Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to reply to the letter of August 27 2020 from the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys on alley gates raised on behalf of a constituent.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The response was sent on 26 February.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will extend the closure date for Help to Buy equity loans beyond 31 December for housing developments that have had their completion date delayed by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government recognises the disruption COVID-19 has caused to housebuilding; that is why we took decisive steps to re-open the housing market and ensure housebuilding could safely recommence.?The Government published a “Plan to Rebuild” on Monday 11 May, setting out the UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy. This makes clear that construction work can be undertaken across England providing sites are able to operate safely in line with the new COVID-19 secure guidelines.
As announced at Budget 2018, there is a new two year Help to Buy scheme commencing from 1 April 2021, specifically for first time buyers, so supporting people onto the housing ladder. Where new build properties are not completed within the current Help to Buy scheme deadlines, they may be eligible for sale through the new scheme. More information on the new Help to Buy scheme can be found at https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/equity-loan/eligibility/. We continue to monitor the sector.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what provisions he plans to include in multi-storey car park building regulations to deter suicides.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Regulations 2010 apply to new-build structures rather than existing structures. Thus the impact on suicide prevention of changes to the Building Regulations requirements to guarding in car parks would be limited.
Following the publication of the government's 2012 suicide prevention strategy, local councils were given the responsibility of developing local suicide action plans through their work with health and wellbeing boards. A deadline of 2017 was set and by the end of 2016, 95 per cent of areas had plans in place or were in the process of drawing them up. Advice on suicide prevention in public spaces is given in Public Health England's 2015 publication Preventing suicides in public places - A practice resource. This guidance provides a targeted approach and proposes a range of measures, of which physical barriers are a part.
Requirement K2 of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010 provides requirements for guarding to be provided in new buildings, including car parking buildings. In relation to the design of guarding, statutory guidance in Approved Document K sets a minimum guarding height of 1100mm to changes of level other than at staircases (where the minimum height is 900mm). Changes in level of less than 380mm do not require guarding. These are minimum heights only.
The government is not planning to increase the statutory guidance on minimum heights of barriers in car parking buildings as a suicide prevention measure.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons his Department asked the Local Government Association to withdrawn its advice note to local authorities that coach operators should be classified as leisure businesses for the purposes of covid-19 business support grants.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Eligibility for the COVID-19 business support grant, which is being led by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, is based in part on eligibility for the expanded retail business rates discount. My Department published guidance on the expanded retail discount on 25 March 2020. Local authorities are responsible for implementing the discount in line with the guidance, which states that eligible properties are shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues; those used by visiting members of the public for assembly and leisure; or hotels, guest & boarding premises and self-catering accommodation. The majority of coach operators are therefore unlikely to be eligible for rates relief or related business support grants.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many Disabled Facilities Grant adaptations were delivered in the Blackpool local authority area in each year since 2010.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Government does not currently produce data on the Disabled Facilities Grant. However, the Department provides local authority returns to Foundations, the Government-funded national body for home improvement agencies. Foundations analyse the data to understand Disabled Facilities Grant delivery nationally. From records provided by Foundations, the data shows the following totals for adaptations that were delivered by Blackpool local authority since 2010:
Number of Disabled Facilities Grants delivered by Blackpool local authority since 2010:
2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 |
560 | 173 | 213 | 242 | 214 | 130 | 152 | 179 | 267 | 264 |
Source: Foundations, the national body for home improvement agencies
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
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 he has made of the adequacy of the methodology used for counting rough sleepers; and when guidance was last issued to local authorities on that methodology.
Answered by Luke Hall
MHCLG published the latest official rough sleeping snapshot statistics on 27 February 2020. For more information see link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019
These Official Statistics are produced in accordance with the principles and practices of the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics and provide information about the estimated number of people sleeping rough on a single night between 1 October and 31 November 2019 and some basic demographic details (i.e. age, gender, nationality). MHCLG is confident these statistics provide an accurate way of estimating the number of people sleeping rough across England on a single night and an indication of trends over time.
The snapshot figures are collected by outreach workers, local charities and community groups and are independently verified by Homeless Link. Every local authority is required to consult with at least one type of local agency to produce their snapshot figures. In 2019, 72 per cent of local authorities reported they had consulted with 5 different groups or more. Local authorities must involve volunteers who are independent of the council and its outreach team (e.g. non-commissioned services). Homeless Link will not verify the process if no local agencies, or only those that are part of, or commissioned by, the local authority are involved.
The latest guidance to local authorities on the official rough sleeping snapshot was published before the annual snapshot process began last year in August 2019 and is available here: https://www.homeless.org.uk/our-work/resources/counts-and-estimates-evaluating-extent-of-rough-sleeping
Alongside the publication of the 2019 annual rough sleeping statistics this week, MHCLG also published a technical report which outlines in detail how the statistics are collected, the quality assurance processes in place, recent improvements and the limitations so users are fully informed about the overall quality of the Rough sleeping snapshot statistics. For more information see link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019-technical-report
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether Homes England received an application to the Community Housing Fund from Blackpool Council prior to the bidding for that fund closing.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
An application from Blackpool Council to the Community Housing Fund was received by Homes England prior to the bid round closure in December. The bid was approved and an allocation of £285,000 was confirmed to the council in October 2019.