Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire have a key worker; and how many families each such key worker is responsible for.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
As of the 21 November there are 155 keyworkers providing support to 508 families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what funds his Department has provided to local authorities and housing associations to support estate regeneration since June 2017.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Estate Regeneration Programme is currently supporting and working with over 100 estates across the country.
The programme has been allocated £722 million of loans and grants to accelerate schemes at the early stages of regeneration, build access to commercial skills and provide long term finance for estate regeneration.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2017 to Question 106692, how many children who lived in Grenfell Tower are living in hotel accommodation as of 6 November 2017.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
On 7 November, data provided to my Department by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea showed there were 55 children who previously lived in Grenfell Tower or Grenfell Walk, living in emergency accommodation. Emergency accommodation includes hotels, serviced apartments and living with family or friends.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is working to ensure all families affected by the Grenfell tragedy can move into interim or settled accommodation at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) households and (b) children who previously lived in Grenfell Tower were still living in hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation as of 1 November 2017.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
On 7 November, data provided to my Department by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea showed there were 55 children who previously lived in Grenfell Tower or Grenfell Walk, living in emergency accommodation. Emergency accommodation includes hotels, serviced apartments and living with family or friends.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is working to ensure all families affected by the Grenfell tragedy can move into interim or settled accommodation at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of resources available to local authorities to fulfil the additional duties placed on them under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Homelessness Reduction Act requires local authorities to carry out additional duties to prevent and relieve homelessness and to intervene earlier to prevent homelessness.
The Government committed to fund the Act in line with the longstanding ‘new burdens’ doctrine. We announced funding of £61 million in January 2017 and, following further discussions with local authorities on the new duties, have provided an additional £11.7 million. This takes the total amount of new burdens funding to £72.7 million.
A new burdens assessment has been completed and can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-reduction-act-new-burdens-funding
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the proportion of temporary accommodation declared unfit for human habitation; and what estimate he has made of the number of children living in such temporary accommodation in each of the last three years.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Local authorities have a duty to ensure that any accommodation provided for a homeless household under the homelessness legislation must be suitable.
Local authorities also have strong and effective powers to deal with poor quality unsafe accommodation. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), assesses the health and safety risks in all residential properties. If a property is found to contain serious (category 1) hazards, the local authority has a duty to take the most appropriate action. We expect local authorities to use these powers which provide an important safety net, ensuring that homes are safe and decent.
DCLG publishes regular statistics, which includes the number of children in temporary accommodation. The latest statistics can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the level of rent increases in the private rented sector in (a) 2017 and (b) 2018 in England.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Office for National Statistics publish an experimental Index of Private Housing Rental Prices which is available at: www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/indexofprivatehousingrentalprices/september2017
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many children who previously lived in Grenfell Tower are living in hotel accommodation as of 9 October 2017.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The latest information we have from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council shows that there is a total of 202 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk that need rehousing. To date 61 households have accepted permanent accommodation and 54 households have accepted temporary accommodation.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council is working urgently to move all families affected by the Grenfell tragedy into temporary or settled accommodation at the earliest opportunity., The Department for Communities and local government is working to support the Council in achieving this.
For each family, we will respect their wishes and give them the time and space to make this transition at their own pace, and in a way that best supports them to recover from this tragedy.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many households that previously lived in Grenfell Tower are living in (a) permanent new homes, (b) temporary accommodation or (c) hotels as of 9 October 2017.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
DCLG is working closely with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to support them in ensuring that residents of Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk will be provided with a new home in social housing within the period of one year. London local authorities and housing associations have been proactive in offering accommodation and help to assist. However, it is important to get this right and ensure survivors have choice over their housing options.
Data we have received from the Council, as of 30 October 2017, show that, of the households that previously lived in Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk:
26 were living in permanent accommodation;
47 were living in temporary accommodation; and
130 were living in emergency accommodation.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of the Civil Service workforce in his Department dedicated to planning for (a) the UK leaving the EU and (b) projects relating to the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Exit is an all-of-government operation. The Department for Exiting the European Union is doing detailed work with departments to prepare for the upcoming negotiations by understanding the risks and opportunities of leaving the EU and coordinating planning. Staff within the EU Exit team lead on providing advice to Ministers on EU Exit and exit-related issues. Members of staff across my Department also provide advice and analysis on EU Exit issues as required. Given the interactions between EU exit work and the Department’s other priorities, it would not be possible to give an accurate figure.