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Written Question
Empty Property: West Midlands
Tuesday 8th October 2019

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of empty homes in (a) the West Midlands region, (b) City of Wolverhampton local authority area and (c) Wolverhampton North East constituency in each year since 2010; and what steps he is taking the reduce the number of empty homes.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The most recent estimate of the number of long-term empty homes shows that at October 2018 there were 10,084 homes that had been empty for more than six months in the West Midlands Metropolitan County, and 1,401 that had been empty for more than six months in the City of Wolverhampton. Statistics on vacant dwellings in England and in each local authority district, from which regional totals may be calculated, are published in the Department's live table 615 which is available at the link below. This table shows the annual total numbers of empty homes, those vacant for longer than six months and also vacant properties in the local authority, housing association and other public sector tenures. Statistics on vacant dwellings at parliamentary constituency level are not centrally collected


Local authorities are equipped with powers and have strong incentives to tackle empty homes. Since 1 April 2019, via the Rating (Property in Common Occupation) and Council Tax (Empty Dwellings) Act 2018, local authorities have the discretion to increase the maximum level of premium charged on properties that have been empty for more than two years from 50 per cent to 100 per cent extra council tax. Through the New Homes Bonus, local authorities earn the same financial reward for bringing an empty home back into use as building a new one. In certain circumstances, local authorities can apply for an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) to temporarily take over the management of a property that has been empty for more than two years in order to bring it back into use.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants


Written Question
Refuges: Ringfenced Funding
Monday 30th September 2019

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government provides ring-fenced funding to local authorities to spend on supporting women's refuges.

Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)

MHCLG does not currently provide ring-fenced funding to local authorities to spend on supporting women's refuges. Through the local government settlement, funding is provided to local authorities which they can spend on local domestic abuse services in line with their local priorities.

Since 2014 the Department has additionally invested £55.5 million in services to support victims of domestic abuse, including refuges.

MHCLG has recently consulted on a new statutory duty which would require local authorities to assess the need for and commission support for victims and their children in safe accommodation.

The consultation closed on 2 August. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation on support within safe accommodation and will be publishing a full government response in due course.


Written Question
Refuges: Females
Monday 30th September 2019

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of women's refuges operating in England in each year since 2010.

Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)

The Department does not hold centrally the number of women's refuges operating in England in each year since 2010.

MHCLG has recently consulted on a new statutory duty which would require local authorities to robustly assess the need for and commission support for victims and their children in safe accommodation.

The consultation closed on 2 August. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation on support within safe accommodation and will be publishing a full government response in due course.


Written Question
Help to Buy Scheme: Wolverhampton North East
Thursday 13th June 2019

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of homes purchased using the Help to Buy equity loan scheme in Wolverhampton North East constituency in each year since that policy was introduced.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

Data on Help to Buy: Equity Loan is not available by constituency but is published by local authority.

For Wolverhampton, total completions from April 2013 to December 2018 were 1,116.

Further detail is in Table 1 of the official quarterly statistics to end December 2018 (Wolverhampton is at line 138):

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-statistics-april-2013-to-31-december-2018

Totals by year for Wolverhampton were:

2013 - 99

2014 - 196

2015 - 188

2016 - 218

2017 - 203

2018 - 212


Written Question
Public Lavatories
Monday 10th June 2019

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department holds records on the number of public toilets in (a) England and (b) Wolverhampton.

Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

The Department does not hold data on the number of public toilets in England. Whilst the provision of public toilets is a matter for local authorities, we encourage councils to keep these important amenities open. At Budget 2018 the Chancellor announced a 100 per cent business rates relief for public lavatories in England, and the Government will introduce legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows. In addition the Department recently launched a consultation proposing changes to Building Regulations to create more Changing Places toilets for severely disabled people.


Written Question
Landlords: Wolverhampton North East
Wednesday 14th November 2018

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many landlords who own properties in Wolverhampton North East constituency are on the Government's register of rogue landlords.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

No landlords that own properties in Wolverhampton North East are on the database of rogue landlord and property agents which records landlords and agents who have received banning orders.

Banning orders are for the most prolific and serious offenders and were introduced on 6 April 2018. An offence must have been committed on or after that date, and a conviction subsequently secured, before a local authority can apply to the courts for a banning order.


Written Question
Homelessness
Tuesday 6th November 2018

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many times the rough sleeping and homelessness reduction taskforce has met in 2018; what the current membership is of the taskforce; and how many changes to have membership have taken place since the announcement of the taskforce; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

The Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Taskforce met for the first time on 7 March 2018 and has met regularly since. Membership of Government Taskforce’s can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-cabinet-committees-system-and-list-of-cabinet-committees. There have been no formal changes of membership, although attendance varies in response to Ministerial availability and appointments.


Written Question
Local Government Finance: Wolverhampton
Thursday 18th October 2018

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the total central government grant to City of Wolverhampton Council has been in each year since 2010.

Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

The totals of each local authority’s source of finance, including grants from central government, are reported in their General Fund Revenue Account outturn and capital account outturn returns to MHCLG.

These can be found for the years requested via following the links to individual local authority data from www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-capital-expenditure-receipts-and-financing (‘RS revenue outturn summary’ data table) and from www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-capital-expenditure-receipts-and-financing (Table 'B. Resources used to finance capital expenditure' in the ‘COR4’ data table).


Written Question
Wolverhampton City Council: Local Government Finance
Tuesday 27th February 2018

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the local government grant given to City of Wolverhampton Council was in each of the last seven years.

Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

Wolverhampton City Council will have available £876.7 million in Core Spending Power between 2016/17 to 2019/20.


Information on Wolverhampton’s Revenue Support Grant funding can be found on line at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing.


Written Question
Wolverhampton City Council: Local Government Finance
Friday 23rd February 2018

Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of changes to the local government grant to City of Wolverhampton Council on that Council's ability to carry out its statutory duties.

Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

The 2018-19 local government finance settlement confirms that Wolverhampton will have access to £221.4 million in Core Spending Power - an increase of 1.8 per cent from 2017-18. Wolverhampton has core spending power per dwelling of £2,029 compared to an average for Metropolitan Districts of £1,786. Wolverhampton is also part of the West Midlands Combined Authority and is a 100 per cent business rates retention pilot, enabling the authority to benefit from an increased share of business rates growth across the pilot area.

As part of my on going engagement with local government, I recently met with representatives of Wolverhampton Council to discuss the local government finance settlement and related matters.