Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 10351 on Armed Forces: Housing, if he will provide a regional breakdown of those figures.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The table below provides a breakdown per region of the number of Service Family Accommodation (SFA) which have been treated for damp and mould, loss of heating, loss of hot water, loss of water supply, electrical faults, and pest infestation since 1 April 2022.
As previously advised, the damp and mould figures are provided from February 2023 and issues relating to the loss of heating and hot water are not recorded separately as boiler faults often affect both.
The 1,674 SFA properties which had been treated for damp and mould was reported as at 10:00 hours on 18 January 2024 from the live reporting system. The end of day final figure recorded for 18 January 2024 was 1,679, as shown in the table below.
Issue | No. of SFA in South East | No. of SFA in South West | No. of SFA in Central | No. of SFA in North | Total no. of SFA properties | Supporting Notes |
Damp and mould (provided from February 2023) | 700 | 656 | 174 | 149 | 1,679 |
|
Loss of heating and hot water | 8,120 | 9,117 | 3,330 | 3,535 | 24,102 | This figure includes all repairs associated with heating such as condensate pipes freezing in extremely cold weather, a faulty single radiator valve, a lack of hot water to individual taps and are not limited to just a total loss of heating or water loss. |
Loss of water supply | 9 | 13 | 21 | 5 | 48 |
|
Electrical faults | 8,981 | 9,490 | 7,371 | 4,044 | 29,886 | The electrical fault figure includes faults such as light bulb changes, one hob of an electric oven not working and electric shower issues. It does not always relate to any safety issue or total loss of electricity. |
Pest infestation | 1,874 | 1,473 | 1,125 | 651 | 5,123 | Pest control requests are responded to within 3 hours if an emergency, and within 15 days if routine. |
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of levelling up funding allocated to Northern Ireland has been for projects within Strangford constituency.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The UK Government is investing over £15 billion in a suite of complementary Levelling Up projects to help grow the economy, create jobs, improve transport, provide skills training and support local businesses.
Overall, Northern Ireland has received around £435 million in Levelling Up funding and Strangford constituency has benefited from this funding, through a range of funds. In addition, a number of DLUHC funds are being made available to the Northern Ireland Executive as part of the financial package, further increasing the spending power available to the Executive and allowing it to invest against its own priorities. The full list of the UK Government funds which are being made available to the Executive is at gov.uk.
Strangford constituency benefits from a share of UKSPF funding of around £104 million for Northern Ireland.
In addition, Northern Ireland has benefited from £150 million funding through the Levelling Up Fund, which includes £3.2 million for Ards and North Down Borough Council’s pedestrian and cycle Green-ways and £5.1 million towards Ulster Rugby’s Club Capital Improvement Project, as well as £30 million set aside from Round 3 towards the financial package for the restored executive.
The Community Renewal Fund has provided £12 million in funding to Northern Ireland, which includes projects within the Council areas in the Strangford constituency and projects Northern Ireland wide worth £6.75 million, where the benefits will be felt in Strangford constituency.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 10351 on Armed Forces: Housing, how many Service Family Accommodation units were treated for (a) electrical faults and (b) pest infestation between 23 January and 18 March 2024, broken down by region.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The number of Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties that were treated for electrical faults between 23 January 2024 and 29 February 2024, broken down by region is detailed in the table below:
Region | Electrical Faults |
South East | 1,390 |
South West | 1,445 |
North | 681 |
Central | 1,109 |
The number of SFA properties treated for pest infestation between 23 January 2024 and 29 February 2024, broken down by region is detailed in the table below:
Region | Pest Infestation |
South East | 148 |
South West | 108 |
North | 37 |
Central | 90 |
Please note that we can only provide data up to 29 February 2024 as this is processed month-by-month.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2024 to Question 9937 on Armed Forces: Housing, how many open work orders for repairs there were for (a) Service Family Accommodation and (b) Single Living Accommodation as of 18 March 2024, broken down by region.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As at 18 March 2024, the number of open work orders for repairs to Service Family Accommodation (SFA), broken down by region, can be found in the table below:
Region | No of open work orders for SFA |
South East | 3,808 |
South West | 3,224 |
North | 1,526 |
Central | 2,062 |
As at 18 March 2024, the number of open work orders for repairs to Single Living Accommodation (SLA) on the Built Estate, broken down by region, can be found in the table below:
Region | No of open work orders for SLA |
South East | 2,810 |
South West | 2,314 |
Scotland & Northern Ireland | 981 |
Central | 3,852 |
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 10346 on Armed Forces: Housing, if he will (a) update this answer with the latest available figures and (b) provide a regional breakdown of the updated figures.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
A regional breakdown of the number of missed maintenance and repair appointments for Service Family Accommodation properties since 1 April 2022 to 18 March 2024, can be found in the table below:
Region | Number of missed appointments |
Central | 5,386 |
North | 1,963 |
South-East | 7,850 |
South-West | 6,027 |
Total | 21,226 |
The figures include reactive repairs, planned maintenance and all other appointed tasks such as damp and mould remediation.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
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 support efforts to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness in Darlington constituency.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is investing nearly £2.4 billion across three years to enable local areas to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in England.
This includes over £3.8 million allocated to the North-East, including Darlington, from the Rough Sleeping Initiative over the three-year period 2022-2025, and over £600,000 from the Homelessness Prevention Grant between 2023 and 2025.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 reduce the number of families living in temporary accommodation in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 14761 on 26 February 2024.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of people living in destitution in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. We expect to spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children.
From this April, working age benefits will increase by 6.7% and, we are also raising the Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents, benefiting 1.6 million low-income households.
With over 900,000 vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting people to move into and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risk of poverty. In 2021/22 working age adults living in workless families were 7 times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than working age adults in families where all adults work.
Our core Jobcentre offer provides a range of options to help people into work, including face-to-face time with Work Coaches and targeted employment support. Through our in-work progression offer, which is now live across all Jobcentres in Great Britain, we estimate that around 1.2m low-paid claimants are eligible for Work Coach support to help them increase their earnings. We will also increase the National Living Wage by 9.8% to £11.44 for workers aged 21 years and over from this April - an annual increase in gross earnings of over £1800 for someone working full-time on the National Living Wage.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 support the warehouse industry in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Warehousing is a key part of the country’s supply chains, ensuring vital goods are available to businesses and consumers. The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that planning policies and decisions should recognise and address the specific locational requirements of different sectors.
This includes making provision for storage and distribution operations at a variety of scales and in suitably accessible locations. Enfield’s strategic position provides an important role in delivering economic growth to the area, and delivering the right sort of warehousing and logistical infrastructure is a key part of this.
My department will continue to work with the sector to maximise productivity.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 increase the number of council properties to enable local authorities to provide homes for those being made homeless in (a) England, (b) the North East of England and (c) Newcastle upon Tyne.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As set out previously, the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country, including social rent.