Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what comparative assessment has been made of the energy efficiency of traditionally-built new homes with maximum wall and cavity insulation and that of timber-framed homes.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The department has not made a comparative assessment of the energy efficiency of traditionally built new homes with maximum wall and cavity insulation and that of timber framed homes.
Our requirements are performance based so do not specify any particular form of construction. For new homes the energy requirements include minimum fabric and insulation performance standards irrespective of whether these homes are traditionally built or are timber framed.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people were charged with offences related to Anti-Semitism between 24 June and 24 December in (a) 2015 and (b) 2016.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
There are five monitored strands of hate crime covering hostility on the basis of disability, sexual orientation, transgender identity, race and religion. There is no disaggregation beyond this, although police systems are currently being developed to cover the disaggregation of religion.
Under the Code for Prosecutors, Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors must have regard to whether the offence was motivated by any form of discrimination. This is over and above the requirements of the specific legal framework for hate crime. Prosecutors are supported to identify appropriate evidence in any such case by legal guidance and material developed with the input of the Community Security Trust.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will discuss guidance and assistance to support high street retailers competing with large out of town developments with the devolved legislations.
Answered by Andrew Percy
The Government is committed to supporting diverse high streets with a broad range of retail and service businesses, and has taken a number of important steps to make it easier for people to start and expand a business.
We announced that the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief would be made permanent at Budget 2016. The thresholds will also be increased. Businesses with a property with a rateable value of £12,000 and below will receive 100 per cent relief. From April, 600,000 small businesses, occupiers of a third of all properties, will pay no business rates at all. The threshold for the standard business rates multiplier will increase to £51,000, taking 250,000 smaller properties out of the higher rate. This is a business rates cut of approximately 2.5 per cent.
In England, we have implemented sensible planning reforms that are benefiting businesses on the high street, including allowing retail and business start-ups to open without planning permission and lifting planning restrictions to increase flexibility of use on high streets. This also supports pop ups or meanwhile use that can give starts ups the chance to test out an idea, raise the profile of a product or market test an item.
The Government is also championing, through the annual Great British High Street Awards, the hard work of local businesses and communities around the country who are turning their high streets around. Winners get the chance to share a £100,000 prize pot which includes training from Google and Twitter. Examples of these high streets can be found on the Great British High Street portal at: www.thegreatbritishhighstreet.co.uk. This site also contains lots of information and sources of help to help high streets revitalise.
In addition, we are currently developing a package of measures to ensure parking provision supports high streets.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received in the last 12 months on low turnouts in certain previous elections for Mayors.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
We have had a number of representations on a range of issues regarding mayoral elections.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 success rates of the troubled families programme in reducing re-offending among young adults.
Answered by Greg Clark
Information published by my Department on 22 June 2015 shows that, during the original Troubled Families Programme (2012 to 2015), 104,733 were turned around through achieving reductions in youth crime, and/or anti-social behaviour, combined with satisfactory levels of school attendance.
Under the provisions of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, I will be reporting annually on the progress and impact of the new Troubled Families Programme which aims to reach up to an additional 400,000 families.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many houses he expects to be built in the UK in 2016.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department for Communities and Local Government does not publish forecasts of house building.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the average satisfaction rating given by tenants relating to maintenance service in public housing in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Information on tenants' satisfaction in relation to repairs and maintenance in local authority housing for England is reported in the English Housing Survey. The data collected since 2008/9, which cannot be broken down by local authority area, are as follows:
Year | Satisfied % | Dissatisfied % | Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied % |
2008/9 | 63.7 | 28.9 | 7.4 |
2009/10 | 65.1 | 25.3 | 9.5 |
2010/11 | 65.8 | 25.9 | 8.3 |
2011/12 | 65.6 | 25.0 | 9.4 |
Data for 2012/13 are expected to be published in July 2014.