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, what plans they have to ensure that integrated care systems operate in areas that are coterminous with Mayoral Combined Authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As set out in the English Devolution White Paper, the government recognises the benefits that aligned geographical boundaries can have for improving coordination between public services. The English Devolution White Paper therefore set out government's long-term ambition to align public service boundaries, including job centres, police, probation, fire, health services and Strategic and Local Authorities.
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 plan to give guidance to local authorities on signing new commercial contracts where those local authorities are undergoing local government re-organisation and are soon to be abolished.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
It is essential that councils developing proposals for reorganisation continue to deliver their business-as-usual services and duties, which remain unchanged up until such time as the reorganisation process is complete. This duty may include signing or renewing commercial contracts that deliver or support the delivery of statutory services. Until a decision about any new councils is made and legislation is in place councils are encouraged to consider voluntary arrangements to help balance the decisions needed now to maintain service delivery and ensure value for money for council taxpayers, with those key decisions that will affect the future success of any new councils in the area. Once legislation is in place establishing new unitary councils, then the Secretary of State may put in place a direction requiring that those councils to be dissolved must seek consent of the new council as specified in the direction before entering into certain contracts or land disposals. It would however make sense for contracts which are being agreed in this period to recognise and accommodate for the changes to local government coming through.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what definition they use for green belt land, and grey belt land.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Land is Green Belt if designated as such in the Local Plan. The purposes of Green Belt and the definition of grey belt are set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (12 December 2024).
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations in the Electoral Commission report on the 2024 UK parliamentary general election and the May 2024 local elections, published on 7 October 2024.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government has, on 12 February 2025, published its response to the Electoral Commission’s report on the May polls and the UK Parliamentary general election last July.
We are grateful to the Commission for its reports and have and will continue to carefully consider its findings and recommendations.
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 Local Government Finance Report (England) 2025–26 (HC 623), why the London Boroughs of Croydon, Harrow, Bexley and Bromley are not to receive the Recovery Grant for the 2025–26 financial year.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Recovery Grant, worth £600 million, is only one part of the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement, which makes available over £69 billion in 2025-26 and ensures that no council will see a decrease in Core Spending Power.
To start correcting the system, the government needs to make difficult decisions. As a result, some councils will not receive an allocation through the Recovery Grant.
The Recovery Grant is targeted towards areas with greater need and demand for services (we have used deprivation as a proxy for this) and less ability to raise income locally.
Bexley, Bromley, Croydon and Harrow will all see a real-terms increase in their core spending power for 2025-26.
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 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