Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many rough sleepers there were in (a) Birmingham, (b) Coventry, (c) Dudley, (d) Sandwell, (e) Solihull, (f) Walsall and (g) Wolverhampton local authority areas in each of the last five years.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
MHCLG’s latest annual Rough Sleeping Statistics published on 31 January 2019 show the total number of people counted or estimated to be sleeping rough across local authority areas in England.
These statistics are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018
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. This year, Rough Sleeping Initiative investment totals £46 million and has been allocated to 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated 750 additional staff and over 2,600 bed spaces.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many council housing units are planned to be built in (a) Birmingham, (b) Coventry, (c) Dudley, (d) Sandwell, (e) Solihull, (f) Walsall and (g) Wolverhampton local authority areas over the next five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We do not have information about the plans of individual local authorities to build council housing. It is for each local authority to determine its need for housing and to plan for it accordingly. To help, we have given local authorities the tools they need to build. We have abolished the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap, so that local authorities have the freedom to borrow to build council housing, in line with the Prudential Code. Additionally, local authorities can bid alongside housing associations for the £9 billion Affordable Homes Programme to build affordable homes, and we are providing a longer term rent deal for 5 years from 2020, so that councils have a stable investment environment to deliver new homes. These measures will allow local authorities to double delivery to up to 10,000 homes per year by 2021/22.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his forecast is for the number of council houses to be built in the West Midlands Metropolitan Area in each of the next five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
MHCLG does not publish forecasts of this nature.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the average cost of building council houses to A+ EPC standard.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In the Clean Growth Strategy, Government committed to reviewing the Building Regulations energy efficiency standards for all new dwellings. As part of a full public consultation for this review, we will publish an impact assessment of proposed changes, including a quantification of costs.
Government has also committed to introducing a Future Homes Standard by 2025 for new build homes to be future-proofed, with low carbon heating and world-leading levels of energy efficiency. We will consider this further as part of our 2019 consultation on the Building Regulations energy efficiency standards.