Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We expect these and other commitments to be delivered in full.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
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.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his timetable is for announcing the next round of funds from the Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
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. Further detail on how the Fund will operate from 2022-23 onwards will be set out later this year.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to evaluate and support Shrewsbury to receive funding from the Towns Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Towns Fund, which comprises Town Deals and the Future High Streets Fund (FHSF), will drive the economic regeneration of towns and high streets across England to deliver long-term economic and productivity growth. The Levelling Up Fund builds on this, making £4.8 billion available to ensure more places, like Shrewsbury, can benefit from investment in local infrastructure that will improve our towns and high streets and drive long-term economic growth.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on ground rent for leasehold properties for people who will be ineligible for proposed zero ground rent reforms.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government has set out a package of measures to tackle unfair practices in the leasehold market and promote transparency and fairness for both leaseholders and freeholders. We will bring forward legislation in the upcoming session to set future ground rents to zero.
We set out the detailed proposals for this policy in our response to the technical consultation Implementing reforms to the leasehold system in England (see https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/implementing-reforms-to-the-leasehold-system). The measure will also apply to retirement properties. There will be exemptions for community-led development, equity release products known as ‘Home Reversion Plans’ and Shariah Finance compliant ‘Home Purchase Plans’.
We understand the difficulties and frustrations for existing leaseholders who are unhappy with the ground rent they are required to pay and feel their leases should be changed. We are pleased that the CMA is taking enforcement action in relation to two key issues; first, to tackle certain instances of mis-selling of leasehold property and second, to address the problems faced by homeowners from high and increasing ground rents. The Government is keeping a close eye on this issue and will consider any next steps once the CMA have progressed their enforcement action.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make a financial assessment of the effect on value for money for the public purse of merging Shrewsbury Town Council with Shropshire Unitary Authority.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Shrewsbury Town Council was set up when the unitary Shropshire Council was established in 2009 and currently is responsible for such matters as the town market, street lighting, and public toilets. If local people believe these responsibilities would be better exercised by Shropshire Council, it is open to them to petition that Council to undertake a community governance review to consider a recommendation that the Town Council be dissolved.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that Shropshire council has adequate funding to provide adult social care.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The 2020-21 settlement for local government responds to the pressures councils are facing by providing access to the largest year on year increase in spending power in a decade.
The additional £1 billion funding announced for adult and children’s social care, together with the continuation of existing social care grant funding worth £2.5 billion and the Adult Social Care Precept, means that the Government will give local authorities access to almost £6 billion of dedicated funding across adult and children’s social care in 2020-21. Shropshire Council will have access to £34.5 million of dedicated social care funding over this period.
In March, the Government provided an additional £1.6 billion to help local authorities respond to coronavirus (COVID-19) pressures across all the services they deliver, including Adult Social Care. Just under £9 million was allocated to Shropshire. On 18 April, the Government announced that local authorities will receive a further £1.6 billion, allocations will be announced in due course.
This takes the total funding to support local authorities to respond to the pandemic to over £3.2 billion.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if the Government will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the Local Government Act 1972 to allow both (a) council meetings and (b) annual parish council meetings to use modern technology as an alternative to face to face meetings to tackle the spread of covid-19.
Answered by Simon Clarke
It is vital that local authorities can continue to function effectively as the country responds to covid-19. Following last week’s announcement that local authority elections will be postponed until May 2021, we are considering bringing forward legislation to remove the requirement for annual council and parish council meetings.
Councils already have powers to delegate functions, but we are considering whether – for a limited period - to enable use of video or tele-conferencing to facilitate decision making on those limited matters which currently require committee or full council decisions. We would of course also consider appropriate safeguards to ensure transparency and democratic accountability.