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Written Question
COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund
Tuesday 19th April 2022

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much of the Covid Additional Relief Fund has been distributed to businesses as of 30 March 2022.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The information requested is not currently available. The government has awarded local authorities with £1.5 billion for distribution through the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund. Reporting arrangements have been put in place to monitor progress on implementation and delivery and local authorities will return information on their schemes at regular intervals.


Written Question
Retail Trade: Business Rates
Wednesday 15th December 2021

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many retail properties in (a) Barrow in Furness, (b) Bolton, (c) Blyth, (d) Carlisle, (e) Darlington, (f) Hartlepool, (g) Hyndburn, (h) Leeds, (i) Mansfield, (j) North East Lincolnshire, (k) Portsmouth, (l) Stoke-on-Trent, (m) Sunderland, (n) Torbay, (o) Wakefield, (p) Walsall and (q) Wolverhampton would have still, in the absence of short-term covid reliefs, had the benefit of downward revaluations on 1 April 2017 reduced by downward transition limits in each of (i) 2017-2018, (ii) 2018-2019, (iii) 2019-2020, (iv) 2020-2021 and (v) 2021-2022.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The Department does not collect information on which specific properties are eligible for transitional relief.


Written Question
Business Rates
Tuesday 14th December 2021

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many (a) retail, (b) hospitality and (c) leisure properties, in the absence of short-term covid relief, would not have been entitled to the full benefit of a downward rates reduction because of downward transitional limits, in (i) 2020-2021 and (ii) 2021-2022 in each of the nine standard English regions.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The Department does not collect information on which types of properties are eligible for transitional relief.


Written Question
Business Rates
Tuesday 14th December 2021

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the total business rates payable were in (a) warehouse, industrial and factory, (b) office, (c) retail, (d) hospitality and (e) leisure properties; and what the total amounts payable would have been for each of those property categories without transitional relief in (i) 2017-18, (ii) 2018-19, (iii) 2019-20, (iv) 2020-2021 and (v) 2021-22.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The Department does not collect information on the net business rates of properties by sector.


Written Question
Business Rates
Friday 3rd December 2021

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion, by rateable value, of )a) industrial and warehouse, (b) office and (c) retail properties benefitted from transitional relief limiting their business rates payable in (i) 2017-18, (ii) 2018-19, (iii) 2019-20, (iv) 2020-21 and (v) 2021-22; and what proportion, by rateable value, in each category did not benefit from the full reduction in rates payable as a result of downward transition limits in each of those years.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The Department does not collect information on the types of property in receipt of transitional relief.


Written Question
Refuges: Domestic Abuse
Wednesday 25th March 2020

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of covid-19 self-isolation on access to refuges for victims of domestic violence.

Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)

The Government will do everything it can to support refuge providers to keep these vital services open, up and running.

Government officials are in discussion with domestic abuse service providers who are undertaking their own contingency planning, in line with advice from Public Health England, to keep the national domestic abuse helpline and safe accommodation support services open and available.

Following these discussions, on 23 March my Department published guidance for providers of refuge and other types of safe accommodation with support for victims of domestic abuse and their children.

The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-domestic-abuse-safe-accommodation-provision.

This guidance is in line with current Public Health England advice and sets out guidelines for daily service operation, including where victims may need to self-isolate within refuges and other types of domestic abuse safe accommodation provision.


Written Question
Loneliness
Wednesday 4th September 2019

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made against the commitment set out in the Loneliness Strategy to hold a roundtable with key representatives from the housing sector who are addressing loneliness, to inform the development of Planning Practice Guidance which will be published to support the recently revised National Planning Policy Framework.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

We appointed an external consultant to work with us to develop the design guide and it was agreed that a more interactive workshop approach would be more effective. Therefore, two workshops have been held in which the content of the illustrated design guide, part of the Planning Practice Guidance, was discussed. The discussion was broader than loneliness, but creating inclusive homes and places, which encourage community cohesion and a sense of identity were covered and will be incorporated within the manual.


Written Question
Loneliness
Wednesday 4th September 2019

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made against the commitment set out in the Loneliness Strategy to incorporate tackling loneliness as a theme in regional and national design quality events attended by people from across the sector, including local authorities.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

At our National Design Quality Conference in Birmingham in February, the subject of loneliness was tackled in a session on healthy place-making and a case study specifically on tackling loneliness was presented. We also hosted a community vision session with 40 representatives of the Birmingham community in which they discussed designing neighbourhoods to tackle loneliness. We displayed examples of good practice in housing design, many of which were designed to facilitate community engagement at the National Conference. These were also displayed at the Housing 2019 conference in Manchester.


Written Question
Loneliness
Tuesday 3rd September 2019

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made against the commitment set out in the Loneliness Strategy to work with local partners, through the Ageing Society Grand Challenge, on how to develop inclusive homes and communities that support people to remain healthy and independent for longer.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

Through the Ageing Society Grand Challenge, a £2.5 million competition has been developed. This will reward new ideas that lead to innovation in design and delivery of age friendly housing, that addresses the needs of an ageing population. A team led by the Building Research Establishment has recently been appointed to work with Government as the competition delivery partner and the competition itself is scheduled to be launched in late 2019.


Written Question
Loneliness
Tuesday 3rd September 2019

Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made against the commitment set out in the Loneliness Strategy to include loneliness in measures of design quality, starting with Homes England and other Government programmes.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

We are working closely with Homes England to ensure design quality across Government programmes and there is ongoing work to establish how places can be designed to boost people's health and well-being, including tackling loneliness.

For example, prospective garden communities were required to outline how they would achieve 10 design qualities in their proposals. These qualities help create places that support cohesive communities, and proposals were assessed against these criteria.