Asked by: Jo Gideon (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Move On fund; and what plans his Department has for the future of that fund.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The 2016 Budget announced £100 million of grant for a new Move-On Fund, which will provide homes for former rough sleepers moving on from hostels and victims of domestic abuse moving on from refuge. The Fund is split equally between the Greater London Authority (GLA) in London and Homes England who are administering the fund outside of London.
The Move-On Fund is an ambitious attempt to build or adapt accommodation for former rough sleepers and households fleeing domestic abuse. This in turn will free-up emergency hostel space. The scheme structure is a new one and reliant on potential developers and providers bringing bids forward within a competitive property market. Together with our delivery partners at the GLA and Homes England we refined our approach and the delivery model utilising valuable learning from market tests in the first year. As a result, the scheme was slower to mobilise than anticipated, but since the model has been refined, we are seeing strong bids emerge to a combined value of £61.5 million.
We are in now in the final year of this funding, which is due to end by March 2022. Both organisations are continuing to invite bids for the remaining funding from prospective providers.
Asked by: Jo Gideon (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of permitting Business Improvement Districts to operate as a delivery partner for Reopening High Streets Safely funding.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have been a key tool in providing business led improvements to local areas since 2004. They remain an important part of our high street and town centre agenda, and the Government is committed to supporting them.
BIDs also have an important role to play in ensuring our high streets and town centre areas can open in a safe way in order to reinvigorate our local economies and get people back to work and the shops. This is why, through our £50 million Reopening High Streets Safely Fund (RHSSF), local authorities can procure BIDs as a contractor or supplier and pay for eligible services through RHSSF funding.
In order to reduce the administrative burden in delivering the fund, BIDs cannot be delivery partners for the RHSSF, however, local authorities are able deliver eligible RHSSF activity through delivery partner arrangements with other tiers of local government. We have provided further guidance on which organisations can operate as delivery partners under the RHSSF programme: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/925276/Reopening_High_Streets_Safely_Fund_FAQ_V6.pdf.
Asked by: Jo Gideon (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether Local Authorities are permitted to contract a Business Improvement District for (a) the recruitment, and (b) the management of High Street Ambassadors.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are independent of the Government and local authorities and, subject to their constitution; the BID proposal upon which the original BID ballot was held and any alterations that have been passed subsequently; and the Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004, BIDs are free to work with local authorities and others to deliver, challenge or enhance local services.? This could include the recruitment and management of high street ambassadors if the BID and the local authority were to agree on terms for the delivery of such a scheme and in adherence to the rules applying to any particular funding streams being utilised.
Asked by: Jo Gideon (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What steps he is taking to support housebuilding on brownfield land.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I’m delighted that the Prime Minister recently announced that seven Mayoral Combined Authorities, including the West Midlands Combined Authority, are each receiving a share of the £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund. This will help unlock 26,000 homes by bringing under-utilised brownfield land back into use and contribute to the levelling-up our country.