Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 reform parish council governance.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Parish councils have an important role in improving the quality of life and wellbeing of their communities. The Levelling Up White Paper will outline the UK Government’s plans for strengthening communities and supporting local leadership. We will be working with organisations in the sector to develop and take forward these plans.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 adequacy of social housing provision in County Durham.
Answered by Michael Gove - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
This Government is conscious that we need to do more to support social housing. That is why have created the new Affordable Homes Programme, which will deliver up to 180,000 affordable homes, if economic conditions allow. Across the North East, £213 million investment from this programme will help to create 4,000 new homes across the region.
This builds on are progress of delivering over 4,000 affordable homes across County Durham since 2010, almost 3,000 of which have been for social and affordable renters.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of the £4.8 billion in new local authority grants, announced at the Spending Review on 27 October 2021, will be used to address the £573 million funding gap in disabled children’s social care identified by the Disabled Children’s Partnership and Scope’s October 2021 report, The Gap Widens.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government is providing around £1.6 billion additional grant to local authorities in each year over the Spending Review period. In addition, local authorities can expect rising income from local taxation. This will allow councils to increase their spending on the vital public services they provide, such as children’s social care, and will ensure those services can respond effectively to rising demand and cost pressures.
More detail on how the funding announced at the Spending Review will be distributed will be given as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement. The department believes it is right for local authorities, who know their areas’ needs best, to make decisions about the allocation of funding within their local areas.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his timeframe is for bringing forward legislative proposals to enact the leasehold reform proposals announced by the Government on 7 January 2021.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. We are taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market. On January 7 the Government announced reforms to enfranchisement valuation, 990-year leases, removing the retirement exemption from zero ground rent measures and established a new Commonhold Council as a partnership of industry, leaseholders and Government that will prepare homeowners and the market for the widespread take-up of commonhold. This was the first part of the Government’s response to the Law Commission’s reports on enfranchisement, Right to Manage.
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill currently in Parliament will put an end to ground rents for new residential leasehold properties as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation. The Bill's provisions will lead to fairer, more transparent homeownership for thousands of future leaseholders. This will be the first part of seminal two-part reforming legislation in this Parliament.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps the Government is taking to (a) improve the regulation of the private parking sector and (b) protect motorists from unfair fines.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
My Department is leading on the implementation of the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019, which includes the creation of an independent Code of Practice for private parking companies to improve standards. DLUHC is developing the Code of Practice through the British Standards Institution (BSI) in close consultation with key stakeholders, including landowners, consumer organisations, and the private parking industry, who are advising on its impact. If a parking company were to repeatedly break the new code, then their access to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) data would be blocked. This data includes information on the vehicle keeper, so a company blocked from accessing it would be unable to pursue parking charges.
In addition to the new code, DLUHC has developed the Parking Code of Practice Enforcement Framework, on which the department consulted and on 20 March 2021 published the consultation response, available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/parking-code-enforcement-framework. The response to the consultation announced a series of fairer parking measures that include strengthening the current system of self-regulation by producing a Certification Scheme, independently assessed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, and to which parking trade associations must adhere if their members wish to request access to DVLA data. Further measures include: establishment of a Scrutiny and Oversight Board to monitor the new system and creation of a single, independent appeals service for motorists to turn to if they receive a private parking charge.
Finally, DLUHC recently consulted on proposals to bring private parking charges into closer alignment with Local Authority Penalty Charge Notices, including its system of 50% discounts for early payment. We are also developing an Appeals Charter which will protect motorists from charges that are unfair or issued in error.
We intend to publish the consultation response together with the new code of practice later this Autumn so that the industry could adopt the new code and the motorists benefit as early as possible.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government has made an assessment of the effect of (a) Airbnb and (b) other short-term rental lets on levels of noise and disruption for permanent residents in (i) the City of Durham and (ii) England.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Whilst we have not made specific assessments relating to the effect of short-term lets on noise and disruption, we are clear about encouraging responsible short-term letting, where hosts behave in accordance with the law and with respect for both their guests' safety and their neighbours' peace. The Considerate Short-Term Lets Charter currently helps hosts to do so.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to allow local authorities to manage the level of short-term (a) Airbnb and (b) other rental lets.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We encourage industry to continue to explore voluntary measures which would support local authorities to use their powers to stamp out bad practice.
We want to encourage responsible short-term letting, where hosts behave in accordance with the law and with respect for both their guests' safety and their neighbours' peace. The Considerate Short-Term Lets Charter currently helps hosts to do so. Furthermore, through Tourism Recovery Plan, published on 11 June 2021, we are looking to consult on the possible introduction of a Tourist Accommodation Registration Scheme in England.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, where his Department's offices, including arm’s length bodies, are currently located in (a) the West Midlands and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) currently has one office in the West Midlands, in central Birmingham. Three MHCLG arm’s-length-bodies are located in the West Midlands. The Regulator of Social Housing in Birmingham, and Social Care Ombudsman, and Homes England in Coventry. The Department has one office in the East Midlands, in Nottingham.
In February, we confirmed that the Government will create a second headquarters in Wolverhampton with at least 500 MHCLG Group roles set to be based across the West Midlands by 2025 – with further increases planned by 2030.
The new HQ in Wolverhampton will include the presence of ministers – making it the first such ministerial office outside of London with a regular ministerial presence. Senior civil servants will also be based in Wolverhampton, ensuring this becomes a centre for policy development and decision making.
This is a significant increase on the 300 roles currently in the region and is part of plans to have at least 800 roles outside of London by 2030 – including 50% of the most senior positions. This will ensure that more local voices are reflected in the creation of government policy.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria he used when deciding to establish his Department's new headquarters in Wolverhampton.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
A number of factors were considered when deciding the location of the Department's additional headquarters. The choice of Wolverhampton, which builds on the Department's existing strong presence in the West Midlands region, supports the Government’s commitment to levelling up.
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Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of changes in local authority (a) budgets and (b) funding formula during the covid-19 outbreak on the capacity of Durham County Council to maintain services.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We have now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an un-ringfenced grant so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of this, Durham County Council has received £33.15 million.
In total, the Government has committed over £27 billion to local areas to support councils and their communities. This also includes: £300 million to support the new test and trace service, £600 million to support providers through a new Infection Control Fund and £12.3 billion of support through the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Grants.
Alongside this funding, the Government has provided over £5 billion of cashflow support including the deferral of local authority payments of the Central Share of retained business rates, valued at £2.6 billion, as well as up-front payments of £1.8 billion of business rates reliefs and £850 million of social care grant.
Following the allocation of the £1.6 billion in March, we reviewed the funding formula, by using monthly data and our conversations with councils to refine our assessment. To allocate the additional £1.6 billion in April, we used our latest and best assessment of the distribution of additional COVID-19 pressures.