Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which freeholders have signed up to the Remediation Acceleration Plan.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
There is no requirement for freeholders to sign up to the Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP). The plan, published on 2 December 2024, sets out the steps this government will take to increase the pace of building remediation, while better protecting residents and leaseholders.
As set out in the RAP, a new joint plan with developers sets out their commitment to achieve ambitious stretch targets to start or complete remedial works on all their unsafe buildings by July 2027. At least 38 developers have signed up to the joint plan, covering more than 95% of buildings that developers will directly remediate.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding for the fire and rescue service.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Overall, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.87 billion in 2024/25. Decisions on how their resources are best deployed to meet their core functions are a matter for each fire and rescue authority based on its analysis of risk and local circumstances.
The Home Office will continue to work closely with stakeholders across the sector to ensure fire and rescue services have the resources they need to protect communities.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of dentistry in (a) Halton, (b) Cheshire West and (c) Chester in the last (i) three months, (ii) six months, (ii) 12 months and (iv) two years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dental Statistics - England 2023/24, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
Data for adults is measured for 24 months, and data for children is measured for 12 months, as this is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended timeframe in which adults and children should be seen by a dentist. This data is not held for three- and six-month intervals.
In the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB), which includes Halton, Cheshire West and Chester, 46% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the 24 months to June 2024, compared to 40% in England.
Furthermore, 58% of children in the ICB were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months to June 2023, compared to 53% in England. 62% of children in the ICB were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months to June 2024, compared to 56% in England.
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - December 2024, published on 23 January 2025, in how many of the buildings where enforcement action has been taken but which are not in any remediation funding programme does the building owner meet the contribution condition.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department does not hold this information.
The contribution condition is met when the landlord group’s net worth is at least £2,000,000 per relevant building owned by the landlord group. If the landlord group of a relevant building meets the contribution condition, all qualifying leaseholders in that building are exempt from all costs associated with non-cladding defects and interim measures (including waking watch costs).
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - December 2024, published on 23 January 2025, how many buildings which were deemed eligible for the Building Safety Fund have subsequently been determined to be ineligible after being transferred to the Cladding Safety Scheme.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
125 buildings have transferred from the Building Safety Fund (BSF) to the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS). We are exploring opportunities to transfer further buildings from the BSF to exploit the benefits of the CSS.
No buildings, to date, have been found to be ineligible after transferring to the CSS.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to transfer any buildings that have not yet started work under the Building Safety Fund to the Cladding Safety Scheme.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
125 buildings have transferred from the Building Safety Fund (BSF) to the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS). We are exploring opportunities to transfer further buildings from the BSF to exploit the benefits of the CSS.
No buildings, to date, have been found to be ineligible after transferring to the CSS.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the level of the backlog in Home Office asylum cases in (a) England, (b) North West region and (c) Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum seekers awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. This table is not broken down by constituency.
Data on asylum seekers on support by local authority is published in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that not all asylum seekers awaiting a decision will be on support.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of recent flooding response preparations.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting communities from flooding is a key priority for this Government. Defra and the Environment Agency work together and with partners to continuously assess and improve flood response preparations.
In September 2024, the Government’s new Floods Resilience Taskforce assessed the preparedness and resilience to flooding in advance of the winter. The Taskforce met again on 5 February where members discussed the impacts and learning from flooding experienced since September.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment has she made with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of the support available to veterans affected by homelessness.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected. We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Government is looking at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness, including veteran homelessness.
As announced at the Budget, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233m compared to this year (2024/25). This brings total spend to nearly a billion pounds in 2025/26.
We have made changes to social housing allocations regulations to exempt all veterans from local connection and residency tests to facilitate their access to social housing. The regulations came into force on 18 December 2024.
The Government has also committed a further £3.5 million to the Reducing Veteran Homelessness Programme from March 2025, including Op FORTITUDE, the homelessness pathway for homeless veterans, including those rough sleeping.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - December 2024, published on 23 January 2025, how many of the buildings where enforcement action has been taken but which are not in any remediation funding programme are leaseholder-owned.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We do not hold information on whether buildings outside the scope of government funded remediation programmes are collectively owned.