Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
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 plans to help people who have bought their first home move up to the second step of the property ladder.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Government believes that home ownership is an immensely important principle – providing security, enabling people to build capital and, vitally, to make their own choices about their lives and their futures.
The Government has brought forward a range of interventions in recent years to promote home ownership and will continue to keep other opportunities under review.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of the levels of electoral fraud in the UK.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Electoral Commission collects data from all UK police forces about allegations of electoral fraud and publishes an annual report on the numbers, types and outcomes of these allegations. The reports can be found on their website here .
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many people have been supported as part of the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme, by region.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government's 2020/21 Faith, Race and Hate Crime (FRHC) Grant Scheme supported 9 organisations to run various innovative projects that championed our commitment to building a diverse and tolerant society for all faiths and races
Collectively, 48,300 young people and adults directly participated in the scheme.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
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 impact of the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government's 2020/21 Faith, Race and Hate Crime (FRHC) Grant Scheme supported 9 organisations to run various innovative projects that championed our commitment to building a diverse and tolerant society for all faiths and races
Collectively, 48,300 young people and adults directly participated in the scheme.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to fund social housing projects in (a) Bolton South East, (b) the Borough of Bolton and (c) the UK.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver up to 180,000 homes (should economic conditions allow) - half of which will be for affordable and social rent. £715 million has been allocated to the North West, to deliver over 14,000 affordable homes.
Statistics are not available at Constituency level, but through the 2016-23 Affordable Homes Programme we have allocated over £242 million for affordable housing delivering over 7,000 affordable homes, including over 3,800 homes for affordable and social rent in Greater Manchester.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of brownfield sites in Bolton South East constituency.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Our National Planning Policy Framework places great emphasis on the use of brownfield land and promoting effective use of land in meeting the need for homes and other uses, while safeguarding and improving the environment and ensuring safe and healthy living conditions. However, brownfield sites vary greatly, and local planning authorities are best placed to assess the suitability of each site for development.
Local planning authorities are required to prepare, maintain, and publish a register of brownfield (previously developed) land suitable for housing. For new homes, brownfield sites should be suitable, in planning terms, available for development and achievable within 15 years.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has conducted a safety assessment of The Cube student premises in Bolton.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Soon after the fire, we commissioned the Building Research Establishment to investigate the fire at The Cube building. Information from the report has been shared with the Expert Panel, Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) applies to non-domestic premises, including the common parts of multi-occupied residential buildings. The FSO requires the person responsible for the premises to undertake and review regularly a fire risk assessment of the premises. Fire and rescue authorities (FRAs) are the enforcing authorities for the FSO within their area.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what metrics his Department uses to monitor the effectiveness of its Levelling Up agenda.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The levelling up missions and metrics technical annex sets out the metrics we will be using to monitor progress against the levelling up missions. The Government will have a statutory duty to publish an annual report setting out progress against the 12 missions.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reason Bolton's Levelling Up Fund bid for the redevelopment of the Crompton Place was unsuccessful; and what steps they need to take to ensure a greater chance of success in the next round.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Crompton Place bid was not submitted to the Department by the application deadline of June 18 2021. As set out in the published Levelling Up Fund Technical Note, all bids received after this deadline were not assessed, and could not therefore be considered further.
As a gesture of goodwill, officials conducted a review of the application and provided feedback to Bolton Council on 21 January 2022 drawing out the strengths of the bid and areas for improvement.
Further funding opportunities will be available through the second round of the Levelling Up Fund, which is due to open in Spring 2022. Further details will be made available for this in due course.