Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the request made in November 2018 by hon. Members representing Birmingham to meet to discuss his instruction to Birmingham City Council prohibiting further access to its reserves.
Answered by James Brokenshire
I have responded to the Rt Hon Member's letter today.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he expects to publish the implementation plan for the Casey Report.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The manifesto committed the Government to bring forward a new integration strategy to help people in isolated communities engage with the wider world, help women into the workplace, and improve the spread of spoken English skills.
We will publish an integration strategy for consultation shortly.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what meetings Ministers of his Department have had with representatives of the Legatum Institute in the last 12 months.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Details of Ministers' meetings with external organisations are published quarterly on Gov.uk and can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dclg-ministerial-data
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans to respond to the Casey Review into opportunity and integration.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
On 5 December 2016, Dame Louise Casey published her independent review of how to boost opportunity and integration in isolated and deprived communities. Since then my Department has been reviewing the available evidence on the main causes of poor integration. In the coming months we will bring forward plans for tackling these issues through a new integration strategy.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to publish its integration policy in response to the Casey Review of December 2016.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
As my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said in the House on December 6, Official Report, Column 131, we will come back to the House in the spring with our plans on how we will take forward a new integration strategy in response to the issues raised in the Casey Review.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he expects to approve the Birmingham local plan.
Answered by Lord Barwell
A decision will be made as soon as possible.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons his Department has called in the Birmingham local plan for review.
Answered by Lord Barwell
A decision will be made as soon as possible.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
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 15 July 2015 to Question 6223, which groups were awarded money for integration projects.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2015 to Question 6223 the organisations which were awarded money for integration projects and activities are shown in the attached table.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
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 15 July 2015 to Question 6223, what measures he has used to assess the results and performance of the £50 million invested through the integration strategy.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
My Department monitors integration projects to ensure they deliver the agreed outcomes and milestones set out in their grant agreement. For example, our investment of £8 million since 2011 in the Near Neighbours programme has supported over 924 local projects that bring different faith and ethnic groups together, benefitting over 650,000 local people; while funding of £10 million has established over 600 new cadet units providing opportunities for over 11,000 young people.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of progress in implementing his Department's strategy set out in its paper entitled, Creating the conditions for integration, published in 2012.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
As detailed in "Creating the Conditions for Integration", integration is achieved when neighbourhoods, families and individuals come together on issues that matter to them. We focus on supporting shared activities to bring people together to enable strong communities where people feel they belong. Since 2011, we have provided over £50 million to support integration projects. Decisions on the provision of funding for integration projects and activities are supported by an assessment of how the likely outcomes will contribute to the key contributors of integration, as set out in our paper. Each organisation receiving funding has a grant agreement against which it is monitored to ensure that agreed outcomes and milestones are met.