Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the effective management of artificial light in new build homes.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Part L of the Building Regulations sets standards for the energy efficiency of new build homes. As part of this, it includes standards for lighting efficacy and aims to minimise the energy needed to appropriately light homes. A consultation on updates to Part L of the Building Regulations closed last year. We are carefully considering the feedback received in advance of publishing the new version of Part L later this year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to redefine affordable housing according to local incomes instead of market rates.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government believes that affordable housing must be affordable to local people and address local needs. This is why we amended the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to give local authorities greater flexibility to deliver the right mix of affordable homes to respond to housing need in their areas, while also making clear that they should address the particular needs of those who require Social Rent homes.
To reflect the government’s commitment to prioritise the building of new Social Rent homes, we amended the definition of affordable housing in the NPPF to provide a separate definition of Social Rent – rather than referring to it as just one of a number of types of affordable housing for rent. We have also committed that new investment to succeed the current Affordable Homes Programme will have a particular focus on delivering Social Rent homes.
We will consider what further steps we can take to support social and affordable housing as part of our intent to produce a set of national policies for decision making in 2025.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to tackle rural homelessness.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Homelessness levels are far too high. The Government is taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness, including rural homelessness. As announced at the Budget, funding for homelessness services has increased by £233 million this year, taking total spend to nearly £1 billion.
The Government is also developing a new cross-Government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness, including rural homelessness.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to engage positively with Muslim communities, including the Muslim Council of Britain.
Answered by Lord Khan of Burnley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises the importance of engaging meaningfully with faith and belief groups. HMG does not engage with the Muslim Council of Britain. There has been no change to this policy. This has been set out consistently in Parliament.
Since being appointed Faith Minister, I have been engaging with Muslim communities nationwide, connecting with women, young people, and community leaders through extensive outreach efforts. This has included engagement with numerous Muslim leaders in the aftermath of the Southport incident and subsequent riots, hosting a Muslim women’s roundtable, and supporting a number of community-led initiatives including interfaith youth forums. Looking ahead, I am planning further engagement in preparation for Ramadan to continue fostering dialogue and strengthening collaboration.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take in response to statistics from the OECD Affordable Housing Database regarding the level of homelessness in the United Kingdom compared with other countries in the developed world.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Homelessness levels are far too high. We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Government will look at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us on back on track to ending homelessness once and for all. Critical to tackling homelessness is building more affordable homes. We will deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women in England were rough sleeping in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot includes the number of women estimated to be sleeping rough in England on a single night in autumn between 2019 and 2023.
The annual autumn snapshot statistics remain our official and most robust measure of rough sleeping on a single night given they are independently verified and are published in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
We recognise that women sleeping rough may experience rough sleeping differently and may be less likely to be seen during the annual snapshot count. DLUHC is supporting the Women’s Rough Sleeping Census – developed by Solace Women’s Aid, SHP and London Councils - which aims to collect more comprehensive data on women experiencing rough sleeping and trial different methods of data collection.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to fully implement the changes to the Needs Assessment component of the funding formula made in 2013; and subsequently whether they will increase funding to rural councils to reflect inflation in the years since these changes were made.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 makes available up to £64.7 billion, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion or 7.5% in cash terms on 2023-24. This above-inflation increase demonstrates how the Government stands behind councils up and down the country. Furthermore, we recognise the importance and difficulties of councils serving dispersed populations. That is why we have increased the value of the Rural Services Delivery Grant by over 15%, from £95 million to £110 million in 2024-25. This is the highest increase since 2018-19, and the second successive year of above-inflation increases.
We last calculated the Settlement Funding Assessment in 2013/14. The Government is committed to reforming the local government funding landscape in the next Parliament to deliver simpler, fairer and longer settlements.
The Rural Services Delivery Grant is allocated to local authorities ranking in the top-quartile of sparsely populated areas in England, using the Government’s ‘Super Sparsity’ measure. The methodology is unchanged from 2023-24 and any funding decisions beyond the 2024-25 financial year are a matter for the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of core funding for delivering rural services; and what plans they have to create equitable funding between rural and urban councils.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 makes available up to £64.7 billion, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion or 7.5% in cash terms on 2023-24. This above-inflation increase demonstrates how the Government stands behind councils up and down the country. Furthermore, we recognise the importance and difficulties of councils serving dispersed populations. That is why we have increased the value of the Rural Services Delivery Grant by over 15%, from £95 million to £110 million in 2024-25. This is the highest increase since 2018-19, and the second successive year of above-inflation increases.
We last calculated the Settlement Funding Assessment in 2013/14. The Government is committed to reforming the local government funding landscape in the next Parliament to deliver simpler, fairer and longer settlements.
The Rural Services Delivery Grant is allocated to local authorities ranking in the top-quartile of sparsely populated areas in England, using the Government’s ‘Super Sparsity’ measure. The methodology is unchanged from 2023-24 and any funding decisions beyond the 2024-25 financial year are a matter for the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to extending the Rural Services Delivery Grant to all rural councils in future years.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 makes available up to £64.7 billion, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion or 7.5% in cash terms on 2023-24. This above-inflation increase demonstrates how the Government stands behind councils up and down the country. Furthermore, we recognise the importance and difficulties of councils serving dispersed populations. That is why we have increased the value of the Rural Services Delivery Grant by over 15%, from £95 million to £110 million in 2024-25. This is the highest increase since 2018-19, and the second successive year of above-inflation increases.
We last calculated the Settlement Funding Assessment in 2013/14. The Government is committed to reforming the local government funding landscape in the next Parliament to deliver simpler, fairer and longer settlements.
The Rural Services Delivery Grant is allocated to local authorities ranking in the top-quartile of sparsely populated areas in England, using the Government’s ‘Super Sparsity’ measure. The methodology is unchanged from 2023-24 and any funding decisions beyond the 2024-25 financial year are a matter for the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network World Happiness Report, published on 20 March; in particular, the finding that the happiness of young people under the age of 30 in the UK has declined.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to improving the well-being of individuals in every area of the UK as set out in our (attached) update on the Well-being mission in January 2024. We continue to engage with new data and evidence in the delivery of all Levelling Up Missions, including on how we can improve well-being.
This includes considering the work of Professor Lord Richard Layard, one of the authors of the World Happiness Report, and other experts in our ongoing work on this mission.