Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, published on 22 November 2023, whether he has made an estimate of the potential costs of (a) a mayoral election and (b) the annual running of a mayoral office including staffing.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Subject to consultation and parliamentary approval, the Hull East Yorkshire Level 3 Devolution Deal we have agreed with local leaders will bring with it a £400 million Mayoral Investment Fund over the next 30 years, and a significant transfer of powers from Westminster to Yorkshire.
The cost of an election, as with any local election, is borne locally by the authority. By ensuring the election is first past the post we have reduced potential costs. In addition, my department, as part of the deal will provide £2 million Mayoral Capacity Funding over the next three years, to support the establishment of the new mayoral combined authority (MCA).
A new mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire is able to charge a precept, but is not required to. For example the Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has chosen not to charge a precept. Any precept can be subject to the council tax referendum principles.
The costs associated with scrutiny and audit committees would be met by the new MCA. We believe such scrutiny is necessary to ensure value for money for the taxpayer, when devolving significant powers.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, published on 22 November 2023, whether he has made an assessment of the cost of the Mayoral Combined Authority's (a) Overview and Scrutiny Committee and (b) Audit Committee.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Subject to consultation and parliamentary approval, the Hull East Yorkshire Level 3 Devolution Deal we have agreed with local leaders will bring with it a £400 million Mayoral Investment Fund over the next 30 years, and a significant transfer of powers from Westminster to Yorkshire.
The cost of an election, as with any local election, is borne locally by the authority. By ensuring the election is first past the post we have reduced potential costs. In addition, my department, as part of the deal will provide £2 million Mayoral Capacity Funding over the next three years, to support the establishment of the new mayoral combined authority (MCA).
A new mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire is able to charge a precept, but is not required to. For example the Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has chosen not to charge a precept. Any precept can be subject to the council tax referendum principles.
The costs associated with scrutiny and audit committees would be met by the new MCA. We believe such scrutiny is necessary to ensure value for money for the taxpayer, when devolving significant powers.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, published on 22 November 2023, what the maximum level is projected to be for the mayoral precept.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Subject to consultation and parliamentary approval, the Hull East Yorkshire Level 3 Devolution Deal we have agreed with local leaders will bring with it a £400 million Mayoral Investment Fund over the next 30 years, and a significant transfer of powers from Westminster to Yorkshire.
The cost of an election, as with any local election, is borne locally by the authority. By ensuring the election is first past the post we have reduced potential costs. In addition, my department, as part of the deal will provide £2 million Mayoral Capacity Funding over the next three years, to support the establishment of the new mayoral combined authority (MCA).
A new mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire is able to charge a precept, but is not required to. For example the Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has chosen not to charge a precept. Any precept can be subject to the council tax referendum principles.
The costs associated with scrutiny and audit committees would be met by the new MCA. We believe such scrutiny is necessary to ensure value for money for the taxpayer, when devolving significant powers.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled, Hull and East Yorkshire devolution deal, published on 22 November 2023, whether the £13.34 million per year allocation of investment funding is index linked.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Local leaders have agreed the Hull and East Yorkshire Devolution Deal, which includes an Investment Fund of £400 million over the next 30 years, equivalent to £13.34 million per annum. It will be transformative for the people of Hull and East Yorkshire. The fund is not index linked, which is standard practice across most such departmental funds. I pay tribute to Cllr Mike Ross and Cllr Anne Handley for showing the determination and leadership Hull and East Yorkshire needs.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Answer of 3 April 2023 to Question HL6937 on Property Development: Floods, and pursuant to the answer of 11 September 2023 to Question 197005 on Property Development: Floods, when his department stopped holding data on how many new residential properties were constructed within Environment Agency flood zone 3.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department publishes estimates of the proportion of new residential addresses created on National Flood Zone 3, as well as other designations of interest, in the Land use change statistics series. The most recent statistics available currently are for the financial year 2021-22.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Answer of 3 April 2023 to Question HL6937 on Property Development: Floods, how many new residential properties were constructed within Environment Agency flood zone 3 in financial year 2022/23.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will issue statutory guidance on planning to local authorities to ensure that all future developments include flood mitigation measures.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that areas of flood risk should be avoided and where not possible then all risks should be mitigated.
This is supported by the Flood risk and coastal change Planning Practice Guidance which we significantly revised in August 2022.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress his Department has made on negotiations with Hull City and East Riding of Yorkshire Councils on a county deal in the last 12 months; and if he will publish the minutes of meetings his Department has held with those councils.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Since the Levelling Up White Paper was published the Government has signed six brand new devolution deals, with a particular focus on Level 3, mayoral devolution models. Those six deals represent over 7 million people across England, and mean that 8 of the 11 areas we identified for new devolution in the White Paper have now received a deal. We are in discussions with the three remaining places named on the White Paper, including Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire, about the appropriate model of devolution for them, and I am hoping to meet the leaders of the respective local authorities soon to continue this discussion.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for differences in the levels of funding received by local authorities under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme; and what steps he is taking to ensure that all hosts under the scheme receive adequate financial support.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Details on funding for the scheme are available here. Guidance for Homes for Ukraine guests, hosts, and councils is available here.
We are continuing to work with local authorities and sponsors to support them with their hosting arrangements. Any future policy announcements will be made in the usual way.