Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how the criteria for the Community Ownership Fund was established; and for what reason local authorities are excluded from applying.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Criteria, eligibility requirements and changes to the Fund, have been informed by applicant feedback, stakeholder engagement, and lessons learnt. All information can be found in the updated prospectus on GOV.UK here.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 tackle Islamophobia.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon Member to the oral answer given by my Hon Friend, the Member for Kensington, on 4 March 2024 (Official Report, HC Volume 746, Column 628).
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what funding his Department has allocated to tackle youth homelessness in each of the last five years.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is committed to tackling all forms of homelessness and rough sleeping, including youth homelessness.
Between 2018 and 2025, Government has provided £938 million through the Rough Sleeping Initiative, to support local authorities to tackle rough sleeping. We expect councils to commission services based on an assessment of the needs of their local community to make sure that all groups’ needs are considered, which will include young people. During this period, we have also committed £17.4 million to support local authorities to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping for care leavers.
Since 2021, we have invested £1.6 billion through the Homelessness Prevention Grant, giving councils the funding they need to prevent homelessness and help more people sooner, including young homeless people.
In 2022, we announced the £200 million Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP) which is delivering over 2,000 homes and support services for people sleeping rough or at risk of sleeping rough, including young people. Of these, over 650 are specifically for young people sleeping rough or at risk of sleeping rough.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his planned timetable is for responding to his Department's consultation on Alternative cost recovery for remediation works published on 2 February 2023.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is analysing the responses from the Alternative cost recovery for remediation works consultation and intends to publish the response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his planned timetable is for responding to his Department's consultation on building safety directors published on 1 December 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is analysing the responses from the building safety director’s consultation and intends to publish the response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to paragraph 61 of the National Planning Policy Framework, what discussions he has had with the Planning Inspectorate on their interpretation of the word advisory.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
When developing new planning policy the department engages with a range of stakeholders including the Planning Inspectorate.
The Government response to the consultation, published alongside the revised Framework, can be found at gov.uk. This sets out in detail the changes made to national policy following the consultation, and the reasons why those changes were made. In addition, the Government response set out that we intend to revise supporting guidance to provide further clarity on the changes to the Framework. The scope and timescales for those changes will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many veterans received the Council Tax Reduction in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many veterans were on social housing waiting lists in 2022-23.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The department does not collect this data centrally.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of funding for local domestic abuse (a) services, (b) counselling and (c) advocacy support.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Ministry of Justice is quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25. £154 million of funding has been committed per annum across this Spending Review period, totalling a minimum of £460 million over three years (2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive). This is up from £41 million in 2009/10. This multi-year funding allows victim support services, and those commissioning them, to build resilience into services and ensure consistency in the support that victims receive.
Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 introduced new statutory duties on local authorities to ensure that all victims, including their children, have access to support within safe accommodation when they need it. This includes counselling and advocacy support.
Since 2021, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has committed over £507 million, including £129.7 million in 2024/25, to councils across England to fund this duty. Funding from April 2025 will be determined at the next Spending Review.
This is a locally led duty. Each council must work closely with their Local Partnership Board to assess the needs of victims locally and commission the right safe accommodation support services needed to meet the identified need.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has had recent discussions with Royal Mail on taking steps to help ensure that (a) election candidates’ freepost items and (b) postal vote (i) applications and (ii) ballot papers will be delivered on time.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 13601 on 22 February 2024.
I can confirm that – as set out in that answer - I met with the Chief Executive of Royal Mail last month.