Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities to find additional accommodation for refugees that have been granted leave to remain.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The department is committed to working in partnership with local authorities to understand the impact of recently granted refugees and their housing needs.
We also continue to work with the Home Office to see how we can improve working co-operation with local authorities to make sure that they receive enough notice and the right information to support people following an asylum decision.
All individuals who have received a positive decision on their asylum claim can remain in the accommodation provided by the Home Office for at least 28 days from when their decision is served to allow them to make onward arrangements.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for assessing the effectiveness of the Housing First pilot schemes.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The previous Government commissioned an evaluation of the Housing First pilots, which is currently ongoing. Reports are made available here.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of local government expenditure on tackling (a) child poverty and (b) poverty.
Answered by Jim McMahon
On 17 July, a new Ministerial Taskforce was set up to drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of our ambitious new strategy in line with the Opportunity Mission.
This Government is under no illusions about the scale of the pressure that local authorities are facing and the impact of this pressure on the services councils provide. Future local authority funding decisions will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement. The department will work with local government leaders to ensure they are better able to fulfil their statutory duties.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to help ensure that families are able to access emergency accommodation in areas where capacity for accommodation has been exceeded by demand during the summer of 2024.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Homelessness levels are far too high and too many families are living in temporary accommodation. We will take the action needed to tackle this issue and develop a long-term, cross-government strategy, through working with mayors, councils and other key stakeholders, to end homelessness for good. Critical to tackling homelessness is building more affordable homes. We will deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to review the (a) distribution and (b) quantum of local government funding.
Answered by Jim McMahon
Future local authority funding decisions will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement.
We understand that improving how local government is funded is crucial to enabling councils to deliver for local residents and ensuring we can deliver our missions. We will provide councils with more stability and certainty through multi-year funding settlements and by ending wasteful competitive bidding. This will ensure councils can plan their finances for the future properly, delivering better value for money for taxpayers.
We want to hear from councils about the financial challenges they are facing and we are committed to improving the local government finance landscape in this Parliament.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when she expects the consultation on the York Local Plan to be concluded.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The York Local Plan remains at examination, consultation on main modifications to a policy H5 (Gypsies and Travellers) will end on 30 August. The full timetable for the York Local Plan examination can be viewed publicly on the examination website.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has he made of the potential merits of developing a plan for cooperation by metro mayors in Yorkshire.
Answered by Jacob Young
This Government has devolved powers and funding to the Mayoral Combined Authority areas of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and York and North Yorkshire, providing them with over £2.5 billion of funding over 30 years. At the 2023 Autumn Statement, we agreed a mayoral devolution deal for the remaining area of Yorkshire - Hull and East Yorkshire - and, subject to final consents and parliamentary approval, a Combined Authority is expected to be established in Autumn 2024 with the inaugural mayoral election in May 2025.
At the Convention of the North, we announced historic Level 4 devolution agreements with both West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. These agreements will deepen the power of the Combined Authorities and the metro mayors, including providing new flexibility over local growth, regeneration and housing funding from the next Spending Review. The Government remains committed to deepening the powers of more mayors over time.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to give the same powers to the metro mayors in Yorkshire.
Answered by Jacob Young
This Government has devolved powers and funding to the Mayoral Combined Authority areas of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and York and North Yorkshire, providing them with over £2.5 billion of funding over 30 years. At the 2023 Autumn Statement, we agreed a mayoral devolution deal for the remaining area of Yorkshire - Hull and East Yorkshire - and, subject to final consents and parliamentary approval, a Combined Authority is expected to be established in Autumn 2024 with the inaugural mayoral election in May 2025.
At the Convention of the North, we announced historic Level 4 devolution agreements with both West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. These agreements will deepen the power of the Combined Authorities and the metro mayors, including providing new flexibility over local growth, regeneration and housing funding from the next Spending Review. The Government remains committed to deepening the powers of more mayors over time.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the whole of Yorkshire benefits from metro mayors.
Answered by Jacob Young
This Government has devolved powers and funding to the Mayoral Combined Authority areas of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and York and North Yorkshire, providing them with over £2.5 billion of funding over 30 years. At the 2023 Autumn Statement, we agreed a mayoral devolution deal for the remaining area of Yorkshire - Hull and East Yorkshire - and, subject to final consents and parliamentary approval, a Combined Authority is expected to be established in Autumn 2024 with the inaugural mayoral election in May 2025.
At the Convention of the North, we announced historic Level 4 devolution agreements with both West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. These agreements will deepen the power of the Combined Authorities and the metro mayors, including providing new flexibility over local growth, regeneration and housing funding from the next Spending Review. The Government remains committed to deepening the powers of more mayors over time.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to monitor the interventions made by social housing providers to tackle damp and mould in residential properties.
Answered by Jacob Young
The Secretary of State wrote to all providers of social housing setting out his expectations that they tackle dangerous damp and mould in their properties. We have now introduced ‘Awaab’s Law’, which will set new requirements for social landlords to address hazards such as damp and mould.
We have given local authorities strong enforcement powers that they must use if they identify dangerous damp and mould in privately rented homes and, through the Renters (Reform) Bill, are legislating to apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for the first time. Guidance for local authorities on how to ensure accommodation for homeless applicants is suitable can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homelessness-code-of-guidance-for-local-authorities/chapter-17-suitability-of-accommodation.