Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many council homes have been completed in West Yorkshire in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The number of affordable housing starts and completions, broken down by tenure, local authority area, provider and whether they are a new build or acquisition can be found in the affordable housing statistics open data through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply .
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many houses by housing type have been completed in West Yorkshire in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Annual estimates of housing supply, including new build completions, in West Yorkshire, are shown in Live Table 123, at the following link
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-net-supply-of-housing
Estimates of the proportion of new build housing by type, based on building control reported new build dwelling completions, for England and the Yorkshire and Humber region, are shown in Live Table 254, at the following link.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
Estimates of housing type are not available for West Yorkshire.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many homes in West Yorkshire have cladding that falls below the safe standard levels.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Information on the number of high-rise (over 18m) residential and publicly-owned buildings with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations by local authority, is published in Web Table 3 of the Building Safety Programme data release.
For high-rise residential buildings with unsafe non-ACM cladding, the Department is continuing to work with building owners to progress applications for the Building Safety Fund at pace so more remedial works can begin as swiftly as possible. We expect applicants to the Building Safety Fund to start works on site by 30 September 2021 where possible. Information on registrations to the Building Safety Fund by local authority can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-registration-statistics.
We have begun a pilot data collection project for 11-18m residential buildings to identify materials in use and to inform the design of a wider national 11-18m data collection exercise. We will be publishing further details.
The Building Safety Bill will bring about a fundamental change in both the regulatory framework for building safety and construction industry culture, ensuring those responsible for buildings ensure fire and structural safety risks are properly managed.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
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 number of renters who in arrears in each region of the UK in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Data from the English Housing Survey (EHS) Household Resilience Study November-December 2020 suggests that 9% of private rented households and 11% of social rented households are in arrears.
The regional distribution of renters (social and private) in arrears is provided in Table T16a of the Household Resilience Study Wave 2: Wave 2 tables, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/household-resilience-study-wave-2
The UK Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support which is available to tenants. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and £20 per week uplift in Universal Credit are in place until the end of September helping renters to continue paying their rent. Local housing allowance rates have been maintained at their increased level in cash terms in 2021/22, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector continue to benefit from the significant increase in the local housing allowance rates applied in April 2020. For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. For 2021-22 the Government has made £140 million available in DHP funding, building on the £180 million provided last year.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the criteria for allocation of funds to local authorities as part of the Towns Fund.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
As part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, 101 towns were selected to develop proposals for Town Deals. Details of this selection process are available in the summary of accounting officer advice, published on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/towns-fund-selection-summary-of-accounting-officer-advice/towns-fund-selection-process-summary-of-accounting-officer-ao-advice.
Those 101 towns were asked to submit Town Investment Plans setting out their vision and strategy and detailing the projects they would like the Towns Fund to support.
In June 2020, the Department published further guidance detailing the process and assessment criteria for those Town Investment Plans. This guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/926422/Towns_Fund_further_guidance.pdf
All towns have now submitted their proposals and 52 towns have so far been offered Town Deals. Assessment continues for the remaining towns, with further announcements expected in due course.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which representatives were present at the 26 engagement events relating to the development of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has been engaging with key stakeholders on the design and priorities of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund since 2016, including holding a series of engagement events. Over 500 stakeholders attended these events across a variety of sectors, including businesses, public bodies (such as Local Enterprise Partnerships, Mayoral Combined Authorities, and local councils), higher education institutions, the voluntary and charity sector and rural partnership groups.
Our engagement events have taken place across the UK including in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. We will continue to work closely with interested parties as we develop the fund.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the evidential basis on which the Government's decision to permit house viewings to continue during the third national covid-19 lockdown in England was reached.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We have worked with both the estate agency sector and Public Health England to develop our guidance and make sure that agents are operating in a COVID-secure way, as such businesses are required to do in order to remain open. Throughout the pandemic, the Government has listened carefully to the views of the scientific community, the information from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and its sub-groups when taking decisions on the best way to tackle the pandemic.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2020 to Question 124131, how many ex-military personnel were sleeping rough as at (a) 1 January 2020 and (b) 1 December 2020.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
I refer the Hon Member to the previous answer to Question 124131 on 11 December 2020.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many homeless people and rough sleepers have been housed in temporary accommodation since 4 January 2021 as part of the Everyone In Scheme.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We have taken unprecedented steps to protect rough sleepers during the pandemic. This work has not stopped, and our COVID-19 emergency accommodation survey data has shown that through Everyone In, by November we had supported around 33,000 people with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and over 23,000 already moved on into longer-term accommodation.
Our latest statutory homelessness statistics for July to September 2020 in England provide data on the number of households in temporary accommodation arranged by local authorities under homelessness legislation and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-emergency-accommodation-survey-data-november-2020.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of recent research by Shelter which has found that 55 per cent of homeless families in England are in work.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
This Government is committed to tackling homelessness and fully enforcing the Homelessness Reduction Act.
In 2020/21 we are providing over £700 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping alone.
In April 2020 we increased the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that they are set at the 30th percentile of market rents. This is an important policy that will benefit 1.5 million people and the average claimant will gain an additional £600 per year in increased housing support. Next year these rates will be maintained at their increased level.