Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what (a) monitoring and (b) enforcement action his Department undertakes to ensure that temporary accommodation in Leicester meets minimum health, safety and hygiene standards.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Housing authorities must, as a minimum, ensure that all temporary accommodation is free of Category 1 hazards as identified by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). Households may request a review of their accommodation if they feel it is unsuitable.
If an applicant is not satisfied with how the council has handled their case, they may complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or take legal action through the courts.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department has provided to Leicester City Council to support the provision of temporary accommodation for rough sleepers in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In each of the last three years the government has allocated councils funding through the Homelessness Prevention Grant, which can be used flexibly according to local need, including for temporary accommodation costs. Over this time the government has also provided specific funding to support people at risk of and experiencing rough sleeping, including through the provision of accommodation.
You can find local authority level allocations for homelessness funding through gov.uk here.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of households on local authority housing waiting lists include at least one non-UK national.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Information on the nationality of all members of a household currently on local authority social housing waiting lists is not collected centrally. As such, it is not possible to determine the proportion of households on local authority social housing waiting lists containing at least one non-UK national.
Limited information on the nationality of lead tenants is collected on a voluntary basis and is presented and contextualised for data quality in Section 6.7 of the Social housing lettings in England, tenants: April 2024 to March 2025 statistical publication, which can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on how much local authorities spent on providing temporary accommodation to households containing at least one non-UK national in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes data on local authority revenue expenditure, including total expenditure on temporary accommodation, which is available here.
We also publish data on the nationality of main applicants for households assessed as owed prevention and relief duties. This is available in Table A9 in detailed local authority level files published alongside our annual release here.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 financial sustainability of local authorities projecting significant drawdowns from reserves within the next three years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government considers reserves to be an important part of the resources available to local authorities.
We encourage local authorities to consider how they can use their reserves to maintain services in the face of pressures, taking account, of course, of the need to maintain appropriate levels of reserves to support their financial sustainability and future investment.
Data from the 2024-5 financial year can be found on gov.uk here.
Further information about an individual local authority's reserves can be found in the financial accounts published by that authority. The government will continue to monitor the level of local authority reserves.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of above inflation council tax increases on the delivery of local public services in a) England and b) Leicester.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has not made specific assessments on the impacts of council tax increases on the delivery of local public services. It is for individual councils to set their own level of council tax. The government intends to maintain a core 3% referendum principle and a 2% adult social care precept and will consult on this at the provisional local government finance settlement. Local authorities who wish to set their council tax level above the referendum threshold must obtain the approval of local voters.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to i) support local authorities in managing temporary accommodation costs and ii) ensure value for money in capital investment programmes.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has increased funding for homelessness services to over £1 billion, including a £50 million top up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant announced in December 2025. We are also investing £3.5 billion in homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, through more flexible multi-year funding arrangements that enable councils to invest more in prevention.
We are also providing £950 million capital for the fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund - the largest round of the fund to date - to support local authorities in England to increase the supply of better-quality temporary accommodation and to support resettlement.
At Autumn Budget 2025, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury announced he will work across government to improve the value for money of homelessness services and achieve better outcomes so that we can improve the supply of good-value-for-money and good-quality temporary accommodation and supported housing.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the value for money of local authorities pursuing repeated appeals against employment tribunal decisions.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department does not collect this information. Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces, including on whether to appeal against employment tribunals. It is the responsibility of individual councils to ensure that value for money is considered.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle racial discrimination within local authorities.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the management of their own workforces. The Government is clear that racial discrimination has no place in our society and remains committed to promoting equality, fairness, and respect for all communities.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of removing Sport England’s role as a statutory planning consultee under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on the consideration of sporting and recreational needs in local planning decisions.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill contains no provisions relating to the role of Sports England in the planning system.
The government is committed to reviewing the existing statutory consultee arrangements to ensure they align with the government’s ambitions for growth.
As per the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 10 March 2025 (HCWS510), we intend to consult on removing a limited number of statutory consultees, including Sports England.
We also intend to review the range and type of planning applications on which statutory consultees are required to be consulted and consider whether some types of application could be removed, or addressed by alternative means of engagement and provision of expert advice.
Further details will be set out in due course.