Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of Help to Rent projects in helping homeless people access housing in the private rental market.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Help to rent projects play an important role in enabling homeless people to access the private rented sector. We are considering how best to take forward mediated access in the context of our overall homelessness prevention approach.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will set out the (a) remit, (b) membership, (c) timetable and (d) resources of the proposed Homelessness Reduction Taskforce.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We 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. We aim to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it altogether by 2027. The remit of the Homelessness Reduction Taskforce will include looking at prevention and affordable housing. In addition we will pilot a Housing First approach to tackle rough sleeping.
Homelessness is a wide-ranging and complex set of issues. That is why we aim to set up the Homelessness Reduction Taskforce with the right membership to drive these commitments forward.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraphs 1.296 and 1.297 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what progress his Department has made by estimated capacity of land sold since March 2016 in identifying and disposing of land to meet the Government's commitment.
Answered by Lord Barwell
In March we published a Government Review: Making Commercial Terms of Government Land Disposals More Transparent. The report committed to publish details of Government land sales annually, with the first publication in summer 2017. The report will include all sales in 2015/16 and 2016/17.
Progress towards meeting the housing ambition is set out in Table 3 of the Public Land for Housing Programme Annual Report published in February 2017 which shows that between 8 May 2015 and 30 September 2016, DCLG released land with capacity for 6,618 homes, generating £145,783,417 in receipts.
As a major landowner the Government has a crucial role to play in managing its estate more efficiently to secure best value for money for the taxpayer, boost growth and help support the building of new homes.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health on the health benefits of retirement housing and its potential in reducing local authority adult social care bills.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Ministers and officials from both departments meet when necessary to discuss a range of issues of interest to both departments.
Older people have a wide range of different housing needs, ranging from suitable and appropriately located market housing through to residential institutions and we are clear in the National Planning Policy Framework that councils should plan for a mix of housing, based on the needs of different groups in the community, including older people. We strengthened planning guidance last year to reinforce our expectations.
Housing is an important element to people's health and wellbeing and provision of suitable housing can and does play a role within the wider integration of health and social care to which we are committed.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on which day in November 2016 he expects to publish the housing white paper.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Building more homes is central to this Government’s vision of a country that works for everyone. We expect to publish a Housing White Paper later this year, setting out measures to help us deliver this ambition.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the administrative costs arising from the separate operation of 99 local government pension schemes.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The most recent data on local government pension scheme costs are at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-government-pension-scheme-funds-for-england-2015-to-2016
The Project POOL report prepared for a number of local authorities by Hymans Robertson estimated in January 2016 that annual savings from pooling investments in the scheme could reach £200-300 million in ten years.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken to encourage more local government pension schemes to be managed jointly.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The most recent data on local government pension scheme costs are at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-government-pension-scheme-funds-for-england-2015-to-2016
The Project POOL report prepared for a number of local authorities by Hymans Robertson estimated in January 2016 that annual savings from pooling investments in the scheme could reach £200-300 million in ten years.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent estimates he has made of the variations in the performance of local government pension schemes for the beneficiaries of such schemes.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Local government pension scheme benefits are guaranteed by statute and are not directly affected by the performance of individual funds within the scheme.
The most recent data on the income and expenditure of individual funds, including investment income and investment management expenses, are at: