Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support he is providing to small firms of house builders.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government recognises the important role that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play in delivering new housing across this country. We are committed to supporting SMEs and enabling them to play a crucial role in increasing housing supply and diversifying the market.
We have provided financial assistance to SMEs via the Home Building Fund and an SME-focused guarantee scheme (the £1 billion ENABLE Build scheme). On 30 June we announced an additional £450 million, increasing the Home Building Fund total to £5 billion. £3 billion of this funding will be targeted as short-term development loans to SMEs, custom builders and innovators, delivering at least 60,000 homes by 2022/23. The ENABLE Build scheme will further support firms in accessing finance to progress new developments.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to increase investment in town centres.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Our town centres and high streets have an important role to play as we drive growth across the country; creating jobs, nurturing small businesses and injecting billions of pounds into our economy.
Our £3.6 billion Towns Fund is key to delivering this, and through the Future High Streets Fund and Town Deals we will drive the economic regeneration of our high streets and towns centres to provide long term economic growth and improved productivity across the country.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 protect SMEs from eviction as a result of financial difficulties caused by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We have been working quickly to support the UK’s businesses through the crisis, providing an initial £330 billion. This has included support through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Coronavirus Corporate Financing Facility. This package of support also includes £13 billion of grant funding schemes, the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF).
Government is also deferring Value Added Tax (VAT) payments for the next quarter so businesses will not pay any VAT until the end of June - representing a £30 billion injection into the economy. This is to help support businesses with their cash flows, and support individuals’ employment.
We have also introduced temporary new measures to protect businesses from aggressive forms of rent recovery: we have legislated to enact a?moratorium on commercial forfeitures due to non-payment of rent, due to end on 30 June; Statutory demands and winding up petitions issued to commercial tenants will be temporarily voided; and changes have been made to the use of Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to provide food and support to people classified by the NHS as the most vulnerable in society.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 22 March, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government asked clinically extremely vulnerable individuals to shield and announced steps to support them to stay at home.
To support these individuals, we are working with local authorities, the food industry, local resilience and emergency partners, and voluntary groups to ensure these individuals have both support and access to essential items such as groceries and medicines through deliveries and priority supermarket delivery slots, if they do not have alternative means of accessing these.
The system to deliver food packages is now up and running and capacity is building in line with current demand.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on allowing councils to meet remotely.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We have made and laid The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 before Parliament under section 78 of the Coronavirus Act 2020.
These regulations, which came into effect on 4 April 2020, enable all local authority meetings before 7 May 2021 to be held remotely, including allowing remote access by members of the public and press by electronic means, including by telephone conference, video conference, live webcasts, and live interactive streaming.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has made on establishing local co-ordination centres to mitigate disruption to logistics as a result of the covid-19 outbreak throughout the UK.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) are the principal mechanisms at the local level in England for planning multi-agency responses to mitigate disruption from emergencies. During an emergency, LRFs can stand up Strategic Coordination Groups (SCGs) to enhance coordination. Since early February?there has been?regular?contact?between MHCLG and?LRFs?in England?to manage the response to?Covid-19.??This?has included?involvement?in Strategic Coordination Groups?held by each?LRF, weekly calls with LRF Chairs?and individual engagement with LRFs by Ministers and senior officials.?The devolved administrations are responsible for establishing local co-ordination centres within their areas.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress the Government is making on providing support to homeless people during the covid-19 outbreak in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the UK.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Over 90 per cent of those on the streets and in communal night shelters known to local authorities at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis have now been made offers of safe accommodation – ensuring some of the most vulnerable in society are protected from the pandemic.
On 18 April we announced that councils across England will receive another £1.6 billion in additional funding to enable them to respond to other Covid-19 pressures across all the services they deliver, stepping up support for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people. This takes the total funding to support councils to respond to the pandemic to over £3.2 billion. This is in addition to £3.2 million in targeted funding for councils to support vulnerable rough sleepers.
Of the £3.2 billion Covid-19 funding for councils, the nine Lincolnshire local authorities received £10,661,483 in the first tranche of and £16,703,507 in the second tranche.
All nine Lincolnshire authorities have responded proactively and have informed us they have secured accommodation offers for all people who were previously rough sleeping or living in shared sleeping accommodation at the start of the crisis. Local authorities in Lincolnshire are increasingly looking at longer-term housing options for people placed in temporary accommodation, including social housing and private rented.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of additional support required by local government in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the UK in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Allocations of the £1.6 billion support for councils to respond to Covid-19 were announced on Tuesday 28 April. This is a significant package of support which responds to the range of pressures councils have told us they are facing, and takes the total amount provided to local councils to over £3.2 billion. Across both waves of funding, almost 70 per cent of district councils will receive £1 million or more in support, whilst 90 per cent of the funding will go to social care authorities.
Of this, Lincolnshire County Council has received over £35 million, and district councils in Lincolnshire have also received funding: South Holland has received over £1 million across both waves of funding, for example.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support the recovery of the housing market in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the UK.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has been engaging closely with the housing industry across the country and stands ready to support its recovery. Ministers have dedicated time to listening to our stakeholders and will continue to do so
Building on the immediate support we've already provided; we will bring forward measures to support renters and buyers as well as continuing to drive forward a package of housing reforms to get Britain building.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to protect private renters during the covid-19 outbreak in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the UK.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 18 March, we announced a significant package of measures to protect renters and landlords affected by coronavirus. Emergency legislation is now in place so that landlords will not be able to start proceedings to evict their tenants for at least a three-month period. The courts have also suspended housing possession proceedings. As a result of these measures, no tenant in private or social accommodation needs to be concerned about the threat of eviction during this time.
The Government also has introduced significant financial measures to help support tenants to continue to pay their living costs, including rental payments. This includes support for businesses to pay staff salaries, strengthening the welfare safety-net with a £7 billion boost to Universal Credit, and increasing the Local Housing Allowance rates so that they are set at the 30th percentile of market rents in each area.