Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the national living wage on the provision of adult care services by private companies to local authorities.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Spending Review took account of the costs of implementing the National Living Wage and set out a sustainable basis for local authorities to discharge their functions. An assessment was made which drew on projections and data on pay including information from the Office of Budget Responsibility and Skills for Care. This found that out of an estimated 1.52 million adult social care jobs in England, up to 900,000 people, are expected to benefit from the introduction of the National Living Wage. Through the Spending Review Government outlined a package of support of up to £3.5 billion to ensure councils are able to support some of their older and most vulnerable residents.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will provide support to local councils to ensure they protect deaf clubs for people seeking support and help in getting back to work.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government recognises the important role that councils play in supporting those who need additional help when seeking to get back into the workplace. However, as democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent from central Government and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities.
This year’s Local Government Financial Settlement does provide a reasonable offer to local government, with a settlement which is essentially flat in cash terms, moving from £44.5 billion in 2015-16 to £44.3 billion in 2019-20. By 2020, when councils will be 100% funded by council tax, business rates and other local revenues, they will finally be fully accountable to their electorate for their financing, decisions and actions.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
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 is taking to ensure that councils do not discriminate against people for whom British Sign Language is their first language in the provision of council services.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The responsibility for providing appropriate support to enable meaningful communication with deaf people by local authorities lies with the local authorities themselves.
All local authorities have a legal responsibility under sections 20 and 29 of the Equality Act 2010 not to discriminate against disabled people in the provision of services and to make 'reasonable adjustments', which means for example providing information in an accessible format to allow deaf people to have equal access to their services.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will meet with house builders to discuss increasing the provision of two-bedroom end bungalows in the housing market so that retirees can downsize from larger two-storey residential housing.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
I meet with housebuilders regularly and have had many meetings on the provision of older peoples' housing. This Government is committed to provide older people with choice over the housing that best meets their needs.
We have clear planning policy to support older peoples' housing, and we strengthened guidance last year to reinforce our expectations – including to get local authorities to recognise the benefits of supporting applications to build homes for people wishing to downsize.
We are clear that local councils and mainstream housing providers need to increase the quality, choice and provision of housing for older people. We hope this will enable many older people who wish to move to available properties that suit their needs to do so, while freeing up family sized homes.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the national living wage and the apprenticeships levy on (a) contracted-out services provided to local authorities and (b) the revenue of those local authorities; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The impact of the introduction of the national living wage and apprenticeships levy was considered during the Spending Review as part of the overall assessment of spending pressures on local authorities. However, no assessment has been made on contracted out services or revenue generation as that is for individual local authorities to consider as part of their budget setting process.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what research his Department has commissioned on the (a) age profile of rural counties and (b) ability of older residents to generate business rates.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Office for National Statistics publish population estimates and population projections at the local authority level, broken down by age. We are not aware of any evidence to suggest a correlation between levels of business rates income and the age profile of residents.