Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many providers of exempt accommodation are registered with the Regulator for Social Housing in Ilford North constituency.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Regulator for Social Housing collects a range of data from registered providers about their stock, but it does not collect data on 'exempt accommodation'.
The Government recently supported the Supported Housing Bill at second reading and welcomes the publication of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee's report on the issue of poor-quality supported housing. We are carefully considering its findings and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford 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 plans to implement the recommendations in the report by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee entitled Exempt Accommodation, HC 21, published on 27 October 2022.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Regulator for Social Housing collects a range of data from registered providers about their stock, but it does not collect data on 'exempt accommodation'.
The Government recently supported the Supported Housing Bill at second reading and welcomes the publication of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee's report on the issue of poor-quality supported housing. We are carefully considering its findings and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of anticipated increases in council tax on child poverty.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Council tax levels are set by local authorities, although the Secretary of State determines referendum principles to ensure that residents can have the final say over excessive increases. The provisional local government finance settlement will set out full details of the proposed referendum principles for 2022-23. The settlement and referendum principles will be subject to agreement by Parliament in the usual way. Local authorities maintain locally designed council tax support schemes to help people facing financial difficulty.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
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 will take to support the London Borough of Redbridge in tackling rough sleeping beyond April 2021.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government has made clear that no one should be without a roof over their head, which is why we have committed to end rough sleeping. In total, we are spending over £700 million in 2020/21 on homelessness and rough sleeping.
We are also putting in place an unprecedented level of support to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over 2021/22. This includes £676 million in resource funding, a 60% increase compared to the Spending Review in 2019.
The Government will also commit £87 million of capital funding in 2021/22, primarily to support the delivery of long-term accommodation for rough sleepers as announced at Budget 2020. This means the Government will be spending over £750m to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping next year.
Redbridge has had significant investment as part of this and has been receiving Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) funding since the launch of the programme in 2018, including £625,000 for 2020/21. The MHCLG adviser teams are currently working closely with Redbridge to develop interventions for the next RSI bidding round in 2021/22.
Redbridge also received £216,000 in funding through the Protect Programme this winter which has enabled them to support their most vulnerable and longer-term rough sleepers, as well as £140,000 through the Cold Weather Fund. They received £5,257,937 for 2021/22 through the Homelessness Prevention Grant. They were also successful in the last Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme (RSAP) bidding round and are currently working on mobilising these units.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what funding his Department has allocated to the London Borough of Redbridge to support (a) faith communities and (b) inter-faith work, in each year since 2010.
Answered by Luke Hall
We have spent over £80 million to support integration and faith since 2010.
Some of our funded programmes, such as Near Neighbours, have delivered projects and events in the London Borough of Redbridge to support local inter faith work.
In addition, the London Borough of Redbridge received £249,527 from the ESOL for Integration Fund in 20/21 to provide community-based English language sessions, clubs and activities to residents with little or no English who will be from diverse faith groups.
However, to supply the information for all our funding streams for the previous ten years would involve a disproportionate cost to my Department.
Most of the funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) is unringfenced, and councils are free to choose to which local priorities to spend it on, including work with faith communities, and other projects to support integration and communities.
This year’s LGFS, including a breakdown of Core Spending Power (CSP) for each local authority, including the London Borough of Redbridge, going back to 2015/16 can be found in the supporting information document here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2021-to-2022
Core Spending Power was introduced in 2015. Comparisons before that date do not apply, because the system of local government finance changed, councils’ responsibilities changed and because grants have been incorporated into the annual Settlement over time.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
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 allocated to the London Borough of Redbridge in each year since 2010.
Answered by Luke Hall
We have spent over £80 million to support integration and faith since 2010.
Some of our funded programmes, such as Near Neighbours, have delivered projects and events in the London Borough of Redbridge to support local inter faith work.
In addition, the London Borough of Redbridge received £249,527 from the ESOL for Integration Fund in 20/21 to provide community-based English language sessions, clubs and activities to residents with little or no English who will be from diverse faith groups.
However, to supply the information for all our funding streams for the previous ten years would involve a disproportionate cost to my Department.
Most of the funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) is unringfenced, and councils are free to choose to which local priorities to spend it on, including work with faith communities, and other projects to support integration and communities.
This year’s LGFS, including a breakdown of Core Spending Power (CSP) for each local authority, including the London Borough of Redbridge, going back to 2015/16 can be found in the supporting information document here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2021-to-2022
Core Spending Power was introduced in 2015. Comparisons before that date do not apply, because the system of local government finance changed, councils’ responsibilities changed and because grants have been incorporated into the annual Settlement over time.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what funding he has allocated to support the construction of new homes in the London Borough of Redbridge in each year since 2010.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has agreed a major package of funding for London through the Affordable Homes Programme with the Greater London Authority. Programme spend is not ringfenced by local borough.
London will receive £4.8 billion through the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme 2016-23, to deliver at least 116,000 affordable housing starts by March 2023.
In addition, the GLA will receive £4 billion under the new Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 to deliver a further 35,000 new affordable housing starts by March 2026.
Between 2010 and 2020, we have delivered over 508,000 new affordable homes, of which over 360,000 were for rent – London accounted for over one fifth of overall delivery in this period (108,000), with 74,000 for rent.