Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
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 allocate funding to parish councils for flood damage resulting from floods in 2015; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Percy
Government does not allocate funding directly to parish councils. The government acted quickly to allocate funding to unitary and upper tier local authorities to enable them to tailor and pass on support to their communities, households and businesses to help them recover from the impacts of the floods in 2015. It was for the upper tier authorities to decide how most effectively to work with, and disburse funds to, the district and parish councils in their area.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent representations he has made to the European Commission on the progress of the Government's application to the EU solidarity fund for flood damage.
Answered by Andrew Percy
The Government finalised the UK’s application to the EU Solidarity Fund on 22 September 2016. The Government has been in regular contact with the European Commission at working level, and we await their decision on the application.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding to date his Department has made available to each local authority area affected by flood damage from Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank; and how much of that funding was allocated from (a) the Communities and Business Recovery scheme, (b) the Bellwin scheme and (c) other funding sources.
Answered by Andrew Percy
My Department has paid out £57,237,780 to help local communities recover from Storms Desmond and Eva.
A breakdown of this sum will be provided to the Library of the House shortly.
We have also paid out £8.6 million predominantly match-funding to flood relief charities and community foundations.
Government has paid out over £240 million to help repair infrastructure damaged as a result of Storms Desmond and Eva.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how his Department plans to distribute money awarded by the European Solidarity Fund to flood-affected communities in the event that funds are awarded.
Answered by Andrew Percy
The Government will determine how best to use any additional benefit received from the European Union Solidarity Fund once the amount of any award is known.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an application to the EU Solidarity Fund before December 2016.
Answered by Andrew Percy
The Government finalised the UK's application to the European Union Solidarity Fund on 22 September 2016.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answers of 8 February 2016 to Questions 25834 and 25835, whether a final decision has been made on the retention of business rates generated by new nuclear development in Copeland by the billing authority.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Decisions on the details of the 100% business rates retention scheme have yet to be taken. We are currently working with the Local Government Association, local authorities and business interests on the design of the scheme and will set out our proposals for consultation in due course.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what account his Department has taken of (a) new nuclear developments and (b) tidal lagoon projects in West Cumbria in devolving its Northern Powerhouse agenda.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership has identified nuclear and energy excellence as a key priority contributing significant growth opportunities for the Cumbria economy. Discussions with Cumbria about their Devolution deal proposals are progressing well. I am pleased they have strong ambitions to drive growth across the Cumbria area by improving the delivery of skills, infrastructure, environmental sustainability and business support.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many projects planned for West Cumbria will be (a) part-funded and (b) wholly-funded by the EU.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The Department is unable to predict how many projects in West Cumbria will come forward for funding from the EU.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many projects in West Cumbria have been (a) part-funded and (b) wholly-funded by the EU in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The Department is unable to confirm how many projects in West Cumbria have been part-funded by the EU in the last ten years. DCLG is able to confirm that during the 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund programme 11 projects were funded in Cumbria. The regulatory requirement is for applicants to provide 50% of match-funding to support investment. No European Regional Development Fund projects were wholly-funded by the EU in the last 10 years.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to make a decision on whether to formally apply for EU Solidarity Funding to support communities affected by flooding in Cumbria.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The Government has not ruled out applying to the EU Solidarity Fund. We are assessing the case for an application and will make a decision by the end of February. The European Union Solidarity Fund does not provide additional funding to local areas, but simply reimburses emergency costs that the Government would have incurred anyway. For this reason, the Government's immediate priority remains dealing with the urgent needs of those affected, which is why we have provided over £200 million to help those affected by the floods to support recovery and repair.