Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to help financially support councils using reserves to cover shortfalls in spending.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £54.1 billion of taxpayer subsidy in 2022/23 for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion on 2021/22, including, over £1 billion specifically for councils to meet social care pressures.
Further announcements will be made on the proposed local Government finance settlement in the coming weeks ahead.
We are working closely with the sector, as we always do, to monitor the impact on service delivery and budgets.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending the monthly £350 thank you payments under the Homes for Ukraine scheme to account for the needs of sponsors hosting larger numbers of Ukrainian refugees.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We recognise the growing pressure on family finances, and are continuing to work with local councils and sponsors to support them with their hosting arrangements.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to UNISON’s report entitled a decent place to live: Homes Fit for Key Workers, published in July 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the findings of that report.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In terms of housing and social housing, the Government has a clear set of policies:
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he will announce his future policy on housing; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Ministers will ensure that the House is updated on policy announcements in the usual way.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if it remains his policy to help ensure 300,000 new homes are built year by 2025; and how many new homes a year will be built for social rent.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government remains committed to ensuring more homes are built in the right places both to give people support where they need it and also to give more people the opportunity to own their own homes in the future.
With regards to social rent, the Government has committed £11.5 billion of taxpayer funded grant to the latest Affordable Housing Programme. This is intended to provide tons of thousands of new homes across the country. A substantial number of these will be for social rent.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that public sector workers who are key workers have access to affordable homes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
An additional £11.5 billion of taxpayer-funded grant has been allocated to the Affordable Homes Programme, which is intended to provide tens of thousands of new homes across the country. Half the homes will be for Affordable and Social Rent, to help those in need
The Government has brought forward a range of interventions in recent years to promote home ownership. As an example, the First Homes programme is designed to help local first-time buyers and key workers on to the property ladder, by offering homes at a discount of at least 30% compared to the market price. The discount is passed on to all future purchasers in perpetuity, so these homes will keep helping first-time buyers onto the property ladder for generations to come.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress the Government has made on halving the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to levelling up the country and tackling non-decency. The Government has committed to review the Decent Homes Standard to make sure it is fit for the present day and responses from a recent consultation on a Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector are currently being analysed.
For those who live in poor quality social housing, we have introduced new legislation to improve the quality and regulation of social housing, give residents performance information so they can hold their landlord to account and ensure that when residents make a complaint, landlords take quick and effective action to put things right.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which Minister has responsibility for parks and green spaces.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Parks and green spaces share joint responsibility between the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). DLUHC is responsible for urban parks and green spaces and I am the responsible minister. In DEFRA, the responsible minister for the domestic natural environment, is Rebecca Pow MP and Lord Benyon is responsible for landscape, including national parks.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a ring-fenced grant to assist local authorities in meeting their statutory duty to provide short breaks and respite for seriously ill children.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Supporting the most vulnerable children and young people, and local authorities in maintaining their statutory services, continues to be a key priority for this Government.
The Spending Review 2020 confirmed that the Core Spending Power of local authorities will rise by 4.6% in cash terms from £49.0 billion in 2020-21 to up to £51.3 billion in 2021-22, which is a real terms increase. This real-terms increase builds on the largest year-on-year increase in spending power in a decade and recognises the resources councils need to meet their pressures and maintain children’s services, including their statutory duty to assess the social care needs of seriously ill children and young people, and to provide respite care where necessary.
The Government has also given over £6 billion in un-ringfenced funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of Covid-19 spending pressures. This unprecedented level of funding is un-ringfenced in recognition that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet service pressures in their local area, including for children and young people.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What steps he is taking to help ensure the provision of accessible homes for older and disabled people.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
By April 2022, the Government will have invested over £4 billion through the Disabled Facilities Grant, which will have funded adaptations to almost 400,000 homes since 2010.
In addition, 10 per cent of units delivered under the new Affordable Homes Programme will be used to increase the supply of specialist or supported housing.
Our current planning rules mean councils must consider the needs of older people and those with disabilities when planning new homes, and the Government recently consulted on options that include introducing higher mandatory accessibility standards for all new homes.