Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2020 to Question 105417 on Night Shelters: Coronavirus, what estimate he has made of the cost per night shelter of transforming their traditional models to be covid-19-secure.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
We worked closely with Public Health England (PHE) to provide Operating Principles for the sector, to help them open shelters as safely as possible where necessary, when self-contained accommodation cannot be made available and when local partners agree that it’s the right thing to do.
Faith and community groups provide a range of services through winter months and the costs associated with making changes to operate in a Covid-19 secure way may vary. We have announced funding that will give local areas the tools they need to support vulnerable rough sleepers this winter. Our £10 million Cold Weather Fund is available to all local authorities to help them to bring forward self-contained accommodation and to support rough sleepers off the streets. Meanwhile, our £2 million Transformation Fund will help move the faith and community sector a more innovative and Covid-secure options for those who use shelters.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2020 to Question 114247 from the hon Member for Bristol West on Sleeping Rough: Coronavirus, whether his Department has decided on the allocation of (a) £15 million funding through the Protect Programme and (b) £10 million funding through the Cold Weather Fund.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
I refer the Hon. Member to my previous answer to PQ 114247 on 16 November.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield 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 effectiveness of extending the December 2019 deadline for applications to the private sector ACM cladding remediation fund; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Our priority is to enable residents to be safe and feel safe in their homes. We upheld the 31 December application deadline for the private sector Aluminium Composite Material cladding remediation fund in order to maintain pressure on the pace of remediation. Unless there are exceptional circumstances to justify a delay in making an application, those responsible for buildings should expect further action to be taken – including naming and shaming and enforcement.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department is responsible for allocating funding for local welfare assistance schemes.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Responsibility for funding for local welfare provision was passed over from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) from April 2013. The MHCLG would lead on any changes in allocation with input from the DWP.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the funding allocated to local authorities for adult social services.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
This Government has recognised the pressures faced by adult social services and has provided councils with access to an additional £10 billion of dedicated funding for adult social care in the three years to 2019-20.
Future levels of funding will be settled in the Spending Review, where the overall approach to funding local government will be considered.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 the potential merits of bringing forward a system of compulsory licensing of landlords.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government does not support a mandatory register of private landlords. The majority of landlords provide decent and well managed accommodation and requiring those landlords to sign up to a national register would introduce an unnecessary and costly additional layer of bureaucracy.
Mandatory licensing is already in place for higher risk rental properties, larger houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). We consulted extensively on changes to the scope of mandatory licensing. There was broad support for extending this to include all HMOs with five or more occupiers. We published our response to our HMO reforms consultation in December 2017, and laid The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018 in February. Where there are problems with smaller HMOs in a particular area, local housing authorities have the discretionary power to introduce additional HMO licensing.
Local housing authorities are also able to introduce selective licensing of landlords in targeted areas to tackle specific problems, as long as the statutory requirements are met. We have committed to a review of selective licensing and will announce further details on the review after Easter recess.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 the implications for his policies of the number of people on waiting lists for social housing.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Since 2010, the number of households on local authority waiting lists has reduced by over 33 per cent from 1.74 million in 2010 to 1.16 million in 2017. We have given local authorities flexibility to manage their waiting lists, alongside action we have taken to build more affordable homes.
We are supporting social landlords to build even more homes, including homes for social rent for those in housing need who are currently waiting. Since 2010, we have delivered over 357,000 new affordable homes, including over 257,000 affordable homes for rent. We have recently announced an additional £2 billion funding for our flexible Affordable Homes Programme, increasing the budget to over £9 billion.
We are also undertaking a wide-ranging review of issues affecting social housing and intend to publish a Green Paper in the Spring.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 the potential merits of introducing a compulsory registration scheme for landlords.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government does not support a mandatory register of private landlords. The majority of landlords provide decent and well managed accommodation and requiring those landlords to sign up to a national register would introduce an unnecessary and costly additional layer of bureaucracy.
Mandatory licensing is already in place for higher risk rental properties, larger houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). We consulted extensively on changes to the scope of mandatory licensing. There was broad support for extending this to include all HMOs with five or more occupiers. We published our response to our HMO reforms consultation in December 2017, and laid The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018 in February. Where there are problems with smaller HMOs in a particular area, local housing authorities have the discretionary power to introduce additional HMO licensing.
Local housing authorities are also able to introduce selective licensing of landlords in targeted areas to tackle specific problems, as long as the statutory requirements are met. We have committed to a review of selective licensing and will announce further details on the review after Easter recess.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 the potential merits of bringing forward a system of compulsory licensing of landlords.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government does not support a mandatory register of private landlords. The majority of landlords provide decent and well managed accommodation and requiring those landlords to sign up to a national register would introduce an unnecessary and costly additional layer of bureaucracy.
Mandatory licensing is already in place for higher risk rental properties, larger houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). We consulted extensively on changes to the scope of mandatory licensing. There was broad support for extending this to include all HMOs with five or more occupiers. We published our response to our HMO reforms consultation in December 2017, and laid The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018 in February. Where there are problems with smaller HMOs in a particular area, local housing authorities have the discretionary power to introduce additional HMO licensing.
Local housing authorities are also able to introduce selective licensing of landlords in targeted areas to tackle specific problems, as long as the statutory requirements are met. We have committed to a review of selective licensing and will announce further details on the review after Easter recess.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of whether uncertainty around the future status of non-UK EU citizens in the UK will lead to discrimination in access to housing; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
No assessment has been made. However, the government has been clear that providing certainty for EU nationals in the UK is a priority.