Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on ensuring disabled children are given equal access to children's playgrounds.
Answered by Marcus Jones
DCLG has not issued any guidance on this. Individual local authorities are responsible for meeting the requirements placed on them by the Disabilty Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005 and the Equality Act 2010 in how they provide services.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what special support his Department is providing to rough sleepers over the Christmas period.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government remains committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. That is why since 2010 we have invested more than £500 million to prevent and tackle homelessness in England. But even one person without a home is one too many, which is why we have committed in the Spending Review to increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We are also maintaining and protecting homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.
Severe weather emergency provision for rough sleepers is of the utmost importance. Local authorities, with their voluntary sector partners, have arrangements in place to move rough sleepers indoors during periods of severe cold weather.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what special measures he has taken to provide assistance to rough sleepers in areas affected by floods in Lancashire and Cumbria.
Answered by Marcus Jones
My rt. hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (George Osborne) announced on 9 December that the Government has made £51 million available through the Communities and Business Recovery Scheme to help local authorities impacted by Storm Desmond to recover. The Scheme is designed to provide ready support to those local authorities to, in turn, help individuals, businesses and communities return to normality. Where local authorities judge that rough sleepers are in need of assistance, they can use the funding for that purpose. The funding can also be used to provide temporary accommodation for any family made homeless.
The Government remains committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. That is why since 2010 we’ve invested more than £500 million to prevent and tackle homelessness in England. But even one person without a home is one too many, which is why we have committed in the Spending Review to increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We are also maintaining and protecting homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what encouragement he has given local authorities to switch street lighting to LED light sources since May 2015.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Many local authorities are choosing to reduce street lighting at night to save energy costs and reduce carbon emissions using a variety of approaches, which include replacing traditional sodium lamps with more energy efficient LED lamps.
However, decisions about street lighting are for elected local councillors, reflecting local circumstances and views.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
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 need for increased quarrying capacity to meet the stone demand for new house building.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that mineral planning authorities should plan for a steady and adequate supply of minerals (aggregates), for example stone which is used in construction. All mineral planning authorities in England are members of one of the nine Aggregate Working Parties. These Parties publish annual reports which provide survey data on the extraction, sales, supply and forecast demand for aggregates in their area.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
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 potential effects of the National Living Wage on (a) local authority budgets and (b) home care services delivered by local authorities through private sector contracts.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Office of Budget Responsibility estimated that wage costs across the whole UK economy would increase by £4 billion by 2020 as a result of the implementation of the National Living Wage, assuming no changes to employment or hours worked. Some of those costs will be faced by the public sector, including local government. The impact on local government of the introduction of the National Living Wage will be considered as part of the Spending Review process.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the rationale was for the Government's decision to introduce a directly-elected mayor in Manchester; and what account was taken in that decision of the result of the referendum on the introduction of a mayor in Manchester in 2012.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The agreement made between the Government and the Leaders of Greater Manchester will lead to a devolution of powers and budgets on a unprecedented scale. This agreement involves providing a city wide metro mayor so that local people can hold whoever exercises this power and spends these budgets to account.
The Mayoral model offered in 2012 was completely different and about changing the governance model.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what financial support will be made available to housing associations to compensate for and replace housing stock sold at below market value through the extended right to buy scheme.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Details will be set out in the impact assessment when the Housing Bill is published.
It has been made clear that every additional home sold under the extended Right to Buy would be replaced with a new affordable home.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on who authorised the distribution of publicity information for EDF Energy in communications sent to local residents by Somerset County Council and Sedgemoor District Council.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what policies contained in the 2010 Coalition Agreement and falling under his Department's responsibilities have not yet been implemented; and what the reasons are for each such policy's non-implementation.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
My Department has delivered on all commitments in the Coalition Agreement within our Departmental responsibilities, with one exception.
Opposition peers in the House of Lords obstructed the provisions in the Localism Bill to give new rights to local residents to hold local referendums.
I hope this policy is something that can be taken forward in a future Parliament. The Conservative Party position in the recent command paper, Implications of devolution for England (Cm 8969) re-affirmed support for this policy, which would strengthen local democracy and local accountability.