Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many days before a general election does an employee who has been selected as a parliamentary candidate have to resign from their job when they are working for (1) the NHS, (2) a local authority, and (3) the Civil Service.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
NHS England employees are not subject to any requirements to resign due to parliamentary candidacy.
Health is devolved in Scotland and Wales – restrictions relating to parliamentary candidacy on employees of NHS Scotland and NHS Wales are a matter for the Scottish and Welsh governments.
A number of specified local authority positions are designated as ‘politically restricted’. Holders of such posts are required to resign before announcing their candidacy for Parliament. Individual local authorities have the flexibility to designate additional positions as ‘politically restricted’. Furthermore, they may also choose to include restrictions relating to parliamentary candidacy in their employment contracts with any of their employees.
Civil Servants are disqualified from holding the office of MP. Parliamentary candidates must confirm they are not disqualified from holding the office when completing their consent to nomination form, and therefore cannot be employed in the Civil Service at this point. Furthermore, Civil Servants who are categorised as belonging to politically restricted or politically intermediate groups must resign before being adopted as a prospective candidate by a political party.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been assisted into accommodation on release from custody since the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Homelessness Reduction Act changes the response of local authorities to homelessness from crisis intervention to prevention, ensuring that both a wider group of people receive support and that everyone receives support at an earlier stage. Already, people are being referred by prisons for homelessness support before they leave custody through the Duty to Refer, which came into effect on 1 October. We are aiming to publish the first set of statistics collected since the commencement of the act in December.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the net change in the number of housing units in England in each of the last 30 years.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
This information is publicly available.
Figures show annual housing supply in England amounted to 217,350 net additional dwellings in 2016-17, up 15 per cent on 2015-16 and the highest level since 2007-08.
Annual estimates of net additions, on a consistent financial year basis, are available back to 1991-92 and are published in the statistical release (Table 1), to be found (attached) at:
Prior to 1991-92 estimates of housing supply were calculated as changes in annually-produced housing stock figures, published in LiveTable 104, to be found (attached) at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants
To facilitate access to this information, estimates of net additional dwellings in England since 1987 have been compiled in the table below.
Table 1. Annual housing supply; net additional dwellings, England: 1987 to 2016-17
Reference Period | Reference Date | Net additional dwellings |
Calendar year | 1987 | 254,000 |
Calendar year | 1988 | 206,000 |
Calendar year | 1989 | 185,000 |
Calendar year | 1990 | 166,000 |
Financial year | 1991-92 | 165,000 |
Financial year | 1992-93 | 151,000 |
Financial year | 1993-94 | 152,000 |
Financial year | 1994-95 | 166,000 |
Financial year | 1995-96 | 163,000 |
Financial year | 1996-97 | 154,000 |
Financial year | 1997-98 | 156,000 |
Financial year | 1998-99 | 149,000 |
Financial year | 1999-00 | 148,000 |
Financial year | 2000-01 | 132,000 |
Financial year | 2001-02 | 146,700 |
Financial year | 2002-03 | 159,870 |
Financial year | 2003-04 | 170,970 |
Financial year | 2004-05 | 185,550 |
Financial year | 2005-06 | 202,650 |
Financial year | 2006-07 | 214,940 |
Financial year | 2007-08 | 223,530 |
Financial year | 2008-09 | 182,770 |
Financial year | 2009-10 | 144,870 |
Financial year | 2010-11 | 137,390 |
Financial year | 2011-12 | 134,900 |
Financial year | 2012-13 | 124,720 |
Financial year | 2013-14 | 136,610 |
Financial year | 2014-15 | 170,690 |
Financial year | 2015-16 | 189,650 |
Financial year | 2016-17 | 217,350 |
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of homeless people in each of the ten districts of Greater Manchester.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
DCLG publishes regular statistics on rough sleeping, statutory homelessness and homelessness prevention and relief in England. The autumn 2016 number of rough sleepers counted and estimated in a single night snapshot in England was 4,134. In England, 59,090 households were accepted as statutorily homeless and in priority need in 2016/17. 77,240 households were in temporary accommodation at the end of March 2017 in England. There were 214,476 successful cases of homelessness prevention or relief outside the statutory homelessness framework in 2016/17 in England.
