Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
What steps his Department is taking to improve building safety.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Safety Bill announced in the Queen’s speech is a comprehensive piece of legislation which will bring about a once in a generation change to building safety, and will ensure that people, homes, and buildings are safer in future, and that the right people are held to account.
It will introduce a new regulatory regime for high-rise buildings and for construction products and will drive the regulatory, cultural and behavioural changes needed to ensure people are safe in their homes and residents are at the heart of the new, robust system.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to increase devolution in England.
Answered by Luke Hall
We want to devolve and decentralise to give more power to local communities, providing an opportunity for all places to level up. We intend to bring forward the English Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper in due course, detailing how the UK Government will partner with places across the UK to build a sustainable economic recovery, including our vision for expanding devolution across England.
On 17 December 2020 the Order for the West Yorkshire devolution deal was laid in Parliament. Subject to parliamentary approval, the newly elected Mayor will have control over an annual £38 million investment fund as well as new powers over transport, education and housing and planning.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to support the regeneration of high streets in (a) Burslem, (b) Tunstall and (c) Kidsgrove.
Answered by Luke Hall
This Government is committed to driving the regeneration of towns and High Streets across the country and particularly so in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The £3.6 billion Towns Fund aims to deliver long-term economic and productivity growth to towns and high streets. In September 2019, we announced the initial 101 towns Government would work with to agree Town Deals. Kidsgrove is one of the towns invited to submit a Town Investment Plan. This was received at the end of October 2020 and is now being assessed.
The Government is launching a new Levelling Up Fund (LUF) worth £4 billion for England. This new cross-departmental Fund will invest in a broad range of high value local projects, including upgrading town centres and community infrastructure. It will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery.
The Spending Review has made available up to £600 million for the LUF in 2021-22, and further funding will be spread over subsequent years up to 2023-24. We intend to publish a prospectus for the Fund and launch the first round of competitions later this year.
The Spending Review also announced that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK for people and places. It will support people and communities, creating new opportunities and spurring regeneration and innovation.
Earlier this year we announced the £900 million “Getting Building Fund” to deliver local employment, skills, and infrastructure priorities, £23.7 million of which was allocated to Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Project.
The Government-backed Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone is making a big impact, enabling redundant and long-neglected brownfield sites to be re-developed, including Chatterley Valley East, Highgate / Ravensdale, and Tunstall Arrow, in Tunstall.
We have provided £10 million of Housing Infrastructure Fund Marginal Viability Funding to transform nine long-standing vacant sites in the Burslem and Middleport areas, helping to breathe new life in the town.
In addition, the High Streets Task Force has launched a range of online resources to provide support to places across the country, which can be found here: https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk/products-and-services/support-for-all-high-streets/
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support the Government is providing to (a) Stoke-on-Trent City Council, (b) Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and (c) Staffordshire County Council to mitigate a reduction of income due to covid-19.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is providing significant support to local councils to assist with income reductions as a result of COVID-19. We have already made £528 million of payments under this year’s Sales, Fees and Charges Scheme, from which Stoke-on-Trent City Council (£3.5 million), Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council (£0.55 million) and Staffordshire County Council (£0.94 million) have all benefited, and we have now extended the scheme into the first three months of 2021-22.
To further support local councils with income losses, we are allowing councils to phase repayment of local tax collection fund deficits arising in 2020-21 over three years; we are committing to meet 75 per cent of councils’ irrecoverable losses in council tax and business rates income for 2020-21, worth an estimated £800 million; and we are providing authorities with £670 million of new grant funding to support council tax income, by enabling councils to continue reducing bills in 2021-22 for households least able to pay.
We will continue to monitor the effect of COVID-19 on local councils and would ask that any local authority that is faced with an unmanageable pressure or is concerned about their future financial position should approach MHCLG for a discussion.