Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to amend the indices used to determine the allocations of funding in the levelling up agenda to ensure that they (a) take into account rural deprivation and (b) result in fair funding for Shropshire and other rural areas.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government is committed to ensuring that funding allocations for councils are based on an up-to-date assessment of their needs and resources, including Shropshire Council.
We understand councils want clarity on local government funding reform. For this reason, we committed at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement in December to work closely with our stakeholders over the coming months to look at the challenges and opportunities facing the sector, before consulting on any potential changes.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to amend the current funding mechanism for the local government settlement to ensure that urban areas such as Telford and Wrekin are not favoured over more rural areas in Shropshire.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government is committed to ensuring that funding allocations for councils are based on an up-to-date assessment of their needs and resources, including Shropshire Council.
We understand councils want clarity on local government funding reform. For this reason, we committed at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement in December to work closely with our stakeholders over the coming months to look at the challenges and opportunities facing the sector, before consulting on any potential changes.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to support Shropshire Council in meeting immediate pressures as a result of increased demands on social care services and changes in its demographic make-up by resolving the £50m structural deficit within its operating budget.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement makes available an additional £3.5 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022/23 of over 4% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services.
Local authorities can also make use of over £1 billion of additional resource specifically for social care in 2022/23 through this proposed Settlement. This includes the increase in Social Care Grant and the improved Better Care Fund alongside the additional 1% ASC precept and deferred flexibilities from last year's Settlement.
Further to this, the Government is committed to reforming health and social care, we have announced an additional £5.4 billion investment over three years to begin a comprehensive programme of reform for adult social care. In the provisional Settlement, we set out that £162 million of this funding will be allocated in 2022/23 to support local authorities as they prepare their markets for reform and to help move towards paying a fair cost of care. A further £600 million will be made available in both 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.
For Shropshire Council, these proposals mean a proposed percentage increase to Core Spending Power of up to 7% from £264.5 million in 2021/22 to up to £283 million in 2022/23.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
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 that the final local government finance settlement will provide increased funding for Shropshire Council for 2022-23.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement makes available an additional £3.5 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022/23 of over 4% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services.
For Shropshire Council, these proposals mean a proposed percentage increase to Core Spending Power of up to 7% from £264.5 million in 2021/22 to up to £283 million in 2022/23.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the publication of the provisional settlement in December 2021, if he will take steps to ensure that Shropshire Council receives fair and reasonable funding in the Final Local Government Settlement.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement makes available an additional £3.5 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022/23 of over 4% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services.
For Shropshire Council, these proposals mean a proposed percentage increase to Core Spending Power of up to 7% from £264.5 million in 2021/22 to up to £283 million in 2022/23.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the next round of submissions for Levelling up funding will be opened.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport and investing in cultural and heritage assets. We will open round 2 in Spring 2022 and will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what benefits will arise for (a) Shropshire and (b) other counties from County Deals.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Devolution makes local politicians responsible for issues like transport, infrastructure and skills in their area; it enables those with local knowledge of the businesses and people to fix the problems their communities face; and it gives local residents the chance to judge how well they’re doing at the ballot box.
County Deals will enable local partners in Shropshire and in other counties to come together with powers exercised at the right level to make a difference for local communities. They also offer an opportunity for improvements in governance, efficiency and service delivery. As is the case with all devolution deals, County Deals are about strengthening local leadership, which is essential to levelling up, to delivering better outcomes and more joined-up public services at an appropriate spatial scale, to providing a convening focal point for innovation and local collaboration, and to improving local accountability. Further detail on County Deals will be set out in the Levelling Up White Paper.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has for the future of Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We announced a review of the future of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) at last year’s Spring Budget, and are grateful to LEPs and other stakeholders for their engagement in the review process. We will set out our position on the future of LEPs in the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the future arrangements are for (a) Shropshire and (b) other counties to receive capital funding previously allocated to Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We expect these and other commitments to be delivered in full.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has conducted an economic valuation of the benefit that funding from the Levelling Up Fund will provide for town centres.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Monitoring and evaluation of the Levelling Up Fund will involve a combination of national-level evaluation activity with project-level monitoring and evaluation. As part of business case development, local authorities are required to set out a proportionate plan for project-level monitoring and evaluation. In addition, national-level evaluation activity will include producing and publishing an M&E framework and guidance to support the development of project-level evaluations.