Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what financial support the Government is providing to help (a) Crawley Borough Council and (b) West Sussex County Council during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Government has provided substantial resources to councils to support their communities, businesses and vulnerable people.
Government has provided West Sussex County Council with:
· £45.9 million across four tranches of unringfenced grant.
Government has provided Crawley Borough Council with:
· £1.9 million across four tranches of unringfenced grant.
· £2.2 million in the Additional Restrictions Grant Bullet and £1.5 million of the Local Restrictions Support Grant.
Any council with concerns about their ability to manage financial pressures should contact MHCLG in the first instance to discuss their situation.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress his Department has made on delivering new accommodation for rough sleepers in Crawley constituency.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
On 18 July, we launched the Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP). This makes available the financial resources needed to support local authorities and their partners to help prevent those accommodated during the pandemic from returning to the streets.
On 17 September we announced NSAP allocations to local authorities to pay for immediate support. Crawley has been allocated £296,500 for this aspect of NSAP.
On 29 October, we announced allocations to local partners to deliver longer-term move-on accommodation. More than 3,300 new long-term homes for rough sleepers across the country have been approved, subject to due diligence, backed by Government investment of more than £150 million. For this long term aspect of NSAP, Crawley has been allocated £200,000.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with the (a) Chancellor of the Exchequer (b) District Councils’ Network on the Government’s plan to tackle the financial challenges faced by (i) borough and (ii) district local authorities.
Answered by Simon Clarke
On 2 July the Secretary of State announced a further £500 million in unringfenced grant funding for councils to meet pressures they are facing in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Our unprecedented package includes £4.3 billion for councils’ spending pressures, comprising £3.7 billion of unringfenced grants and the £600 million Infection Control Fund, bringing the total amount of additional support for councils, businesses and local communities to almost £28 billion.
The Government is also meeting 75p in the pound of lost income such as parking fees and museum entry charges, where that loss of income is more than a council could have been expected to plan for. For many councils, this will be a significant portion of the income lost as result of the pandemic, particularly where these income streams make up a disproportionate portion of income relative to the size of the authority.
I regularly speak to the District Councils’ Network and individual councils. I can offer the reassurance that our aim is that all councils will be funded for their Covid-19 pressures and placed on a stable financial footing.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people classified by the NHS as extremely vulnerable people who have been asked to shield at home have (a) requested and (b) received support from (i) community hubs as announced on 21 March 2020 and (ii) supermarkets.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
MHCLG continues to work closely with local authorities to manage the impacts of Covid-19 on the most vulnerable in our society.
Government provides food parcels directly to those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus if they do not have alternative means of accessing support. Over 280,000 clinically extremely vulnerable people have requested support and Government has delivered over 800,000 food parcels directly to people’s doorsteps since March.
Local councils across the country have set up local authority hubs and have local systems and processes to provide those who are medically vulnerable in their area with additional support, over and above that provided centrally.
Clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have requested essential supplies through the gov.uk website have had their details passed onto supermarkets and the Government continues to work with supermarkets to support the prioritisation of clinically extremely vulnerable people for delivery slots.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to encourage local growth in (a) Crawley and (b) the UK.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is committed to levelling up the entire country and giving towns, cities and communities across the UK real power and investment to drive the growth of the future and unleash their full potential.
We have taken action to encourage local growth in Crawley that includes:
Across the UK the Government is supporting local partners to deliver local economic growth and prosperity through:
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to (a) increase (a) building and (b) build quality throughout the country.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has set out an ambitious package of long-term reform to make the housing market work. We are taking end-to-end action across the housing system with measures to: release more land for homes where people want to live, build the homes we need faster, get more people building homes, and support people who need help now. We have committed more than £44 billion of financial support over five years to 2022/2023 to boost the delivery of housing and unblock barriers to more housebuilding.
We are also committed to ensuring that new homes are of good quality. In 2018, we announced a dedicated ombudsman for buyers of new homes and we intend to introduce legislation to require developers of new build homes to belong to a New Homes Ombudsman. The revised National Planning Policy Framework places a strong emphasis on design and makes clear that developments should be visually attractive and add to the overall quality of the area.
Our interventions are making a difference. Last year 222,190 homes were delivered, the highest in all but one of the last thirty years. This year numbers are expected to rise again, representing the 7th consecutive year of growth.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of allegations (a) of approximately £500,000 being spent inefficiently by Crawley Borough Council on a recent IT project and (b) that freedom of information requests by residents on that subject have not been fully responded to; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
Local councils act independently of central government. They are accountable for their actions to their electorate and there are mechanisms in place for local people to hold councils to account. This means that any questions about spending decisions, the delivery of services, or the performance of a council are for that council to respond to. If local people remain unsatisfied with the response they receive from the council they can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for advice.
In respect of Freedom of Information requests, if a requester is unhappy with the response of the local authority to their FOI requests, they can ask the independent Information Commissioner to investigate.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department has allocated out of the budget of the Rough Sleeping Strategy to Crawley constituency.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have recently published our Rough Sleeping Strategy, which sets out the first steps towards achieving our aim to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027.
We are currently finalising the design of the funding streams announced in the strategy and will announce further details in due course. We have also committed to publishing a delivery plan in the autumn which will set out how we will deliver the ambitious work set out in this strategy.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to announce which local authority areas will be piloted for 100 per cent business rates retention; what representations he has received from councils in West Sussex on that pilot scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The local authorities selected to pilot 100 per cent business rates retention for 2018/19 will be announced at or in advance of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement. Councils in West Sussex have made an application.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review the effectiveness of permitted development rights; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Permitted Development rights play an important role in freeing up the planning system to enable development to take place more quickly without the need to seek full planning consent. In the recent Housing White Paper we consulted on extending the rights for the conversion of agricultural buildings to residential use to help increase the provision of housing for rural workers and extending the existing agricultural permitted development rights to help farmers adapt more quickly to changing agricultural practices. We are reviewing responses received.