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 he has made of the cost to the public purse of steps his Department has taken to support high streets in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jake Berry
Since 2010, the Government has helped create over 360 town teams, and given over £18 million to towns - funding successful initiatives such as “Love your Local Market” and the “Great British High Street”.
This is in addition to funding streams such as the Local Growth Fund, Coastal Revival Fund and Coastal Communities Fund, which have each funded a number of projects in high streets and town centres.
The Government further demonstrated our commitment to supporting high streets and town centres at Autumn Budget 2018, where we set out “Our Plan for The High Street”. This includes the £675 million Future High Streets Fund, which will help local areas make their high streets and town centres fit for the future.
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 his Department has made of the number of football stadiums in the UK nominated for designation as assets of community value under the Localism Act 2011 that have been judged by a local authority not to meet the test for being such an asset.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
The Department does not collect information or provide estimates on the number of assets of community value unsuccessful nominated.
Decisions on whether a nomination satisfies the statutory test set out in the Localism Act 2011 are for local authorities to determine. In February 2017 an asset count undertaken by Locality on behalf of the department identified 4,307 assets of community value in England. Information published by Supports Direct has identified 30 football stadiums as Assets of Community Value in England.
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 information his Department holds on the cost to the public purse of local authority funded funerals carried out under section 46 of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
The Department does not collect this information from local authorities.
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 his Department is taking to increase the strength of the housing market.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Government has set out a long term and comprehensive strategy to make the housing market work for everyone; including to release more land for homes where people want to live; build the homes we need faster; get more people building more of the kind of homes people want; as well as support people who need help now
We have acted to make our housing market work better, including:
Taken together, our reforms will help create, fund and drive a fairer housing market that delivers 300,000 homes a year on average by the mid-2020s.
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 he has made of the total number of local authorities that have seen an overall loss in their reserves between 2010 and 2018.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
Local authorities provide reserves figures in their annual revenue expenditure returns to the Ministry. These can be found in the first individual local authority data table for each of the budget and outturn collections at www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing.
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 he has made of the change in real terms of central Government funding for local government since 2010.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
Central government funding cannot in isolation provide a true representation of local authority finances. The responsibilities, structure and makeup of local authorities have changed significantly since 2010 and spending power, formula grants and settlement funding assessments are not directly comparable over this period. For example, with the introduction of the Business Rates Retention Scheme local authorities estimate they will keep around £2.4 billion in business rates growth in 2018-19.
Over the five year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20 council’s will have access to more than £200 billion, after last month’s budget. This recognises both the growing pressure on local government’s services and higher-than-expected inflation levels. In the long term, next year’s Spending Review will determine funding for local government from 2020-21 onwards and will enable us to look at local government spending in the round.