Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to issue guidance to district councils on their use of financial reserves following the publication of the English Devolution White Paper on 16 December 2024.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government considers reserves to be an important part of the resources available to local authorities and encourages councils to consider how they can use them while maintaining appropriate levels to support sustainability, future investment, and ability to respond to shocks.
The government is committed to introducing an improved approach to funding local authorities from 2026-27, including an updated assessment of need. The initial consultation on our principles and objectives for funding reform closed on 12 February.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the public sector equality duty pursuant to the Equality Act 2010 regarding the financial resources of local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Department takes its duties as set out in the Equality Act 2010 very seriously, and has due regard to the Act when taking decisions throughout the policymaking process.
The government sought views, as part of the provisional local government finance settlement 2025-26, on the impact of the Settlement proposals on persons who share a protected characteristic. A summary of the government's response to the consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-provisional-local-government-finance-settlement-2025-to-2026/outcome/provisional-local-government-finance-settlement-2025-to-2026-consultation-summary-of-responses#impacts-of-these-proposals.
We also asked for views in our consultation on local authority funding reform regarding the impact of the proposals on protected characteristics. The government will publish a response to this consultation late Spring 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the participation of local councillors in local resilience forums.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We recognise the value that close relationships between Local Resilience Forums and elected politicians can bring and we encourage all Local Resilience Forums to engage with their elected representatives when preparing for risks and during response and recovery.
Through the Government’s programme to strengthen Local Resilience Forums, Local Resilience Forums will test new models for local governance and accountability to elected leaders. They will also explore the opportunities for resilience from devolving powers to Strategic Authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the Homelessness Prevention Grant local authorities can use towards temporary accommodation costs, and if this is now capped, why.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
£633.24 million in funding through the Homelessness Prevention Grant will be made available to local authorities in 2025/26 to support them to deliver services to prevent and respond to homelessness. This includes an uplift of £192.9 million compared to 2024/25.
Successive years of failure to invest in local preventative services has seen far too many homeless families forced into temporary accommodation. A new prevention ringfence for 2025/26 has been introduced to maintain prevention activities during this period. This will mean that LAs will have to spend 49% of their funding on prevention, relief and staffing activity and 51% on temporary accommodation.
These proportions are based on spend declarations submitted in 2023/24. We have published a regional analysis of spend declarations which is available at- Homelessness Prevention Grant 2025-26: technical note - GOV.UK
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following recent red weather warnings issued by the Met Office, what plans they have to activate a Bellwin scheme of emergency financial assistance to local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is ready to consider local authority requests for Bellwin Scheme support. This can reimburse immediate eligible response costs for authorities affected by emergencies and disasters in their area including severe weather events after they occur.
Link to the Bellwin guidance: Bellwin scheme of emergency financial assistance to local authorities: guidance notes for claims - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 16 December 2024 of the English Devolution White Paper, whether a degree of flexibility will be applied when considering proposals for new authorities which fall below a population of 500,000.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On 5 February the Minister for English Devolution and Local Government wrote to all councils in two-tier areas and small neighbouring unitaries to invite them to prepare proposals for reorganisation. This invitation set out guidance from the Secretary of State for proposals including that new unitaries must be the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks. As a guiding principle, new councils should aim for a population of 500,000 or more. There may be certain scenarios in which this 500,000 figure does not make sense for an area, including on devolution, and this rationale should be set out in a proposal.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what process local authorities should follow when producing a spatial development strategy as set out in the their English Devolution White Paper published on the 16 December 2024 where the local authority does not sit within a strategic authority.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Legislation regarding the production of spatial development strategies (SDS) will be included in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which has yet to be laid before Parliament.
For areas that are not covered by a strategic authority, the duty to produce an SDS will rest with upper tier county councils and unitary councils. These areas should form groupings in order to produce their SDS. These groupings should be in accordance with our “sensible geography” criteria as set out in the English Devolution White Paper. We propose to take a power in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill for the Secretary of State to direct such groupings where they are not forthcoming.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of the English Devolution White Paper on 16 December 2024 (CP 1218), whether Bedford Borough Council, the London Borough of Croydon, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, the London Borough of Hackney, Leicester City Council, the London Borough of Lewisham, Mansfield District Council, Middlesbrough Borough Council, the London Borough of Newham, North Tyneside Council, Salford City Council, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and Watford Borough Council will be permitted to retain their directly elected mayoral model.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As set out in the English Devolution White Paper we will consider which governance models available to local authorities across the sector will best support their decision making.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the English Devolution White Paper published on 16 December 2024 (CP 1218), whether the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has assessed the merits of writing off council debt for those local authorities who decide to pursue a unitary model under the local government re-organisation proposals.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The English Devolution White Paper published on 16 December announced that the Government will facilitate local government reorganisation for two-tier areas and for unitary councils where there is evidence of failure, or where their size or boundaries may be hindering their ability to deliver sustainable and high-quality public services.
Previous Secretaries of State used statutory powers to intervene in a small number of councils failing their Best Value Duty partly associated with high levels of unsustainable debt. We will work closely with local leaders to explore what support they might need to develop robust proposals and implement new structures, including where there has been failure. We will continue to work with Best Value Commissioners in these councils to support the councils’ financial recovery.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what voting system will be used to elect mayors to strategic authorities under their proposals in the English Devolution White Paper published on 16 December 2024 (CP 1218).
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has no plans at this time to change the voting system for mayoral elections.