Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the key functions and responsibilities of metro mayors will be.
Answered by Mark Francois
There is no rigid template as all metro mayors will be part of bespoke devolution deals.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many tenants exercised the right to buy in each local authority in Northumberland, Durham and Tyne and Wear in each of the last five years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The number of Right to Buy sales made by each local authority can found in Table 685 at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales
Figures for sales by Private Registered Providers (Housing Associations) are not available at a local authority level.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he expects to announce a final decision on the Regulation 7 application by Newcastle City Council for the removal of deemed consent to to-let boards.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
A hearing into this proposal was held on 20 May 2014 and we expect to receive an Inspector's Report shortly. A final decision will be issued as soon as possible following careful consideration of the Inspector's Report.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities currently operate restrictions on the display of to-let boards in all or part of their areas; how many applications he has received from local authorities for the removal of deemed consent to to-let boards since 2010; and how many of these applications he has approved.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
A sensible balance needs to be struck between letting people advertise their home for sale and allowing forests of boards which disfigure the street scene. Councils have powers to tackle the proliferation of such boards where it is an acute local problem.
Ten local authorities are known to operate restrictions on the display of to-let boards. Eight applications have been received since 2010 of which two were to renew previous Secretary of State Directions. All applications have been approved either in full or with modifications.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average level of local authority debt is per capita.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
I have today placed in the Library of the House a table showing, for each local authority in England, the total external debt and the debt per capita as at 31 March 2014. The average debt per capita for all local authorities in England is £1,530.
The debt figures are collected on the capital payments and receipts (CPR4) provisional outturn form completed by each local authority in England and published at the following location;
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which organisations collect subscriptions through the employers' payroll service in his Department and its agencies.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The following organisations collect subscriptions through the Department's payroll service:
Civil Service Club, SPARTA (Civil Service Sports and Recreation Association), Civil Service Retirement Fellowship, Civil Service Benevolent Fund, Civil Service Sports Council, Minerva Sport & Social, PCS Union, First Division Association, Prospect.
Additionally, the following organisations collect subscriptions through The Planning Inspectorate and QEII's payroll service.
QEII: Charity for Civil Servants, PCS Union.
The Planning Inspectorate: SPARTA, NAW Welfare Fund, Civil Service Benevolent Fund, Civil Service Sports Council, PCS Union, Prospect.
Currently, the Department offers a check off system where union subscriptions can be deducted from an individual's pay and transferred to the appropriate trade union. The Department believes it is no longer appropriate for public funds or resources to be used in this way. We will therefore seek to end these arrangements and have strongly encouraged Executive Agencies to also pursue this objective.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to exercise his oversight role in relation to the North East Combined Authority and its scrutiny arrangements; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Order setting up the combined authority requires that authority to have one or more overview and scrutiny committees.
We have written to the councils concerned making clear we expect their combined authority to follow best practice on scrutiny, including that the membership of scrutiny committees should reflect the political balance of the councils. The letter can be found online at:
We have also consulted recently on proposals to make it a legislative requirement for a combined authority's scrutiny committee to be balanced in this way. The consultation closed on 24 June and we are now considering the responses. The consultation is available at:
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria he will use to assess requests for extra powers from local enterprise partnerships and combined authorities.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The Government is currently negotiating a ‘Growth Deal' with every Local Enterprise Partnership, based on the Strategic Economic Plans they submitted in March 2014. The criteria being used to assess the plans are set out in the guidance published in July 2013. These are: ambition and rationale for intervention; value for money; and deliverability and risk. Combined authorities, where they exist, are represented in Local Enterprise Partnerships and will have been involved in the development of the Strategic Economic Plans.
Notwithstanding, as I indicated to the rt. hon. Member in my answers to him of 3 April 2014, Official Report, Column 778W and 6 May 2014, Official Report, Column 24W, we should be cautious about any measure which had the effect of transferring power upwards away from elected local councils. Decentralisation should devolve power to the lowest appropriate level.
Combined authorities are relatively new bodies. They now should focus on using the functions and powers that they currently have and prove themselves on delivering local growth; we do not intend to repeat the “function creep” mistakes of the Regional Development Agencies which just became unwieldy and unfocused, taking on too much and failing to deliver.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the guidance he has issued to combined authorities on good practice on the representation of opposition councillors on (a) the new bodies set up under the Combined Authority regulations and (b) the scrutiny panels; and what sanctions he has in the event of combined authorities not complying with best practice.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Following the recent establishment of four new combined authorities, I wrote to the Leaders of the councils involved setting out the good practice that I expect them to follow with regards to governance and transparency. We believe that following such good practice will ensure that the various political parties represented on all the councils concerned will have appropriate involvement and influence in the work of the combined authorities. A copy of those letters were also published on the Government's website at:
The Government believes that it would reinforce the confidence all have in the effectiveness and accountability of combined authorities and economic prosperity boards, if the following of this good practice was guaranteed. I launched a consultation on 30 April regarding changes that the Government proposes to make to the legislation relating to combined authorities and economic prosperity boards. This consultation includes the proposal to require combined authorities and economic prosperity boards to have one or more overview and scrutiny committee(s) constituted with a membership reflecting the political balance of the councils concerned. This consultation closes on 24 June and can be found at:
I have placed copies of the associated documents in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on devolution of the Affordable Homes programme to (a) combined authorities and (b) local enterprise partnerships.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
Housing policy and the provision of affordable housing is not a function of combined authorities or Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Elected local councils act as both the local housing authorities and local planning authorities, and we should be cautious about any intervention which effectively transferred power upwards.
Notwithstanding, in the recent Affordable Homes Programme prospectus, we have stated that local authorities will want to engage in strategic dialogue with their Local Enterprise Partnerships when identifying key areas for economic growth.