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 Communities and Local Government, by which formula the £150 million transition grant was allocated to local authorities; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of that grant in achieving its aims.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
My department has published an explanatory note on the method of allocation of the Transition Grant for 2016/17. A copy has been placed in the library of both Houses and it available to view at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf
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 Communities and Local Government, which local authorities have agreed to be part of the Syrian Resettlement Programme.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Under the scheme, local authorities sign up to accept refugees on a voluntary basis. The last set of statistics, published on 25 August 2016 showed that between the start of October 2015 and the end of June 2016, 2,646 people were resettled under the scheme across 118 different local authorities. The quarterly migration statistics set out how many people have been resettled in each authority under the scheme. The resettlement programme has sufficient pledges of places from local authorities across the UK to resettle 20,000 vulnerable Syrians and will continue to work closely with them to turn those pledges into places.
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 Communities and Local Government, which local authorities (a) have and (b) have not made applications for a multi-year financial settlement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
344 councils accepted the multi-year settlement offer and published efficiency plans by 14 October. We will publish details of which councils they were, and the 10 councils that chose not to apply, at the provisional local government finance settlement shortly.
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 Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities to date have submitted efficiency plans in order to qualify for a multi-year financial settlement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Since the announcement of the multi-year settlement offer in December 2015 we have recorded interest from over 125 councils.
Councils have until 14 October 2016 to apply to accept the offer of a multi-year settlement and submit their efficiency plan.
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 Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities have submitted efficiency plans as part of the multi-year settlement offer.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Since the announcement of the multi-year settlement offer in December 2015, we have recorded interest from one hundred councils.
Councils have until 14 October 2016 to apply to accept the offer of a multi-year settlement and submit their efficiency plan.
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 Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2016 to Question 26660, on housing: construction, if he will place in the Library any value for money review and impact assessment carried out on the decision made by the previous Government.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
An overview of all published evaluations of Housing Market Renewal, both pre- and post-cessation, are included in a briefing note that is already in the Library of the House, and which can be accessed online at:
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05953/SN05953.pdf
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 Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of small business rate relief in each of the last three years.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The net cost to the public purse of Small Business Rate Relief is given in the table below. It is the total relief provided, less the yield from the large business supplement.
£ million | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
Relief Provided | 1,060 | 1,070 | 1,130 |
Yield from Supplement | 540 | 630 | 650 |
Net Cost | 520 | 440 | 480 |
Source: National Non-Domestic Rates. 2015-16 and 2016-17 are forecasts.
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 Communities and Local Government, how much small businesses with a rateable value of less than £30,000 paid in business rates in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014 and (d) 2015.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Department does not hold this information.
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 Communities and Local Government, how much the Government plans to provide each local authority to meet the cost of planned changes to national insurance.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
All new Government policies which impact on local government are assessed for whether they will represent a new burden on local authorities, against the criteria published in the New Burdens guidance. The New Burdens doctrine does not apply to policies which apply the same rules to local authorities and to private sector bodies, such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance. The guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-burdens-doctrine-guidance-for-government-departments.
In setting the future funding settlement for local government at the Spending Review in November 2015, the Government took account of a wide range of factors, including some which fell outside the New Burdens doctrine but nonetheless represented new costs for local authorities such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance.
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 Communities and Local Government, how much the Government plans to provide to each local authority to meet the cost of the introduction of the living wage.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
All new Government policies which impact on local government are assessed for whether they will represent a new burden on local authorities, against the criteria published in the New Burdens guidance. The New Burdens doctrine does not apply to policies which apply the same rules to local authorities and to private sector bodies, such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance. The guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-burdens-doctrine-guidance-for-government-departments.
In setting the future funding settlement for local government at the Spending Review in November 2015, the Government took account of a wide range of factors, including some which fell outside the New Burdens doctrine but nonetheless represented new costs for local authorities such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance.