Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he had with (a) Mayors and (b) Metro Mayors on formulating the Budget 2023.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Ministers and officials work closely with all layers of local government including mayors and metro mayors.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department conducted an equality impact assessment on the new powers and funds for the Metro Mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands announced in March 2023.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I can confirm that the Department conducted public sector equalities duty analysis for each of the 'trailblazer' deeper devolution deals and for the capital regeneration projects in these city regions, and that this analysis was considered by ministers prior to final approval.
We have also gone further, to reiterate what is written in the trailblazer devolution deal documents, in exercising existing and newly devolved functions, the mayors and mayoral combined authorities will continue to adhere to their public sector equality duties.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the ability of local councils to fill vacancies in (a) social care and (b) refuse sectors; and what the cost per year is to local authorities of carrying vacancies in those sectors.
Answered by Lee Rowley
Local authorities work closely with providers in their local area to deliver social care, many aspects of which are provided by independent organisations and companies. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads on work relating to the refuse sectors.
The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment has been made of the potential impact of increased energy costs on local authority finances; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lee Rowley
As we have set out previously, we recognise that councils are facing higher costs. At the Autumn Statement, the Government announced significant additional resources for local government, making available approximately £6.5 billion of taxpayer subsidy for local government to deliver core services in 2023/24 and 2024/25 in addition to what was agreed at the 2021 Spending Review.
In addition, the Energy Bill Relief Scheme is providing a discount on energy prices this winter for councils whose bills have been significantly inflated by the global energy crisis.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of costs incurred by local authorities when applying for competitive Local Authority funding pots.
Answered by Lee Rowley
It is ultimately for individual local authorities to determine when and which funding pots to apply for but we also recognise that the process of applying for competitive funding does incur costs and have provided support to places accordingly; this includes as an example, the Levelling Up Fund which provided £125,000 of capacity funding to all eligible English local authorities.