Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when there will be a minister in place responsible for the communities portfolio.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
My noble Friend Lord Greenhalgh is the minister responsible for the communities portfolio.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland 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 the spare room subsidy on trends in the level of empty properties.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Statistics on vacant dwellings in England and in each local authority district are published in the Department's live table 615, which is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants.
This table shows the annual total numbers of empty homes and those vacant longer than six months and also vacants in the local authority, housing association and other public sector tenures
The number of long-term vacant dwellings across England remains lower than when records began.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what meetings he (a) has had and (b) plans to have with Rolton Kilbride on its application for a gasification plant at Hillthorn Farm in Washington and Sunderland West; and what the purpose was of the meetings that he has had.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Secretary of State has not met Rolton Kilbride Limited about its application for the construction and operation of a Renewable Energy Centre for the recovery of energy from non-hazardous residual waste at Hillthorn Farm, Washington, and has no plans to do so. He is currently considering requests to call in this application and propriety considerations prevent him meeting any parties with an interest in the proposal, as this may be prejudicial.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information the Government holds on the number of (a) domestic and (b) forest or woodland fires caused by the use of fireworks in each of the last five years.
Answered by Greg Clark
The figures in the table show that almost 750 fires attended by fire crews were recorded as having fireworks as the cause of ignition in either dwellings, other residential or forest/woodland fires over the past five years. However, the Department collects information on the source of ignition for primary fires only. Primary fires include all fires in buildings, vehicles and outdoor structures or any fire involving casualties, rescues or fires attended by five or more appliances. The definition also includes “woodland/forest/crops” but other similar land types (eg “grassland, pasture, grazing etc”) are considered secondary fires for which this information is not gathered.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to provide adequate fire service on bonfire night.
Answered by Greg Clark
The Government is grateful to all firefighters who continually demonstrate their commitment to protecting their communities, particularly at this busy time of year.
It is for each local fire and rescue authority to ensure the adequacy of its fire and rescue service provision on bonfire night and throughout the year. Each will have in place an Integrated Risk Management Plan, identifying and assessing the risks facing its communities and determining its priorities in relation to prevention, protection and response.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to provide adequate fire service on bonfire night.
Answered by Greg Clark
The Government is grateful to all firefighters who continually demonstrate their commitment to protecting their communities, particularly at this busy time of year.
It is for each local fire and rescue authority to ensure the adequacy of its fire and rescue service provision on bonfire night and throughout the year. Each will have in place an Integrated Risk Management Plan, identifying and assessing the risks facing its communities and determining its priorities in relation to prevention, protection and response.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many members of his Department's executive board are (a) male and (b) female.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The executive and non executive members of the Department’s management board are listed at:
Disability is a self declaration and none of the members of the Department’s management board have declared themselves disabled.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many members of his Department's executive board are disabled.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The executive and non executive members of the Department’s management board are listed at:
Disability is a self declaration and none of the members of the Department’s management board have declared themselves disabled.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many members of his Department's executive board are (a) white British and (b) from any other ethnic background.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The executive and non executive members of the Department’s management board are listed at:
Disability is a self declaration and none of the members of the Department’s management board have declared themselves disabled.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of people on the waiting list for social housing at the latest date for which figures are available were identified as (a) white British and (b) from any other ethnic group.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
DCLG does not collect data directly from social housing waiting lists but according to the English Housing Survey in 2012-13 in England, there were 680 thousand (74%) white British households and 236 thousand (26%) households from any other ethnic group where at least one person within the household was on the waiting list for social housing.
More broadly, I would observe that local authority housing waiting lists in England under the last Administration soared from 1.02 million households in April 1997 to 1.74 million in April 2010. Under this Government, waiting lists have now fallen to 1.37 million as of April 2014 (source: Local Authority Housing Statistics, which uses different methodology to the English Housing Survey).