Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans to publish the (a) details of what constitutes high affordability and (b) criteria used in determining how support will be allocated under the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap announced in Autumn Budget 2017.
Answered by Dominic Raab
At Autumn Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that we will raise the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap by a total of up to £1 billion in areas of high affordability pressure, for local authorities that are ready to start building new homes. Local authorities will be able to bid for increases in their caps from 2019/20, up to a total of £1 billion by the end of 2021/22. We will set out more details shortly.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to allow local authorities operating joint committees, parish councils and combined authorities to hold meetings using video conferencing facilities.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
The Government consulted last year on a proposal to give local authorities operating joint committees, and combined authorities, but not councils as a whole, the freedom to hold formal meetings using video conferencing facilities. We will respond in due course.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to Autumn Budget 2017, (a) how and (b) when local authorities will be able to increase their Housing Revenue Account borrowing caps.
Answered by Lord Sharma
At Autumn Budget 2017 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that we will raise the Housing Revenue Account borrowing caps by a total of up to £1 billion. This will apply to in areas of high affordability pressure with local authorities that are ready to start building new homes. Local authorities will be able to bid for increases in their caps from 2019/20 up to a total of £1 billion by the end of 2021/22. We will set out more details shortly.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to Autumn Budget 2017, how the announced £8 billion of new guarantees to support house building will operate in practice.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Government has provided debt guarantees to support the provision of affordable and privately rented homes since 2013. The existing guarantee schemes have supported the delivery of over 42,000 homes.
The further £8 billion guarantee capacity will ensure that the housing sector continues to be able to the access debt markets once the existing guarantee schemes have expired.
We will engage the market over the coming months as to the most effective way of deploying this new guarantee capacity.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when she expects the fair funding review for local government to be finalised.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We are undertaking the Fair Funding Review to address concerns about the fairness of current funding distributions to local authorities. There have been widespread calls for a thorough, evidence-based Review, and we will deliver this.
It is important to get funding distributions right and we have been working closely with the Local Government Association and representatives from across local government to seek views on our approach and the target date for implementation. We will shortly be bringing forward a technical consultation on the Review in which we intend to provide further certainty regarding the timeline for this important work.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to implement an up-to-date needs assessment for local authority area funding in the absence of the 100 per cent business rates retention scheme.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We are undertaking the Fair Funding Review to address concerns about the fairness of current funding distributions to local authorities. There have been widespread calls for a thorough, evidence-based Review, and we will deliver this.
It is important to get funding distributions right and we have been working closely with the Local Government Association and representatives from across local government to seek views on our approach and the target date for implementation. We will shortly be bringing forward a technical consultation on the Review in which we intend to provide further certainty regarding the timeline for this important work.