on record.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 work with local authorities whose areas experienced flooding over winter 2015-16 in order to support their local high street economy.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
DCLG launched a funding package in December worth £100 million to directly support flooded householders and businesses by:
Our Recovery Package also supports homes and businesses to protect their properties against future floods through the Property Level Resilience Scheme.
In addition to this bespoke recovery package, we’re taking action to help high streets thrive through a range of targeted tax breaks, sensible planning changes and measures to ensure fairer parking for motorists. At the Budget, we announced the biggest ever cut in business rates in England – worth £6.7 billion over the next five years and cutting business rates for all ratepayers, meaning 600,000 of the smallest businesses won’t have to pay business rates again.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 encourage local authorities to (a) create a business-friendly environment and (b) expand their business rates base.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The business rates retention scheme was introduced in 2013-14 to give councils greater autonomy over their finances and to incentivise them to grow their business rates base. According to local authority forecasts, 54% of authorities benefitted from growth above assumed levels in 2013-14, which has risen to 91% in 2016-17. By the end of the Parliament, local authorities will retain 100% of their business rates, further strengthening the incentive for growth. Councils will also have the power to cut the business rates multiplier to improve the business environment for enterprise and attract further businesses to their area.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 encourage local authorities to offer apprenticeships.
Answered by Marcus Jones
My Department is working closely across Government and with the Local Government Association to encourage local authorities to start planning now so they can take advantage of the opportunities both the apprenticeship levy and targets offer to meet skills shortages and increase apprenticeship numbers. The Department has already jointly hosted, with BIS and the Local Government Association, two successful round table events with local authorities to support them in meeting the challenge of significantly increasing the numbers of apprenticeships in the wider public sector.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the balances held by all English local authorities.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The most recent local authority data held by the Department for Communities and Local Government is the estimated position for financial year 2015-16. Local authorities have estimated that their reserve balances as at 31 March 2016 will be as follows:
Ringfenced school reserves £2,213.16 million
Ringfenced public health reserves £138.83 million
Non ringfenced other earmarked reserves £13,396.76 million
Non ringfenced unallocated reserves £3,736.79 million
Full details can be found on the department’s webpage https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2015-to-2016-individual-local-authority-data