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Written Question
Football: Sportsgrounds
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has taken recent steps to designate football club grounds as assets of community value.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Assets of Community Value scheme has successfully helped community groups to take ownership of the publicly and privately-owned local assets of community value which would otherwise be at risk of loss.

The £150 million Community Ownership Fund helps communities across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets at risk of closure.

The Community Ownership Fund has provided £550,000 to the Oldham Boxing Club, to assist the club to carry out essential repair works, keeping the historic building open to the whole community.


Written Question
Arts and Culture: Community Assets
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) steps taken to safeguard of local arts and cultural venues and (b) the benefits of protection as Assets of Community value.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Assets of Community Value scheme has successfully helped community groups to take ownership of the publicly and privately-owned local assets of community value which would otherwise be at risk of loss.

The £150 million Community Ownership Fund helps communities across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets at risk of closure.

The Community Ownership Fund has provided £550,000 to the Oldham Boxing Club, to assist the club to carry out essential repair works, keeping the historic building open to the whole community.


Written Question
Housing: Oldham
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many homes have been built in Oldham in the last year.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The department’s most comprehensive measure of housing supply is our annual release entitled ‘Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England’. This includes estimates of new homes added in each local authority, but does not show figures at the constituency level.

You can find data for Oldham Council here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-net-supply-of-housing.


Written Question
Local Government Finance: Chadderton
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much provisional funding has been allocated to the Chadderton Town Board; and when that board is required to (a) meet and (b) confirm its investment plan to Government.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Details of the Government’s Long Term Plan for Towns are available here.


Written Question
Electoral Register: British Nationals Abroad
Friday 2nd February 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will publish the number of registered voters living overseas per constituency including the country they are residing in.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The data is not held centrally.


Written Question
Local Government: Debts
Thursday 25th January 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the level of interest rates on local authority debt repayments.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Councils are ultimately responsible for their own finances, including decisions on the timing of borrowing, and the type and length of loan to manage interest rate risks. The effect of interest rates will vary significantly between councils depending on individual circumstances and financing needs, and the government does not collect this level of data. Under the Prudential Framework, authorities must, however, ensure all debt is affordable and capital investments are prudent and sustainable.


Written Question
Office for Local Government
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made with the Office for Local Government of the cost to the public purse for (a) setting up and (b) running the Local Authority Data Explorer.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government committed to Oflog’s independence in the Levelling Up White Paper, and Oflog has been instructed to act with a spirit of independence. Oflog is currently an Office within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and therefore its expenditure is part of the Departmental accounts. After the 2024-25 financial year, Oflog will produce its own Annual Report which will include details of its expenditure.


Written Question
Office for Local Government
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the cost of (a) establishing and (b) running the Office of Local Government.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government committed to Oflog’s independence in the Levelling Up White Paper, and Oflog has been instructed to act with a spirit of independence. Oflog is currently an Office within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and therefore its expenditure is part of the Departmental accounts. After the 2024-25 financial year, Oflog will produce its own Annual Report which will include details of its expenditure.


Written Question
Local Government: Audit
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many best value inspections have been carried out in each year since 2010; and how many minded to notices have been issued in that period.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The following table has been drawn from publicly available data. Officials have taken “minded to notices” to mean seeking representations on using best value powers from the Local Government Act 1999 to issue directions to a council that the Secretary of State considers is failing its duty of best value. Note that the table includes extensions and reductions to existing notices as well as new interventions and therefore there is some ‘double counting’.

Best Value Inspection

Sought representations on intervening using Best Value powers

2010

0

1

2011

0

0

2012

0

0

2013

0

0

2014

2

1

2015

0

2

2016

0

2

2017

0

3

2018

1

2

2019

0

0

2020

0

0

2021

1

2

2022

4

2023

1

5

2024

0

0


Written Question
Local Government: Staff
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the size of the local government workforce in each year from 2010 to 2024.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Office for National publishes workforce data at the following link.