Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on local communities of the projects funded through the latest tranche of awards from the (a) Levelling Up Fund and (b) Community Ownership Fund.
Answered by Michael Gove - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Levelling Up Fund considers the impact of projects in local communities, by looking at how strongly each bid aligns and supports local need.
The Community Ownership Fund considers the impact of projects in local communities by assessing how an asset under community ownership will deliver benefits to a local community and bolster pride of place.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of high quality social housing including (a) bungalows for pensioners and (b) homes for young families.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and is investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, which will leverage up to £38 billion of private finance and will provide up to 180,000 new affordable homes across the country, should economic conditions allow.
Around half of the new programme will be for social and affordable rent, and it will deliver more than double for social rent than the current programme. 10% of delivery will be used to increase the supply of much needed specialist or supported housing, including housing for older people.
We will also be using the new Affordable Homes Programme to fund a First Homes pilot of 1500 homes. The First Homes scheme will help local first-time buyers onto the property ladder by offering homes at a discount of at least 30% compared to the market price. That same percentage will then be passed on with the sale of the property to future first-time buyers, meaning homes will always be sold below market value, benefiting future generations. On 4 June, we launched the first phase with further sites set to launch across the country in the coming weeks.
Whilst we do not set requirements for the types of affordable housing that are delivered, Registered Providers work closely with local authorities to ensure that delivery meets local housing need.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities prioritise the development of brown field sites over green belt and green field sites.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Planning Policy Framework expects local authorities to prioritise brownfield land for development wherever possible. Local authorities are best placed to assess the potential of individual sites, and each authority is required to publish a register of its developable brownfield suitable for new homes.
Brownfield redevelopment is supported by funding including the £4.1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund, the £400 million Brownfield Fund, and the Home Building Fund, which had a £450 million funding boost last year taking the total to £4.95 billion. In addition, details of the new Brownfield Land Release Fund, which will unlock brownfield sites and release serviced plots on local authority owned land, will be announced shortly.
Consultation on the White Paper Planning for the Future closed on 29 October 2020. My Department is undertaking further detailed policy development on individual elements of the reform proposals. However, we have made clear that local authorities would still have responsibility for protecting the Green Belt and other valued greenfield land.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the cumulative total is of Government funding in response to covid-19 that has been provided to Wigan Council.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the Hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave on 26 February 2021 to question 153417.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the cumulative total is of covid-19 related funding allocated to Wigan Council.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Wigan Council has so far received almost £28 million of emergency grant funding since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of its share of the £4.6 billion of unringfenced support to councils across the country.
Wigan has also received £9.3 million through the Contain Outbreak Management Fund, £5.7 million through the Infection Control Fund, £3.1 million via the sales, fees and charges income support scheme and £1.1 million via the Covid Winter Grant Scheme. This additional £19.2 million of support alongside almost £3 million of other grant funding to Wigan comes to a cumulative total of £50.1 million of funding since the start of the Pandemic.
In addition, Wigan Council will receive over £9 million in unringfenced funding to address the impacts of COVID-19 in the next financial year. This is alongside an increase in settlement Core Spending Power up to over £11 million.
Source of COVID-19 Support | Allocated to Wigan (£m) |
Total COVID-19 Additional Funding for LAs for 2020/21 (£m) | 28.0 |
Further Direct Support - 20/21 | |
COMF - Test and Trace Service Support Grant (£m) | 2.4 |
COMF - Additional Surge Funding (£m) | 6.9 |
ASC Infection Control Fund(Round 1 and 2)(£m) | 5.7 |
ASC Workforce Capacity Fund (£m) | 0.8 |
ASC Rapid Testing Fund (£m) | 0.7 |
Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) Funding (£m) | 0.2 |
Compliance and Enforcement Grant (£m) | 0.2 |
Reopening High Streets Safely Fund (£m) | 0.3 |
Provisional Rough Sleeping emergency funding (£m) | 0.006 |
Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP) (£m) | 0.3 |
Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant for Food and Essential Supplies (£m) | 0.4 |
DWP Covid Winter Grant Scheme (£m) | 1.1 |
Sales, Fees and Charges Compensation Scheme (£m) | 3.1 |
Total direct COVID-19 funding for Wigan for 2020/21 (£m) | 50.1 |
Settlement | |
Annual Change (£m) | 11.3 |
Annual Change (%) | 4.7% |
21/22 Funding | |
Additional Unringfenced Tranche Funding for 2021/22 | 9.5 |
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department received applications from Wigan council for funding from the Future High Streets Fund for projects in Leigh constituency.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
I was pleased to announce on 26 December that Wigan was successful in securing a provisional offer of £16.6 million from the Future High Streets Fund. This will support Wigan Council deliver a much-needed boost to Wigan Town Centre at this challenging time and has the potential to benefit the wider Wigan area, including in Leigh.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether Wigan Council applied to the Towns Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
An initial 101 towns were selected to submit proposals for Towns Deals as a part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund. There was no application process.
Wigan is, however, one of 101 places shortlisted for the Future High Streets Fund.?We are now in the final stages of the assessment process and expect to announce the outcome of that competition before the end of the year.
Levelling up continues to be at the heart of this Government’s agenda and that is why at Spending Review, we announced a new £4 billion Levelling Up Fund which will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department received applications from Wigan Council for funding from the Towns Fund for projects in Leigh constituency.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
An initial 101 towns were selected to submit proposals for Towns Deals as a part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund. There was no application process.
Wigan is, however, one of 101 places shortlisted for the Future High Streets Fund.?We are now in the final stages of the assessment process and expect to announce the outcome of that competition before the end of the year.
Levelling up continues to be at the heart of this Government’s agenda and that is why at Spending Review, we announced a new £4 billion Levelling Up Fund which will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery.