Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people who were made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire have not been found permanent accommodation.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There are a total of 202 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk that were made homeless and require rehousing by the Council
Of these 202 households, there are 19 households that have not yet been rehoused in permanent accommodation: 5 households are currently in emergency accommodation (2 in hotels and 3 in serviced apartments) and 14 households are in temporary accommodation
Of these 19 households, 13 households have accepted an offer of permanent accommodation. We expect the Council to do whatever is necessary to ensure these households can move and settle into their permanent homes as swiftly as possible, but to do so sensitively and taking into account individual households' specific needs
The remaining 6 households have not yet accepted an offer of permanent accommodation. The Council reports that a suitable property that meets their needs has been reserved for each household. We continue to provide support to the Council to ensure every survivor is able to move into a home that meets their needs as soon as possible.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the Barnett consequentials for Wales of the introduction of the Stronger Towns Funds.
Answered by Jake Berry
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 26 March 2019 to Question UIN 228691.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions his Department has had with the Welsh Government on the adequacy of the funding settlement.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
My Department is responsible for the Local Government Finance Settlement in England. Local authority funding in Wales is a devolved matter and funding is the responsibility of the Welsh Government.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many public health funerals there have been since 2010; and what the cost to the public purse has been of those funerals.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many dwellings built or created through Permitted Development Rights in England have been found to be in breach of Building Regulations since 2015.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Dwellings built under Permitted Development Rights are published in Live Table 120 as part of the Net Additional Dwellings release https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/net-supply-of-housing#publications.
These data were first collected in 2015-16.
MHCLG does not collect centrally any data regarding whether these dwellings have been found to be in breach of Building Regulations.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of dwellings in towers with the same cladding material as Grenfell Tower in England.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
MHCLG estimates that there are approximately 9,100 dwellings in the remaining 119 high-rise (over 18 metres) social residential buildings in England with Aluminium Composite Material cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations.
We estimate approximately 17,400 dwellings in the remaining 167 high-rise (over 18 metres) private residential buildings in England with combinations of Aluminium Composite Material cladding and insulation unlikely to meet Building Regulations.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of deaths of homeless people in local authorities in England since 2013.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Every person who dies while they do not have a place to call home is one too many and we have a moral duty to act. It should not happen that people die prematurely and on the street because they are homeless.
In December 2018, the Office for National Statistics published valuable experimental statistics of the number of deaths of homeless people in England and Wales registered in 2013-2017. The statistics showed an estimated 597 deaths of homeless people in England and Wales in 2017, as well as a follow up release with a breakdown by local authority. Their work shines a light on this important issue.
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. My Department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that rough sleepers have the health care they need, when they need it. In its Long-Term Plan, the National Health Service will invest up to £30 million extra on meeting the needs of rough sleepers, to ensure that the parts of England most affected by rough sleeping will have better access to specialist homelessness NHS mental health support, integrated with existing outreach services.
We are also ensuring that when a homeless person dies or is seriously injured as a result of abuse or neglect and there is concern that partner agencies could have worked more effectively to protect the adult, Safeguarding Adult Reviews take place so that local services can learn lessons from these tragic events to better prevent them from happening in the future.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will commission a report on the causes of homelessness in England.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
This 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 which 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.
Following a recommendation by the Public Accounts Committee the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions jointly commissioned a feasibility study into researching the wider causes of homelessness, including households’ experience of the welfare system as well as other factors such as housing affordability or relationship breakdown.
The feasibility study was completed by an independent supplier, Alma and comprised of three strands:
The Communities Secretary and I are working with the ministerial teams across the DWP to decide how best to take this work forward. We will write to the Public Account Accounts Committee shortly setting out our plans for next steps.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of inequalities in home ownership by (a) social class, (b) age and (c) ethnicity.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In July 2018, the department published an English Housing Survey report which examined, among other things, the extent to which certain groups are more or less likely to own their own home: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2016-to-2017-variations-in-housing-circumstances .
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many new Energy Performance Certificates band (a) A, (b) B and (c) C were issued in each of the last eight years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for domestic dwellings with an EPC rating band of (a) A, (b) B and (c) C issued over the last eight years can be found in Table D1 in the Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates in England and Wales: 2008 to September 2018 statistical release, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-energy-performance-of-buildings-certificates.