Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities work with other public bodies to house their offices in public sector buildings and hubs; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Department does not collect data on which local authorities work with other public bodies to house their offices. However, we encourage all authorities to make the best use of their assets to save money and provide collaborative services by sharing of premises.
In November 2014, we announced a further tranche of £89.4 million Transformation Challenge Award funding for 2015-16. The successful bids included local authorities sharing buildings as well as services with public sector partners, such as Charnwood Borough Council’s co-locating its customer service office with Jobcentre Plus and Leicestershire County Council. This will provide customers with a one-stop jobs and benefits service and annual accommodation savings of some £440,000.
My Department is also encouraging and supporting collaboration through the £75 million Fire Service Transformation Fund. Out of the 37 winning bids, 31 of those bids are for collaboration-type activities with other emergency services, including through sharing stations and services.
The One Public Estate programme, jointly run by Cabinet Office and the Local Government Association, supports collaboration across central and local government and the wider public sector on asset management. Across the programme over 40 co-location opportunities are being taken forward. For example Hampshire County Council, fire and rescue service and Police Force have an integrated (shared services) business centre and shared facilities at Alresford, Stockbridge and Redbridge fire stations. Two of these locations are also used as ambulance standby points, making them emergency service ‘blue light hubs’. Following last week’s Budget announcement of £6 million to extend the programme, we would expect this to support an increase in co-location opportunities over the Parliament.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to encourage local authorities to collaborate with other public bodies to use the same premises; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Department does not collect data on which local authorities work with other public bodies to house their offices. However, we encourage all authorities to make the best use of their assets to save money and provide collaborative services by sharing of premises.
In November 2014, we announced a further tranche of £89.4 million Transformation Challenge Award funding for 2015-16. The successful bids included local authorities sharing buildings as well as services with public sector partners, such as Charnwood Borough Council’s co-locating its customer service office with Jobcentre Plus and Leicestershire County Council. This will provide customers with a one-stop jobs and benefits service and annual accommodation savings of some £440,000.
My Department is also encouraging and supporting collaboration through the £75 million Fire Service Transformation Fund. Out of the 37 winning bids, 31 of those bids are for collaboration-type activities with other emergency services, including through sharing stations and services.
The One Public Estate programme, jointly run by Cabinet Office and the Local Government Association, supports collaboration across central and local government and the wider public sector on asset management. Across the programme over 40 co-location opportunities are being taken forward. For example Hampshire County Council, fire and rescue service and Police Force have an integrated (shared services) business centre and shared facilities at Alresford, Stockbridge and Redbridge fire stations. Two of these locations are also used as ambulance standby points, making them emergency service ‘blue light hubs’. Following last week’s Budget announcement of £6 million to extend the programme, we would expect this to support an increase in co-location opportunities over the Parliament.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities share (a) a chief executive, (b) senior officers and (c) senior officers with other public sector bodies; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Government does not collect data on the arrangements made by local authorities however it is aware that there are around 20 shared chief executives and many more shared management teams.
Local authorities can achieve very substantial benefits for their communities through joint working arrangements and sharing management structures. It gives local authorities the capacity and mechanisms to transform services so that they meet the needs of the communities that they serve and focus resources on where they make the biggest difference.
This Government will not prescribe how local authorities should organise their management structures but will encourage them to improve service delivery and productivity. There are already several types of local governance covering more than one local authority area including five combined authorities and the proposed Metro Mayor and Combined Authority in Greater Manchester.
The Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill will enable constituent authorities of cities to propose and negotiate with the Secretary of State the devolution of far reaching powers over economic development and transport and social care, under directly elected mayors. The Government has also committed to negotiating bespoke growth deals with other places.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with developers to encourage them to build on brownfield sites; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We are committed to ensuring that brownfield land is used as much as possible for new development and want to encourage developers to build homes on brownfield land. Ministers, including the my rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, regularly hold meetings with developers to discuss these issues. To help facilitate housing on brownfield land we will require local authorities to have a register of what is available, and ensure that 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites have planning permission for housing by 2020. This will provide more certainty for developers and encourage investment in local areas. The Government is also committed to releasing further surplus public sector land to support the delivery of new homes. In doing so we will be transparent about the sites that are to be released so that developers can clearly identify the opportunities that these sites will provide.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of rent-to-mortgage schemes in promoting home ownership; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
This Government does not currently run a Rent to Mortgage scheme.
The Government has introduced a number of programmes to help people into home ownership. So far, over 228,000 households have been helped to buy or reserve property since spring 2010 through Government-backed schemes, including Help to Buy and Right to Buy.
Our commitment to build 200,000 Starter Homes this Parliament will ensure even more people have the opportunity to move into home ownership.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the proportion of home ownership was in (a) England, (b) East Sussex and (c) Lewes constituency in each of the last 18 years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Decennial statistics on home ownership for England, East Sussex and Lewes constituency, based on Census data, are published by the Office for National Statistics, and are available at the following links.
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks402ew
www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk