Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many applications were (a) made and (b) rejected to access funding under schemes within the flood recovery framework in the last two years; what total amount was that has been paid out through the flood recovery framework; and how many and what proportion of applicants received the maximum pay out of £25,000 under the flood recovery framework.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In the last two years the Flood Recovery Framework has been activated twice – following Storm Babet in October 2023 and Storm Henk in January 2024. The decision to accept or reject applications for flood recovery funding is made by local authorities who are responsible for administrating all schemes, apart from the Farming Recovery Fund. To date, eligible local authorities have made payments of over £7.8 million to 8,510 impacted households and businesses. We expect this figure to rise substantially as further payments are made over the next 18 months.
With regards to the specific question on the £25,000 available under the Farming Recovery Fund scheme. DEFRA have only opened this once within the last two years on 9 April 2024 to provide farmers support to recover from uninsurable damage. The scheme provides grants of between £500 and £25,000 to return land to the condition it was before exceptional flooding of Storm Henk. The fund was initially opened in nine English local authority areas, however, DEFRA committed actively to review the areas to be included in the fund. Those farmers who were initially identified as eligible farmers have been contacted directly by Rural Payments Agency. DEFRA will be contacting all eligible farmers following completion of our review.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to double council tax on second homes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Provisions to allow local authorities to charge a council tax premium of up to 100% on second homes are contained within the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help improve access to the private rental sector for Afghans in hotels under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Home Office is the department responsible for the ACRS and ARAP schemes, including for providing tariff funding for local authorities. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is supporting cross-Government work to help Afghans into private rental sector accommodation where possible, and Government is providing £35 million of additional funding to local authorities for this purpose.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of projects that received money from the Levelling Up Fund: Round 2 aim to improve local high streets.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
As set out in the published thematic and geographic analysis, Over £760 million of funding was awarded to projects under the regeneration and town centres theme, with a further £120 million awarded to projects where funding is split evenly between regeneration and town centre interventions and other themes.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether any of the Investment Zone expressions of interest received include areas at least partially within the boundaries or setting of (a) National Parks and (b) Areas of outstanding natural beauty.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 90859 on 28 November 2022.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department received expressions of interest for investment zones within the boundaries or setting of (a) national parks and (b) areas of outstanding natural beauty.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We are assessing the proposals received through the recent Expression Of Interest process and policy will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help Afghan refugees living in hotels following Operation Pitting to access the private rental sector.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Find Your Own Accommodation pathway was launched in June 2022 following engagement with Afghans and local authorities, who both were generally in favour of this added housing option. This pathway enables Afghans to find their own accommodation, whilst still receiving financial and non-financial integration support from the Government. For example, a local authority may use some of the £20,520 per person spread over three years from the Government to provide the deposit, first month’s rent, and furniture to help Afghans into the private rental sector. The Government is not prescriptive with the precise support provided, so this may vary from council to council.
This new process is in addition to Home Office's matching system, where Home Office engage with local authorities to source accommodation in the social and private rental sectors, and then match properties to individual households.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had discussions with the Association of British Insurers on reducing insurance premiums for households hosting non-Ukrainian asylum seekers.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Asylum seekers are housed by the Home Office during the processing of their asylum claim.
In response to the Ukraine crisis, The Association of British Insurers has adopted a position to reflect support regardless of nationality: Association of British Insurers - Humanitarian response. As a result, policy holders will not experience any increase in the cost of their insurance premium when hosting a guest in their home for the first 12 months.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had discussions with the Association of British Insurers on reducing insurance premiums for households hosting asylum seekers.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Insurers have agreed that homeowners accommodating Ukrainian Nationals in their home under the Homes for Ukraine scheme do not need to contact their insurer on the basis that they are accommodated as non-paying guests. Please refer to the Association of British Insurers' statement for more details.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of inflation and the rise in the National Living Wage on local authority budgets.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Spending Review settlement for local government takes account of a wide range of unit cost pressures, including increases in the National Living Wage and public sector pay. The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23 makes available an additional £3.7 billion to councils in England, including funding for adult social care reform.
The Department will continue to work closely with the local government sector and other government departments to understand the impact of emerging challenges such as energy price rises and the impacts of the war in Ukraine on local authorities. Local government pay is negotiated between the National Joint Councils employer and union representatives. Pay is ultimately a decision for local councils.