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.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the viability of independent (a) local newspapers and (b) other media.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government is committed to supporting local and regional newspapers and other news outlets as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. They play an essential role in holding power to account, keeping the public informed of local issues and providing reliable, high-quality information.

Amid an evolving media landscape and changes in consumer behaviour, we are working to support journalism and local newsrooms to ensure the sustainability of this vital industry. We are introducing a new, pro-competition regime for digital markets. The regime, which aims to address the far-reaching power of the biggest tech firms, will help rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely. This will make an important contribution to the sustainability of the press.

Additionally, our support for the sector has included the delivery of a £2 million Future News Fund, the extension of a 2017 business rates relief on local newspaper office space until 2025; the publication of the Online Media Literacy Strategy; and our work through the Mid-Term Review of the BBC Charter to encourage greater collaboration and transparency from the BBC in the local news market and other markets in which it operates. The BBC also supports the sector directly, through the £8m it spends each year on the Local News Partnership, including the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme. We continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining news journalism.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) child criminal exploitation and (b) gang activity on police resources in Oldham.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not hold specific information on the potential impact of child criminal exploitation (CCE) and gang activity on police resources in Oldham. However, tackling CCE is a priority for this Government which is why we are providing funding to support Greater Manchester Police to help tackle county lines, CCE and serious violence.

Through our Drug Strategy, we are providing a targeted investment of up to £145m over three years to bolster our County Lines Programme. This includes funding a dedicated county lines taskforce in Greater Manchester Police, as well as funding Catch22 to provide a specialist support and rescue service for under 25’s and their families in Greater Manchester to help them safely reduce and exit their involvement from county lines including child criminal exploitation.

We are also driving targeted action to respond to exploitation through the Home Office-funded Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children’s Society with a funding of £1.37 million for delivery between 2023-25. Through the programme, a dedicated Northwest Prevention Officer works to support a range of partners to improve the response to multiple forms of exploitation including CCE in the Northwest region.

To tackle the drivers of serious violence, the Home Office has also invested over £20m to develop and run the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (with funding of over £4.38m in 2023-2024).

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of trends in the level of (a) police station and (b) custody cell closures in Oldham since 2010.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not publish impact assessments relating to police office closures.

It is up to Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners to make decisions on local resourcing and estates, including police stations. They are best placed to make these decisions based on their local knowledge and experience.

Police stations are just one of the ways people can access their local police services including reporting online and by phone 24/7.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) police station and (b) custody cell closures there have been in Oldham in each year since 2010.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not publish impact assessments relating to police office closures.

It is up to Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners to make decisions on local resourcing and estates, including police stations. They are best placed to make these decisions based on their local knowledge and experience.

Police stations are just one of the ways people can access their local police services including reporting online and by phone 24/7.

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.

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.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of hotel use for asylum seekers on community cohesion in Oldham; and when he plans to end the use of temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Asylum hotels were only ever a temporary measure, in response to an unprecedented spike in small boat arrivals and the statutory requirement to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute. The Government has always been clear that they are an inappropriate form of accommodation and that we must stop using them as soon as possible.

Wherever hotels are used, the Home Office works in partnership with local authorities and other statutory partners, including through multi-agency forum (MAF) meetings. These consider, amongst other things, community cohesion issues.

We will have closed 100 hotels by the end of March. We continue to work with our providers on closing further hotels across the estate and will write to local authorities and MPs when a decision to close a site has been made.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) closures of magistrates courts and (b) trends in the recruitment of magistrates on case capacity in Greater Manchester.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The decision to close any court only happens following full public consultation, and only when effective access to justice can be maintained. Courts that have closed were either underused, dilapidated or too close to another existing HMCTS location in the same local area.

In recent years there has been considerable recruitment of magistrates in Greater Manchester, both for the Adult Court and the Family Court, and current magistrate numbers are sufficient to manage the volume of work in Greater Manchester.