Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 made an assessment of the adequacy of the responsiveness of social landlords to reasonable adjustment requests from disabled tenants.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This Government is clear that all residents deserve to receive high-quality services and are treated with dignity and respect by social housing staff.
Landlords are required to make reasonable adjustments for tenants who meet the Equality Act’s definition of disability. The Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard requires registered providers to treat all tenants with fairness and respect and to demonstrate they understand the different needs of their tenants. Landlords must pay due regard to tenants’ needs in the way they provide services, including in relation to the equality strands and additional support needs.
By law local authorities must give those who need to move for medical and welfare reasons priority for an allocation of social housing. In 2020/21, a fifth (20%) of new social housing lettings were to households with specific disability-related housing needs (such as wheelchair access, mobility aids, or adaptations relating to visual/hearing impairment), an increase of 2% from 2019/20.
The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), administered by local housing authorities, can help fund home adaptations for eligible older and disabled tenants. DLUHC funds a National Body for Home Improvement Agencies, which provides information and advice on DFG applications.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which Minister in in his Department is responsible for ensuring the safety of people with long-term health conditions who use lifesaving equipment, including ventilators and dialysis machines, in their own homes in the event of power blackouts this winter; and if his Department will publish its plans for protecting these individuals.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Department of Health and Social Care works with England's health and social care sectors to support individuals with electricity dependent medical equipment at home.
The Department for Levelling Up has been working with Local Resilience Forums in England to support local areas in their regular planning for winter across a range of risks, including making sure the most vulnerable are supported.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 recent discussions with representatives of Local Resilience Forums on the safety of people with long-term health conditions who use at home equipment such as ventilators and dialysis machines, in the context of potential power shortages this winter.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Department of Health and Social Care works with England's health and social care sectors to support individuals with electricity dependent medical equipment at home.
The Department for Levelling Up has been working with Local Resilience Forums in England to support local areas in their regular planning for winter across a range of risks, including making sure the most vulnerable are supported.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Answer of 7 February 2022 to Question 113192 on Candidates: Disability, what progress his officials have made towards enhancing support and guidance for disabled councillors following their talks with the National Association of Local Councils and the Local Government Association.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
It is the Government’s ambition to see more disabled people in public office.
DLUHC has developed a new scheme to support disabled people seeking to become local candidates and to support those who have been elected to local public office. This work is a part of the 2022/23 local government improvement programme, delivered largely by the LGA, launched in April this year.
The scheme includes:
The full 2022-2023 Sector Support Offer for local councils is available on the LGA website: https://local.gov.uk/publications/sector-support-offer-2022-23
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how households who do not pay their council tax by direct debit can claim the £150 council tax rebate.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
My Department has issued FAQs to help local authorities administer the council tax rebate. These include information on flexible payment options for households in different circumstances, which balance administrative ease and accessibility with the need to manage fraud risk.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published July 2021, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) encourage and support workplace disability networks, (b) achieve and maintain the highest level of Disability Confident accreditation, (c) ensure responsive and timely support to meet workplace adjustment needs and (d) develop and embed flexible working.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
(a) The Department provides encouragement and support to workplace networks through a partnership agreement. The agreement recognises the role our networks play, and the valuable contributions they make to help improve the working conditions, policy and processes for our diverse workforce. Networks all have a senior champion, allocated time to conduct network business and membership of various committees and regular meetings with the Department’s Executive Team and Ministers
(b) The Department is an accredited Disability Confident Level 3 leader. The accreditation was reassessed and validated in April 2021
(c) The Department already has processes in place to ensure colleagues who require workplace adjustments are supported. This includes workplace adjustments passports, an Occupational Health service provision and a Workplace Adjustment service. There are service level agreements in place and we work closely with our providers to monitor performance and continuously improve. Since March 2020, we have been working with our service providers to ensure a continuity of service through various working from home restrictions and to ensure that colleagues requiring duplicate or additional equipment receive this to enable them to work comfortably in a home or office environment
(d) The Department’s Smarter Working model will allow colleagues to decide when and where their work is best done. We have already rolled out new technology to all of our offices to ensure that people can join inclusive meetings regardless of their location. We also have plans to roll out smarter working standards to the rest of the estate to ensure that our buildings support flexible working which will include ensuring that people have the right workspace to support their needs whether working from home or from one of our offices.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published 28 July 2021, what recent progress his Department has made on considering how it can support projects that increase high street accessibility for disabled people, in the design of any future local growth funding.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Government is committed to creating vibrant, mixed use high streets which are open and accessible to everybody. We have prioritised measures that help give councils and communities the flexibility and support they need to create inclusive and thriving places through the ambitious Planning White Paper, the full package of investment in towns and high streets, and the Levelling Up White Paper.
Successful projects from round 1 of the Levelling Up Fund, the Towns Fund and Future High Streets Fund have included accessibility improvements for high streets across the UK. DLUHC is also making up to £30 million available to local authorities in England to boost the number of Changing Places toilets in existing buildings over the next three financial years.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Raising accessibility standards for new homes consultation, which closed on 1 December 2020, when his Department plans to publish the findings of that consultation.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to PQ 102722 on 20 January 2022.