Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 5.5 of Spring Budget 2017, what estimate his Department has made of how much of the £2 billion of social care funding will be allocated to (a) Barnsley and (b) South Yorkshire.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Department published the allocations for the distribution of the additional funding for adult social care announced at the Spring Budget 2017 online on 9 March, together with an Explanatory Note concerning distribution.
This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-allocations-of-the-additional-funding-for-adult-social-care.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
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 effectiveness of the definition of statutory homelessness in preventing rough sleeping.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The homelessness legislation (part 7 Housing Act 1996) provides a strong safety net for all those who are vulnerable and homeless through no fault of their own. Homelessness is defined at section 175 of the Act. Broadly speaking somebody is statutorily homeless if they do not have accommodation that they have a legal right to occupy, which is accessible and physically available to them (and their household) and which it would be reasonable for them to continue to live in. It would not be reasonable for someone to continue to live in their home, for example, if that was likely to lead to violence against them (or a member of their family).
We have protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, totalling £315 million by 2020. In doing so, we expect local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide advice and assistance to all those that approach them for help. Since 2010, this funding has allowed local authorities to prevent more than a million households from becoming homeless. We are determined to ensure that we prevent more people from becoming homeless in the first place so we are working with local authorities, homelessness charities and across departments to consider options to prevent more people from becoming homeless.
We have also increased central funding to tackle homelessness to £139 million over the next four years, which will include targeted funding for rough sleeping. This includes a new £10 million fund to support and scale-up initiatives to prevent and reduce rough sleeping, and a £10 million Social Impact Bond to support the most entrenched rough sleepers off the streets.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
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 reduce regional variations in local authority (a) core spending power and (b) core spending power per dwelling in England.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Local Government Finance Settlement distributes resources fairly by taking into account the main sources of income available to councils, including council tax and business rates. This means that funding is allocated in a way that ensures authorities delivering the same set of services receive broadly the same annual percentage change in these main sources of income.
Councils facing the highest demand for services generally continue to receive more funding and have higher spending power than less deprived authorities. In 2016-17 the 10% most deprived authorities received 23% more funding than the 10% least deprived.
We have also announced a Fair Funding Review to consider the funding needs of different types of areas. This will involve a thorough review of what the needs assessment formula should be in a world in which local government spending is funded by local resources, not central grant. The Review will be done in partnership with the Local Government Association and the wider local government sector, so that all councils have the opportunity to contribute their views.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the high street vacancy rate was in (a) England and (b) each region of England in each of the last six years.
Answered by Marcus Jones
My Department does not collect or publish data relating to high street vacancy rates. There are several commercial sources of shop vacancy rates data available, including the Local Data Company and Springboard, (http://info.localdatacompany.com/vacancy-rate-report-h1-2015-summary-download) who publish overall trends in the public domain.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many homes have been built in (a) Barnsley East constituency, (b) Barnsley, (c) South Yorkshire and (d) Yorkshire and the Humber in each year since 2010.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Statistics on new build housing starts and completions in Barnsley and South Yorkshire (Metropolitan County) are published on the Department's website at:
http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
These statistics are not available by parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many affordable homes he expects will be (a) started and (b) completed in (i) Barnsley East constituency, (ii) Barnsley, (iii) South Yorkshire and (iv) England in each of the next five years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department does not forecast affordable housing delivery by locality by year. The Government is committed to deliver 275,000 affordable homes in England across 2015-20 with £38 billion of public and private investment.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory homeless people there were in (i) Barnsley East constituency, (ii) Barnsley local authority area and (iii) South Yorkshire in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Figures on homelessness are collected at local authority level rather than parliamentary constituencies.
The requested figures for Barnsley local authority area and South Yorkshire are provided in the attached table.
Figures at local authority level on statutory homelessness and homelessness prevention and relief are available to download at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness. Figures at local authority level on rough sleeping are available to download at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2014
This Government has increased spending to prevent homelessness, making over £500 million available to help the most vulnerable in society and have kept strong protections to guard families against the threat of homelessness.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people in Barnsley East constituency were homeless in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The statistics are collected at local authority level, rather than Parliamentary constituency. The latest statistics for the period April to June 2014 show that fewer than 5 households were accepted by Barnsley local authority as being owed a main homelessness duty and in total there were fewer than 5 households in temporary accommodation at the end of June. National and local authority data for homelessness are published on the Department's website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness
Homelessness remains lower than in 27 of the last 30 years. Since 2010 this Government has invested over £500 million to prevent and tackle all forms of homelessness and rough sleeping. The homelessness legislation in England provides one of the strongest safety nets in the world for families with children and vulnerable people who become homeless through no fault of their own.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much is owed in council tax arrears in (a) Barnsley local authority area, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) the UK.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
As at 31 March 2014, Barnsley council reported that the cumulative council tax arrears in their area was £11.1 million. The corresponding figure for South Yorkshire (i.e. Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham & Sheffield) was £68.9 million. The total cumulative council tax arrears as at 31 March 2014 for the whole of England was £2.53 billion.
We do not produce figures for the UK.
The figures are calculated by adding the amount of council tax that was uncollected within the year to the council tax arrears brought forward, less any receipts received in respect of previous years’ arrears, less any council tax written off as uncollectable.
In our best practice document, “50 ways to save”, we listed improving council tax collection rates and reducing arrears as a key way of making sensible savings to help keep overall council tax bills down and protect frontline services. Every penny of council tax that is not collected means a higher council tax for the law-abiding citizen who does pay on time.
It is important that councils are sympathetic to those in genuine hardship, are proportionate in enforcement and do not overuse bailiffs. However, these figures show that there is a significant source of income for councils, which they could use to support frontline service or cut council tax bills.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new housing starts there were in (a) Barnsley East constituency, (b) Barnsley local authority area, (c) South Yorkshire and (d) the UK in each of the last four years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Statistics on house building starts for the UK are published in the Department’s live table 208 and starts in Barnsley District and South Yorkshire are published in the live table 253, which is available on the following link:
http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
Housebuilding statistics are not available at the constituency level.
I would also note that council tax base statistics show that over 700,000 new homes have been delivered in England since the end of 2009.