These are also published at a local authority level, including the ten Greater Manchester authorities. The latest statistics can be found (attached) at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics
The Government will be implementing manifesto commitments to help those at risk of becoming homeless, already sleeping rough or with complex needs, to support them to lead more independent lives.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much additional revenue will be raised through the adult social care council tax precept by an increase of (1) three per cent in 2017–18, and (2) three per cent in 2018–19, for each of the 10 districts of Greater Manchester.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Government has given local councils the flexibility they have asked for to bring forward funding for adult social care. The table shows how much each council in Greater Manchester could raise in each year if they chose to use this flexibility in full alongside the existing 2 per cent referendum principle; whether or not they wish to do so would be a matter for each council.
| Potential Adult Social Care precept receipts each year with 3 per cent increase | |
Greater Manchester Districts | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
Manchester | £6.7 million | £11.5 million |
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport | £6.6 million | £11.0 million |
Tameside | £3.7 million | £6.3 million |
Metropolitan Borough of Oldham | £4.0 million | £6.8 million |
Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale | £3.6 million | £6.1 million |
Metropolitan Borough of Bury | £3.5 million | £5.8 million |
Metropolitan Borough of Bolton | £4.7 million | £7.9 million |
Metropolitan Borough of Wigan | £5.3 million | £8.9 million |
City of Salford | £4.4 million | £7.5 million |
Trafford | £4.2 million | £7.1 million |
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the governance structure of each district council in Greater Manchester after (1) the appointment of a Mayor for Greater Manchester, and (2) the election of a Mayor for Greater Manchester.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have no plans to review the governance structures of the district councils in Greater Manchester. It is of course entirely open to those councils to consider for themselves the model of governance that is the most appropriate to their circumstances at any particular time, and should they wish to make changes, to do so in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 2000.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the elected representation in each district council of Greater Manchester after (1) the appointment of a Mayor for Greater Manchester, and (2) the election of a Mayor for Greater Manchester.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have no such plans. The Government has no role in the review of elected representation in local authorities. All such matters are the responsibility of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, a body entirely independent of Government and directly responsible to Parliament. The Commission has a statutory duty to keep electoral arrangements in local government, including councillor numbers, under review and it decides how and when any review will take place.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of local authority income was raised by Council Tax in each of the 10 districts of Greater Manchester for each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The table below shows the proportion of local authority income raised from council tax by the metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester for each year from 2009-10 to 2013-14. Income is defined as the sum of council tax, specific grants inside Aggregate External Finance, Revenue Support Grant, and for the relevant years, redistributed business rates, retained business rates, Local Services Support Grant and Area Based Grant. Council tax amounts are gross of payments of council tax benefit for years up to 2012-13.
|
| 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 |
| Bolton | 21% | 21% | 21% | 22% | 18% |
| Bury | 25% | 25% | 25% | 26% | 22% |
| Manchester | 14% | 14% | 15% | 15% | 11% |
| Oldham | 18% | 19% | 21% | 21% | 16% |
| Rochdale | 19% | 19% | 19% | 19% | 16% |
| Salford | 21% | 20% | 21% | 22% | 16% |
| Stockport | 31% | 31% | 32% | 33% | 28% |
| Tameside | 20% | 21% | 21% | 21% | 18% |
| Trafford | 25% | 25% | 28% | 29% | 25% |
| Wigan | 22% | 21% | 23% | 23% | 19% |
Total | Greater Manchester | 21% | 20% | 22% | 22% | 18% |
Source: Revenue Outturn returns
The figures have fallen in 2013-14 due to a technical, accounting consequence of the localisation of council tax benefit. Councils now apply local council tax support in the form of a council tax discount and receive a DCLG grant through Revenue Support Grant. Previously, councils received a grant from the Department for Work and Pensions, which refunded the tax revenue that was ‘paid’ by the council through council tax benefit.