Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have had discussions with local authorities regarding the prospect of providing interest repayment holidays on loans issued to local authorities by the Public Works Loan Board.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government engages regularly with local authorities on a range of issues and is committed to working in partnership with local authorities to deliver for their residents. The Public Works Loan Board lending facility provides cost-effective loans to local authorities and the terms of lending and requirements for interest repayments are set out in published guidance.
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 issue guidance to local authorities on the frequency of reviews of social housing waiting list, and whether they hold data on when each local authority last conducted a review of their social housing waiting list.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My department does not issue guidance or collect data on local authority reviews of social housing registers (waiting lists). Local authorities manage their own housing registers and as such the frequency of reviews varies between local authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the next meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions is due to take place, and how many meetings they plan to hold each year.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Council of the Nations and Regions will meet biannually, as provided in its Terms of Reference, published on GOV.UK. The Council first met in October 2024, and will reconvene in the Spring.
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 Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of appeals to the First-tier Tribunal against local authority decisions relating to special education needs are upheld.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
In the Academic Year 2023-24 (the latest period for which statistics have been published), 16,726 appeals were disposed, of which 11,157 appeals had outcomes decided. Of the 11,157 decided, 11,007 were decided in favour of the appellant (upheld1). This represents 66% of all outcomes (conceded, decided and withdrawn) and 99% of the total appeals decided in this Academic Year.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (which administers the First-tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)) is working with colleagues from the Department for Education to understand the increase in Education, Health Care Plans (EHCPs); the increasing demand on the Tribunal; and also, how to improve initial decision making by Local Authorities.
Information about appeal outcomes to SEND is published at: Tribunals statistics quarterly: July to September 2024 - GOV.UK.
1Appeals are counted as upheld when the majority of the Local Authority’s decision is overturned.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend the Prevent programme to continue to fund Prevent education officers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office will continue to provide dedicated Prevent funding to 27 local authorities considered to face the highest threat from terrorism to help them to go above and beyond the requirements of the statutory Prevent duty. This funding can be used by local authorities to fund dedicated Prevent posts, including Prevent Education Officers.
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.