Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2023 to Question 182308 on Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom: Finance, for what reason his Department will stop funding the Inter Faith Network in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This department has provided funding to the Inter Faith Network UK since 2006/07. When making funding decisions, the Government considers a wide range of factors, including government priorities and current budgetary pressures. The department monitors all funded organisations throughout the lifecycle of their project for the purposes of assessing delivery against workplan targets, compliance and evaluation, in line with best practice for the management of public funding.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to assist councils in cases where they have been allocated funding from the Levelling Up Fund for specific projects, but where due to increases in inflation and borrowing costs since funding was allocated that funding is no longer sufficient to meet the cost of those approved projects.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The department continues to monitor the impact of inflation closely through formal reporting mechanisms and on the ground relationships.
As we have set out previously, the Levelling Up Fund has in place a proportionate project adjustment process. Through this, we can work with places to make sensible adjustments to the scope and phasing of projects to mitigate delivery challenges including cost inflation whilst also maintaining value for money.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that tenants with a periodic tenancy who give notice to leave their rental property, but vacate the property before the date on which the tenancy ends, are held liable for council tax owed up to the end of the tenancy rather than the landlord.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The collection of council tax is a matter for councils. They will decide who is liable for council tax by reference to the hierarchy of liability set out in the Local Government Finance Act 1992 . If individuals are concerned about the calculation of their council tax liability, they should contact their council. There is also a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to support councils in delivering the levelling up agenda during current levels of material, energy and labour price inflation; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing councils with additional funds to compensate for those increased costs.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, announced in December, makes available an additional £3.5 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022-23 of over 4% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services.
Local authorities have the flexibility to use funding in a way that responds to local needs, and can prioritise based on their own understanding of the needs of their communities.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, on what date organisations will be able to make applications to the Community Ownership Fund.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Community Ownership Fund bidding prospectus, assessment guidance notes and application form was published on 15 July. Eligible community organisations will be able to submit their application by 30 July.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the March 2020 Budget, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including places of worship as a sector in the Changing Places Fund to build accessible toilet facilities in existing buildings.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is determined to see greater provision of Changing Places toilet facilities in new and existing buildings. We will work with the Changing Places Consortium and others to identify those sectors where we most need to accelerate the provision of such facilities and will set out the criteria for funding in due course.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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 proportion of the coastal communities fund that has been awarded to the fishing sector over the four funding rounds completed to date.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Coastal Communities Fund is a competitive bid-led UK-wide programme which does not pre-allocate a specific proportion of funds for any category of project. There are no plans to change this.
In the first four rounds of the Coastal Communities Fund a total of 18 grants worth £9.73 million were awarded to fisheries related projects across the UK. These accounted for approximately 6 per cent of the Fund's total allocated expenditure.
Each application is considered on its individual merits against the Fund’s main outcome to support growth and jobs in coastal communities.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to increase the proportion of the coastal communities fund which is awarded to the fishing sector.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Coastal Communities Fund is a competitive bid-led UK-wide programme which does not pre-allocate a specific proportion of funds for any category of project. There are no plans to change this.
In the first four rounds of the Coastal Communities Fund a total of 18 grants worth £9.73 million were awarded to fisheries related projects across the UK. These accounted for approximately 6 per cent of the Fund's total allocated expenditure.
Each application is considered on its individual merits against the Fund’s main outcome to support growth and jobs in coastal communities.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions he has used the powers in section 21(1)(a) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to direct development on individual sites.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Secretary of State has never used his powers to intervene in the preparation of local plans under Section 21(1)(a) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support his Department has provided to people affected by recent flooding events.
Answered by Jake Berry
The Government provided communities and business grants, business rate relief and council tax discount recovery payments to help support the recovery of local areas in the face of the impacts of unprecedented rainfall as a result of Storm Desmond and Eva in 2015, but this was an exceptional case.
The Government has so far awarded £45.848 million of Communities and Business Recovery Scheme funding to local authorities affected by flooding as a result of Storms Desmond and Eva. To date, those authorities have awarded grants totalling £56,270,271 to eligible households and businesses. The Government will reimburse the difference in due course.
For events of the scale as seen recently, local areas are expected to provide support form within their own resources. The Government therefore has no plans to activate a wider cross government recovery programme.