Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 make an assessment of the adequacy of arrangements for standards enforcement in local government.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is actively considering options to strengthen the standards regime for local government and provide councils with more effective means to address serious misconduct by elected members. We want to give local leaders the tools they need to establish and maintain a strong ethical culture within their authority, and give the people they serve the confidence that local democracy works for them.
Our intention is to engage with local authorities, sector representative bodies, and other key stakeholders in due course to ensure a wide range of views are heard.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of people qualify for the single-person household council tax discount.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The latest available data for October 2023 shows there were approximately 8.6 million households in receipt of a single person discount, this represents approximately a third of all households liable for council tax in England. This data is available here: Council Taxbase 2023 in England.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 increase the supply of social rented homes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. Our aspiration is to ensure that, in the first full financial year of this Parliament (2025-26), the number of Social Rent homes is rising rather than falling.
Our proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework include setting a clear expectation that housing needs assessments must consider the needs of those requiring Social Rent homes, and that local authorities should specify their expectations on Social Rent delivery as part of broader affordable housing policies.
We have asked Homes England and the Greater London Authority to maximise the number of Social Rent homes in allocating the remaining Affordable Homes Programme funding. The Government has started to review the increased Right to Buy discounts introduced in 2012, on which we will bring forward more details and secondary legislation to implement changes in the autumn. We have also announced new flexibilities for how councils can use their Right to Buy receipts to deliver replacement homes; these flexibilities will be in place for an initial 24 months, subject to review.
We are committed to setting out details of future Government investment in social and affordable housing at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 take steps to ensure that local authorities work collaboratively when preparing local plans.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities should already be working together when preparing development plans under the current plan making system as the Duty to Cooperate remains in place.
The consultation on proposed reforms to the NPPF published on 31 July included proposals to strengthen co-operation between local authorities on the sharing of unmet housing need and other strategic issues.
It also sought views on our proposed intention to introduce mandatory mechanisms for cross-boundary co-operation with a view to moving to a model of universal strategic planning coverage within the next five years.