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Written Question
Housing: Cumbria
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the availability of homes in Cumbria.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The Government is providing £212 million from the Housing Infrastructure Fund for Cumbria County Council’s Carlisle Southern Link Road, which intends to support the delivery of up to 10,325 new homes in Carlisle.

In Barrow-in-Furness, the Government is spending to support the delivery of over 800 new homes at Barrow Waterfront, including up to £24 million from the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land Fund, and £1.5 million from the Brownfield Land Release Fund to support the release of land at Marina Village.

To the end of March 2023 £4.4 million has been allocated to Cumbria from the Affordable Homes Programme (2021-126) to deliver 74 new affordable homes. Overall, since 2010, 4,400 affordable homes have been delivered in Cumbria (3,100 for rent, of which 1,200 for social rent).


Written Question
Refugees: Ukraine
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help support Ukrainian refugees living in the UK.

Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

As set out previously, local authorities will continue to receive a tariff payment to support our Ukrainian guests. Sponsors are also eligible for an ‘Thank You payment’ of £350 per month for the first 12 months of a Ukrainian guest’s stay in the UK and £500 thereafter.

We recognise through engagement with guests, other government departments, local councils, VCS organisations and sponsors that English is one of the main barriers to employment, so we announced £11.5 million in the Spring Budget 2023 to fund intensive English language courses and employment support for up to 10,000 eligible individuals under the Ukraine visa schemes.

This programme provides free online English lessons and employment support to Ukrainian arrivals to help them improve their job prospects.


Written Question
Help to Buy Scheme: Interest Rates
Friday 16th December 2022

Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what support his Department is providing to people who have purchased properties through the Help to Buy Scheme with rising interest rates.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The Help to buy Equity Loan Scheme has helped over 369,000 households to own their own home and will continue to help many people until March 2023.

To support Help to Buy customers, the loan scheme is already interest free for five years. We are actively supporting customers who are struggling to make their interest repayments so if customers are in this position they are encouraged to speak to Target about options available to manage these.


Written Question
Second Homes: Cumbria
Wednesday 16th March 2022

Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of second homes in Cumbria in each year between 2010 and 2022.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Department collects data on second homes classified for the purposes of council tax at the local authority district level on an annual basis, which can then be aggregated to cover the area of Cumbria.

The time series can be compiled from the published local authority level datasets which can be found at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-taxbase-statistics

for each year. Line 11 relates to second homes and the local authority level can be found in the ‘Data’ tab. The latest data is taken from a snapshot in October 2021.


Written Question
Second Homes: Cumbria
Wednesday 16th March 2022

Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of second homes in Cumbria between 2010 and 2022.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Department collects data on second homes classified for the purposes of council tax at the local authority district level on an annual basis, which can then be aggregated to cover the area of Cumbria.

The time series can be compiled from the published local authority level datasets which can be found at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-taxbase-statistics

for each year. Line 11 relates to second homes and the local authority level can be found in the ‘Data’ tab. The latest data is taken from a snapshot in October 2021.