Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance he is giving to local authorities on the distribution to student households of funding from the £144 million made available as discretionary funding to help households with rising energy bills.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
My Department will provide guidance shortly to billing authorities on administering the council tax rebate scheme and the associated discretionary fund. Allocations from the discretionary fund will allow councils to support people that may need help with their energy bills but who are not eligible for the main scheme.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to (a) initiate a consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and (b) publish a timetable for the commencement of that Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund pre-launch guidance document published on 2nd February 2022 provides further information on the overall focus of the fund, geographies over which the fund will operate and a summary of its investment priorities. This information will enable places to start planning and preparing for the full launch later in spring 2022, where the UK government will publish a full prospectus for places to be fully equipped to write an investment plan.
The Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s ambitious Levelling Up agenda and a significant component of its support for places across the UK. It provides £2.6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025, with all areas of the UK receiving an allocation from the Fund via a funding formula rather than a competition. This recognises that even the most affluent parts of the UK contain pockets of deprivation and need support.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate he has made of the number of student accommodation settings containing flammable cladding.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Data on the remediation progress of high-rise student accommodation buildings in England identified with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations is published in the Building Safety Programme data release. The latest data is available here.
The Department’s External Wall Systems data collection concerns residential buildings 18 metres and over, including student accommodation. The collection is ongoing, and we are working to improve the quality of data before publishing further summary information in due course.
We have begun a pilot data collection project for 11-18m residential buildings to identify those with unsafe cladding. We will publish further details in due course.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much the Government spent on Disabled Facilities Grants each year from 2010-2021; and whether he has made an estimate of how much funding has been provided for changes that have been reversed by subsequent home owners.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Government funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) each year from 2010 to 2021 can be found at the table below. Government does not collect data on DFG funding provided for adaptations that have been reversed by subsequent homeowners.
DLUHC Funded | DHSC Funded | ||||||||||
2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
£169m | £200m | £220m | £200m | £185m | £220m | £394m | £473m* | £523m** | £505m | £573m*** | £573m |
*£431m annual grant plus an additional £42m announced in Autumn Budget 2017
**£468m annual grant plus an additional £55m announced in Budget 2018
***£505m annual grant plus an additional £68m paid to LAs in December 2020
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of homes fitted with central heating microbore pipework.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The department has made no estimate of the number of homes fitted with central heating microbore pipework. However, the English Housing Survey commissioned by the department does provide information about heating systems in homes including the number of homes with central heating. The English Housing Survey reports can be seen at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
What progress his Department has made on the forthcoming devolution and local recovery White Paper.
Answered by Luke Hall
We intend to bring forward the English Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper in due course, which will set out Government’s regional economic strategy to move us from recovery into levelling up and our vision for expanding devolution across England.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria his Department used to select the places which receive funding from the Towns Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall
Ministers considered a range of factors and different methods of identifying and prioritising towns. The metrics selected and their weighting was decided based on an analysis of the policy problem and aims and was calibrated against local intelligence and feedback. Further detail can be found within the National Audit Office Review of the Town Deals selection process.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has commissioned research on the potential effect on health of silica particulates transported in air related to mineral extraction.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The MHCLG has not commissioned any research into the potential effect on health of silica sand particulates transported in air related to mineral extraction. The remit of my Department is related to planning matters.
Our National Planning Policy Framework sets out how mineral planning authorities should approach planning for and dealing with mineral planning developments. It states that in granting planning permission for mineral extraction planning authorities should ensure that any unavoidable dust and particle emissions are controlled, mitigated or removed at source.
It is, therefore, for mineral planning authorities to plan for and determine planning applications for silica sand and assess the impacts of those proposals, including the impacts of any dust emissions. In dealing with mineral proposals, mineral planning authorities would seek the views of appropriate consultees, such as local environmental health authorities, Environment Agency, Public Health England and/or the Health and Safety Executive depending on the particular facts of the case.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Law Commission’s report, Leasehold home ownership: buying your freehold or extending your lease, published in July 2020, what plans he has to implement the recommendations on reforming leasehold home ownership; and when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on reforming leasehold.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government asked the Law Commission to review current enfranchisement arrangements to make them easier, faster, fairer and cheaper. The Law Commission report on the enfranchisement process was published in July, alongside reports on commonhold and Right to Manage. They also reported in January on options relating to valuation, including purchasing a freehold and extending the lease of a house or flat. We are considering these in detail and will set out our preferred way forward in due course. We will bring forward legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to give freeholders who pay charges for the maintenance of communal areas and facilities on a private or mixed use estate access to equivalent rights as leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of such service charges.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Government intends to legislate to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges as well as a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager for the provision of services covered by estate rentcharges. We will bring forward legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows.