Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on increasing local authority provided support for visually impaired children.
Answered by Luke Hall
My colleagues and I meet regularly with counterparts across government, including colleagues from the Department for Education (DfE), to discuss a range of policies and programmes. Next year’s settlement for local government recognises the critical role councils play, and responds to the pressures they face, by providing access to the largest year-on-year increase in Core Spending Power (CSP) in over a decade. Under our proposals, CSP is expected to rise from £46.2 billion to £49.1 billion in 2020-21; an estimated increase of 4.3 per cent in real terms. These resources are largely unringfenced and therefore available for local authorities to spend in line with their local priorities.
DfE has also recently announced an increase of £780 million in 2020-21 to their high needs budget, which pays for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities. This will bring the high needs budget to over £7 billion, with every local authority seeing a minimum funding increase of 8 per cent per person aged 2-18 years old.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to tackle Islamophobia.
Answered by Luke Hall
The government does not tolerate hatred of any kind and is taking a number of steps to tackle Islamophobia. We have some of the strongest legislation in the world to tackle hate crime and where groups incite racial hatred or are engaged in racially or religiously motivated criminal activity, we would expect them to be prosecuted.
To support security training for places of worship, we have committed £1.6 million through the places of worship security grant this year. and a further £5 million over three years. We have also supported Tell MAMA with over £2.5 million between 2016 and 2020 to monitor and combat anti-Muslim hatred, and committed £1.5 million in new funding for hate crime projects including those tackling anti-Muslim hatred and racism in schools.
The government will also be appointing independent advisers to provide expert advice to government on a definition of Islamophobia. The first of these advisers, Imam Qari Asim MBE, was appointed on the 23 July 2019. Their work will draw on a wide range of opinions and they will work in close collaboration with the cross-government Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to increase the rate of housebuilding.
Answered by Esther McVey
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities on the barriers survivors of domestic abuse face when trying to access local authority housing.
Answered by Luke Hall
Officials from my Department hold regular discussions with counterparts in the Government Equalities Office on a range of issues, including on tackling domestic abuse.
In November 2018 we issued new statutory guidance for local authorities to improve access to social housing by victims of domestic abuse who are in a refuge or other form of safe temporary accommodation: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/753667/Improving_access_to_social_housing_for_victims_of_domestic_abuse.pdf
The guidance makes clear that local authorities are expected not to apply residency tests for those victims who have fled to another district, sets out how they can give appropriate priority to victims, and encourages them to use their existing powers to support victims to remain safely in their homes if they choose to do so.
The Domestic Abuse Bill includes provisions to ensure that, where local authorities grant a new tenancy to a victim of domestic abuse who has or had a lifetime tenancy, the new tenancy must be a further lifetime tenancy.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government taking to reduce the number of homeless people that die while living on the street.
Answered by Luke Hall
The government is committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022, before ending it altogether and has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period to April 2020.
In the recent Spending Round we announced £422 million funding for homelessness in 2020/21, an increase of £54 million.
The government changed the law and the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA), which is the most ambitious legislation in this area in decades, came into force this April. The HRA requires councils to provide early support for those at risk of having nowhere left to go. The government is also boosting access to affordable housing, and making renting more secure.
We also recognise the challenges that the cold weather poses for those who are sleeping rough. On 12 September 2019, we launched a second year of the Cold Weather Fund. This £10 million fund will be available to all local authorities in England to provide a robust, local response to support as many rough sleepers as possible off the streets during the winter period. This is double the funding made available last winter. Local authorities will be able to access this funding until March 2020.
Whilst we recognise that suitable housing is a key part of the solution, health services have a significant role to play, alongside other public services. MHCLG is working with the DHSC to ensure that rough sleepers have the health care they need, when the need it. This includes several commitments that were made in the Rough Sleeping Strategy, such as:
Professor Dame Carol Black has been appointed to carry out a major review of drug misuse. The review, which is building on existing government strategies to combat drugs, serious violence and serious and organised crime, is examining the harms that drugs cause and the best ways to prevent drug-taking.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that the trend in the level of deaths of homeless people is investigated.
Answered by Luke Hall
The government is committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022, before ending it altogether and has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period to April 2020.
In the recent Spending Round we announced £422 million funding for homelessness in 2020/21, an increase of £54 million.
Whilst we recognise that suitable housing is a key part of the solution, health services have a significant role to play, alongside other public services. The Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government is working with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to ensure that rough sleepers have the health care they need, when the need it. These commitments include:
Professor Dame Carol Black has been appointed to carry out a major review of drug misuse. The review, which is building on existing government strategies to combat drugs, serious violence and serious and organised crime, is examining the harms that drugs cause and the best ways to prevent drug-taking.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of empty shops on high streets in England and Wales.
Answered by Jake Berry
Our Plan for the High Street announced in Autumn Budget 2018 included a number of measures to address the number of empty shops on high streets. The Open Doors pilot tests a new way to address this challenge by matching landlords of empty commercial properties across England with community groups looking for space; whilst the pilot register for empty commercial properties will improve the transparency of ownership on the high street, making it easier to bring empty shops into use. Our Plan for the High Street also included commitments to cut business rates bills of small retailers by one third.
In the Spring Statement of March 2019, the government announced new and amended permitted development rights to support high streets making it easier to change the use of high street properties as well as extending temporary change of use to enable more community use of empty properties.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the number of women's refuges that have closed since 2010.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Department does not hold centrally the number of women's refuges that have closed since 2010.
We are currently consulting on the Future Delivery of Support to Victims and their Children in Accommodation-Based Domestic Abuse Services closing on 2 August. The proposals for a statutory duty will require local authorities to convene a Local Partnership Board. Local Partnership Boards will be responsible for robustly assessing need for support for victims and their children in safe accommodation, developing, agreeing and publishing an area-wide Domestic Abuse Strategy, ensuring local commissioning of support services is in line with this to meet the diverse support needs of victims and their children and report to central Government on progress.
It is our intention that the proposals for a statutory duty, subject to the outcome of the public consultation, will form part of the Domestic Abuse Bill at a later stage.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that housebuilders take account of (a) heatwaves, (b) flash flooding and (c) other effects of climate change in building new homes.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We have built into the planning system, through the NPPF and its accompanying guidance, clear expectations on adaptation and resilience to climate change impacts. All plans should take account of a changing climate, including implications for flood risk, coastal change, water supply, biodiversity, landscapes and rising temperatures.
When considering new development in areas which are vulnerable (e.g. to increased flood risk), care should be taken to ensure that risks can be managed through suitable adaptation measures, including through the provision of green infrastructure such as multi-functional sustainable drainage systems
In the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s enquiry into heatwaves we set out our intention to consult on a method for reducing overheating risk in new homes. This will be done alongside the Government’s review into the energy efficiency standards of the Building Regulations.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of reductions in funding for local government on housing provision for homeless LGBTQ+ young people.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
We recognise that LGBT homelessness is an important issue, particularly among young people and that LGBT people who find themselves homeless may have a different experience of homelessness due to their protected characteristics. However, data on this issue is limited. This why we are currently undertaking research with the Government Equalities Office into the nature of LGBT homelessness that we also committed to in the LGBT Action Plan.
The research will be carried out in two stages. The first will include a review of existing evidence on LGBT homelessness and interviews with LGBT people with lived experience of homelessness. We are working with Sheffield Hallam University to deliver Phase 1. The second will include a review of services working with LGBT homeless people. We expect Phase 2 to begin later this year.
The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.
In its first year, our Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff. This year we have expanded the RSI with investment of £46 million for 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff.