Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether any statutory provisions allow creditors to seek winding up orders against town or parish councils when they cannot pay their debts.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is aware that Staveley Town Council is experiencing financial difficulties. The Government has engaged with Staveley Town Council and Chesterfield Borough Council to help facilitate a local resolution, and will continue to monitor the situation.
Parish councils are responsible for setting their level of Council Tax to meet the service needs of their area and for maintaining robust financial management. If local councils experience financial difficulties, the government expects that they should take all necessary step to manage the pressures locally and engage with their Principal Authority.
Parish councils are not defined as best value authorities within the Local Government Act 1999 and so the government does not have the powers to intervene using the best value powers. The government is also not able to provide direct financial support to parish councils. Responsibility for reviewing and making decisions with respect to parish councils is devolved to local authorities and their communities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which (a) Government departments and (b) public bodies can intervene when town or parish councils are unable to pay their debts.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is aware that Staveley Town Council is experiencing financial difficulties. The Government has engaged with Staveley Town Council and Chesterfield Borough Council to help facilitate a local resolution, and will continue to monitor the situation.
Parish councils are responsible for setting their level of Council Tax to meet the service needs of their area and for maintaining robust financial management. If local councils experience financial difficulties, the government expects that they should take all necessary step to manage the pressures locally and engage with their Principal Authority.
Parish councils are not defined as best value authorities within the Local Government Act 1999 and so the government does not have the powers to intervene using the best value powers. The government is also not able to provide direct financial support to parish councils. Responsibility for reviewing and making decisions with respect to parish councils is devolved to local authorities and their communities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the Government is able to (a) intervene in matters relating to and (b) inspect the governance of parish or town councils.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is aware that Staveley Town Council is experiencing financial difficulties. The Government has engaged with Staveley Town Council and Chesterfield Borough Council to help facilitate a local resolution, and will continue to monitor the situation.
Parish councils are responsible for setting their level of Council Tax to meet the service needs of their area and for maintaining robust financial management. If local councils experience financial difficulties, the government expects that they should take all necessary step to manage the pressures locally and engage with their Principal Authority.
Parish councils are not defined as best value authorities within the Local Government Act 1999 and so the government does not have the powers to intervene using the best value powers. The government is also not able to provide direct financial support to parish councils. Responsibility for reviewing and making decisions with respect to parish councils is devolved to local authorities and their communities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps (a) employees, (b) creditors and (c) Government departments can take to recover monies owed to them by town or parish councils.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is aware that Staveley Town Council is experiencing financial difficulties. The Government has engaged with Staveley Town Council and Chesterfield Borough Council to help facilitate a local resolution, and will continue to monitor the situation.
Parish councils are responsible for setting their level of Council Tax to meet the service needs of their area and for maintaining robust financial management. If local councils experience financial difficulties, the government expects that they should take all necessary step to manage the pressures locally and engage with their Principal Authority.
Parish councils are not defined as best value authorities within the Local Government Act 1999 and so the government does not have the powers to intervene using the best value powers. The government is also not able to provide direct financial support to parish councils. Responsibility for reviewing and making decisions with respect to parish councils is devolved to local authorities and their communities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which (a) Government departments and (b) public bodies can intervene when town or parish councils do not set a balanced budget.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is aware that Staveley Town Council is experiencing financial difficulties. The Government has engaged with Staveley Town Council and Chesterfield Borough Council to help facilitate a local resolution, and will continue to monitor the situation.
Parish councils are responsible for setting their level of Council Tax to meet the service needs of their area and for maintaining robust financial management. If local councils experience financial difficulties, the government expects that they should take all necessary step to manage the pressures locally and engage with their Principal Authority.
Parish councils are not defined as best value authorities within the Local Government Act 1999 and so the government does not have the powers to intervene using the best value powers. The government is also not able to provide direct financial support to parish councils. Responsibility for reviewing and making decisions with respect to parish councils is devolved to local authorities and their communities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had discussions with (a) the leader or (b) the town clerk of Staveley Town Council.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is aware that Staveley Town Council is experiencing financial difficulties. The Government has engaged with Staveley Town Council and Chesterfield Borough Council to help facilitate a local resolution, and will continue to monitor the situation.
Parish councils are responsible for setting their level of Council Tax to meet the service needs of their area and for maintaining robust financial management. If local councils experience financial difficulties, the government expects that they should take all necessary step to manage the pressures locally and engage with their Principal Authority.
Parish councils are not defined as best value authorities within the Local Government Act 1999 and so the government does not have the powers to intervene using the best value powers. The government is also not able to provide direct financial support to parish councils. Responsibility for reviewing and making decisions with respect to parish councils is devolved to local authorities and their communities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the average price of an affordable home in England in each year since 2009.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Regulator for Social Housing publishes relevant data on affordable housing held by Registered Providers and local authorities across England. This is available here.
The department does not hold centrally the information requested on the average price of affordable homes.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make a comparative assessment of what constitutes an affordable house in the regions of the UK.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Regulator for Social Housing publishes relevant data on affordable housing held by Registered Providers and local authorities across England. This is available here.
The department does not hold centrally the information requested on the average price of affordable homes.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many housing units were built in each (a) local authority area and (b) region of England in each year since 2009; and what proportion of those units was assessed as being affordable housing in each year since 2009.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The National Statistics on number of housing units built in each local authority is published in Live Table 123, and for each region of England is published in Live Table 118. These tables can both be found here. The components of net additional dwellings by local authority (Live Table 123) are available from 2012-13 onwards only.
The National Statistics on the number of affordable housing units built in each local authority and region of England is published in Affordable Housing supply statistics open data. This can be found here.