Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards the formation of the cross-departmental task force on older people’s housing announced in their Levelling Up White Paper, published on 2 February.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Government is committed to further improving the diversity of housing options available to older people and boosting the supply of specialist elderly accommodation.
The Older People's Housing taskforce will look at ways we can provide greater choice, quality and security of housing for older people, and support the growth of a thriving older people's housing sector in this country. This work will be taken forward in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care. Further details about the taskforce including panel membership and scope will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) whether capital funding is an effective way to incentivise the supply of housing for older people, and (2) how capital funding interacts with other factors such as planning legislation in this context.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Boosting the supply of a range of specialist housing across the country is key to our aim of ensuring older people can access the right homes to suit their needs. We work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to provide capital funding to incentivise supply.
Since 2010, we have delivered over 574,100 new affordable homes, including specialist housing for older people, through our investment in affordable housing.
We know that communities would welcome more homes, so long as they are the right sort of homes, are well designed and have the right supporting infrastructure. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill centres these interests, and will change the plan-making system, creating incentives to have a plan in place, with this plan having more weight in planning decisions. This will give certainty to communities and applicants about what can be built and where, supporting more permissions for development communities want.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that (1) older people, and (2) people with disabilities, can live in suitable housing.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Government is committed to ensuring older and disabled people can access homes that best suits their needs.
We work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to provide capital funding to incentivise supply. This includes investing £11.5 billion in the new Affordable Homes Programme, which includes delivery of new specialist or supported housing for older, disabled and other vulnerable people. We have also committed £573 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant each year from 2022-23 to 2024-25 to support eligible older and disabled people to adapt their homes to suit their needs.
As announced in the Levelling Up White Paper, we will shortly launch a new government taskforce to look at ways we can provide better choice, quality and security of housing for older people.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that public toilets reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The government has published guidance (attached) on safer public spaces. It includes advice, information and examples of the potential interventions that can be used in public places to facilitate social distancing in areas of higher footfall such as in parks (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/safer-public-places-urban-centres-and-green-spaces-covid-19). Owners and operators are advised to implement cleaning protocols to limit coronavirus transmission in public places. It is advised that touch points (e.g. handrails and gates) should be particular areas of focus for increased cleaning.
To help everyone maintain good hygiene, consideration should be given to: configuration of toilet facilities to ensure they are kept clean, with social distancing achieved as far as possible and with best practice handwashing followed; where possible, providing hand towels as an alternative to hand dryers in handwashing facilities; signs at public toilets for queuing, social distancing and automatic sanitising; using signs and messages to build awareness of good handwashing technique and other respiratory hygiene behaviours, e.g. around coughing and sneezing in public places; where possible, providing hand towels as an alternative to hand dryers in handwashing facilities; and queue marking indicators at main entrance, popular park destinations and toilets.
We have now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an unringfenced grant so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The package recognises the additional costs and pressures on finances councils are facing as a result of the current crisis. It demonstrates the Government’s commitment to making sure councils, including upper and lower tier authorities, have the resources they need to support their communities through this challenging time.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consultation they have carried out with (1) local authorities, and (2) others, including providers of specialist housing for older people, about guidance to local authorities under the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017 on the provision of specialist housing for older people.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
In the revised National Planning Policy Framework, published in July 2018, we strengthened policy to create a clear expectation that all local authorities have policies in place for addressing the housing needs of older people. We will publish further planning guidance, to assist councils to put these policies in place, in accordance with the Neighbourhood Planning Act commitment. We have undertaken extensive engagement in relation to the guidance. This includes discussions with a range of local authorities, charities, house builder representatives, and providers of specialist housing for older people, to identify and discuss the key issues. We will publish the guidance in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish guidance for local authorities under the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017 on the provision of specialist housing for older people.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
In the revised National Planning Policy Framework, published in July 2018, we strengthened policy to create a clear expectation that all local authorities have policies in place for addressing the housing needs of older people. We will publish further planning guidance, to assist councils to put these policies in place, in accordance with the Neighbourhood Planning Act commitment. We have undertaken extensive engagement in relation to the guidance. This includes discussions with a range of local authorities, charities, house builder representatives, and providers of specialist housing for older people, to identify and discuss the key issues. We will publish the guidance in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what checks and balances are in place to ensure that the 2015–16 Disabled Facilities Grant allocation is spent in the prescribed areas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Helping disabled people to live independently in their own homes for longer through adaptations remains a key priority for this Government. The Government will have invested just over a billion pounds into the Disabled Facilities Grant between 2011-12 and 2015-16. This has delivered around 200,000 adaptations to the homes of disabled people. The Disabled Facilities Grant is a non-ringfenced capital grant paid via the Better Care Fund to local housing authorities. Better Care Fund commissioners are required to confirm they have passed the Disabled Facilities Grant funding on to local housing authorities in their quarterly returns to NHS England. This enables local housing authorities to continue to meet their statutory duty to provide adaptations to the homes of those disabled people who qualify.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when there will be further announcements regarding the future development of the Disability Facilities Grant.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Helping disabled people to live independently in their own homes for longer through adaptations remains a key priority for this Government. The Government will have invested just over a billion pounds into the Disabled Facilities Grant between 2011-12 and 2015-16. This has delivered around 200,000 adaptations to the homes of disabled people. Future funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant is a matter for the Spending Review.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what will be the total amount available under the Disability Facilities Grant fund in 2016–17.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Helping disabled people to live independently in their own homes for longer through adaptations remains a key priority for this Government. The Government will have invested just over a billion pounds into the Disabled Facilities Grant between 2011-12 and 2015-16. This has delivered around 200,000 adaptations to the homes of disabled people. Future funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant is a matter for the Spending Review.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to reduce the number of elderly people involved in domestic fires, and what consideration they have given to the case for awareness campaigns for older people on domestic electrical safety.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Department’s Fire Kills campaign, run in close partnership with fire and rescue authorities, promotes a range of fire safety messages to the public and especially to those most vulnerable to fire, including older people. Although accidental fire deaths in the home in 2013/14 were at an historic low level, over half of fatalities were aged 65 or over.
Recent campaigns have targeted older people, as well as encouraged others to look out for the safety of older neighbours, friends and family. Fire Kills and Electrical Safety First have a longstanding and close partnership to promote electrical fire safety messages, including through the annual Electrical Fire Safety Week, which runs in November each year. The Department continues to explore with other relevant agencies how to expand this element of the Fire Kills programme
In addition, the Department is funding the Royal College of General Practitioners to develop with the Chief Fire Officers’ Association an e-learning tool for GPs to help them consider the risk from fire to their patients. This will help GPs to better identify those at particular risk from fire and to refer them to the local fire and rescue service for tailored fire safety advice, and, if necessary, equipment.
We very much welcome the Chief Fire Officers’ Association current work with NHS England and on behalf of fire and rescue authorities in England which is designed to improve the availability of data about those aged 65 and over and support a more targeted local approach.