Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to involve young people with lived experience of homelessness in the development of the cross-departmental homelessness strategy.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As part of the development of the cross-Government homelessness strategy the Government has engaged representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts, including those who have lived experience.
The Government hosted a series of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the strategy. Young people with lived experience of homelessness were included in this work.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to reduce reliance on temporary accommodation.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 51683 on 19 May 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of homelessness since July 2024.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local housing authorities report their homelessness activities under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) by completing the quarterly Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (H-CLIC) statistical return. You can find a link to the latest data, commentary and technical notes on collections here Research and statistics - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how often the inter-ministerial group on homelessness meets.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Inter-Ministerial Group on homelessness meets as often as is required to develop the Government’s long-term homelessness strategy. The most recent meeting took place on Tuesday 13 May 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will meet with representatives from the youth homelessness sector to discuss a dedicated chapter on youth homelessness in the proposed policy paper on homelessness.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high, and I recognise the unique challenges young people face in securing stable housing. The Government has engaged with stakeholders within the youth homelessness sector to discuss the needs of this cohort as we work to develop a long-term, cross-Government homelessness strategy to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. I will be continuing this engagement with stakeholders to discuss what is needed to address youth homelessness.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a national Supporting People programme.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are best placed to decide how their funding is spent locally. The Government has a delivered a Settlement that begins to fix the foundations of local government by providing significant investment redirecting funding towards the services and places that need it most. The Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate her Department has made of the number of houses that will be built by the end of 2025.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 36228 on 14 March 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether there are obligations on landlords in relation to the rent they charge if their property has been improved with a grant under the (a) Energy Company Obligation, (b) Boiler Upgrade Scheme and (c) Warm Homes: Local Grant.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Energy Company Obligation schemes do not place obligations on landlords in relation to the rent they charge if their property has been improved.
Currently, private landlords in England and Wales are eligible to apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, with regulations setting out the full eligibility criteria. These do not place any requirements in relation to rent.
Warm Homes: local grant requires landlords to declare that they will not raise rents as a direct result of the upgrades being installed funded by government grants. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is monitoring the impact of this scheme including on rents and may make changes if needed.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help councils (a) re-establish Housing Revenue Accounts and (b) become the direct provider of new council homes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
If a local authority has over 199 social and affordable homes, it must open a Housing Revenue Account (HRA), and we invite any council that is considering this to engage with the Department.
We know from our engagement with non-HRA holding councils, that many would like to increase their current levels of housing delivery, but that the cost of opening a HRA can make this difficult. That is why I have asked my officials to explore whether the current threshold is set at the right level, or if a different threshold would enable councils to reach a level of housing provision that would better enable them to meet the costs of opening and managing an HRA.
In 2023-24, councils delivered just over 8,950 affordable homes. We want to support all councils – both HRA holding and non-HRA holding – to boost their levels of direct delivery so that we can achieve the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. We have begun this process through a series of measures designed to enhance councils’ capacity, capability, and confidence to build again at scale, as detailed in my answer to Question UIN 31737 on 27 February 2025.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department will take to ensure local authorities are adequately resourced to improve standards in the private rented sector.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Through the Renters’ Rights Bill, the government is strengthening local authorities’ enforcement powers and extending and increasing ring-fenced civil penalties to support a ‘polluter pays’ approach.
In accordance with the New Burdens Doctrine, we will ensure additional net costs on local authorities created by our reforms are fully funded.
We will continue to explore how best we can create a sustainable funding system for private rented sector enforcement over the long-term, including through fees.