Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 12 August 2020 on permitted development rights.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The response was sent on Thursday 1 October.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to write to McComb Students to encourage that company to respond to correspondence from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 20 April 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We encourage all accommodation providers to communicate clearly with students. However, the Department is unable to intervene in individual cases of correspondence.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 27 March 2020 on UV light.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
This policy is the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The letter the Hon. Member refers to in her question has been transferred to DHSC and a response will be sent from that Department.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support the most vulnerable as part of (a) Test and Trace, (b) Local Lockdowns and (c) the Government's programme of economic recovery after the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We are working with other government departments to support local authorities in responding to additional vulnerability created by the COVID-19 outbreak through financial support, as well as engaging civil society and supermarkets to provide further assistance, including access to food and essential supplies.
The Government has also confirmed an additional £63 million for local authorities to help people who are struggling financially due to the impact of COVID-19.
We are working with DHSC to support local authorities to respond to COVID-19 outbreaks by ensuring capacity and accessibility is available for testing vulnerable groups. The Test and Trace scheme ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus can quickly be tested to find out if they have the virus, and also includes targeted asymptomatic testing of NHS and social care staff and care home residents.
The Government has always been clear that it will continually monitor the transmission of the virus in our communities and, if rates rise too much, our advice to those who are clinically extremely vulnerable may change. The Government is committed to supporting those shielding.
I have held 6 meetings of the Economic Recovery Working Group, which brings together local growth partners to discuss emerging themes and concerns across the country.
As a subset of the official-level Economic Recovery Working Group, which sits alongside the ministerial group and has met 11 times, officials are establishing 5 locally led task and finish groups to bring together local partners on specific recovery challenges, to foster strong collaboration between national and local partners and understand the levers we need to pull to support recovery.
We have written out to M9 mayors to ask them to coordinate economic recovery planning for their areas and encouraged them to focus initially on restarting the economy alongside Government social distancing guidelines.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) local resilience forums and (b) local authorities can meet the needs of vulnerable individuals as part of (i) Test and Trace, (ii) local lockdowns and (iii) local recovery from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
MHCLG is in regular contact with local resilience forums (LRFs) across England, with MHCLG attending both tactical and strategic coordinating groups as necessary. Local authorities, as part of the LRF, will consider the needs of vulnerable individuals as they plan their response to, and recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak.
We are working with other Government departments to support local authorities to respond to additional vulnerability created by the Covid-19 outbreak through financial support, engaging civil society and supermarkets to provide further assistance, including access to food and essential supplies.
The Government has also confirmed an additional £63 million for local authorities to help those who are struggling financially due to the impact of Covid-19. This will allow authorities to step in and provide discretionary financial help to those facing severe hardship due to covid-19 and help them to pay for food and other necessities.
We are working with DHSC to support local authorities to respond to Covid-19 outbreaks by ensuring capacity and accessibility is available for testing vulnerable groups. The Test and Trace scheme ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) can quickly be tested to find out if they have the virus, and also includes targeted asymptomatic testing of NHS and social care staff and care home residents.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that (a) local resilience forums and (b) local authorities (i) engage and (ii) collaborate with the local voluntary and community sector to ensure coordinated and holistic support is provided to people affected by ?the covid-19? outbreak as part of (A) Test and Trace, (B) local lockdown policy and (C) as part of the Government's strategy for economic recovery.
Answered by Simon Clarke
MHCLG is in regular contact with local resilience forums (LRFs) across England, with MHCLG attending both tactical and strategic coordinating groups as necessary. Local authorities, as part of the LRF, will consider the needs of vulnerable individuals as they plan their response, and recovery, from the Covid-19 outbreak.
We are working with other Government departments to support local authorities to respond to additional vulnerability created by the Covid-19 outbreak through financial support, engaging civil society and supermarkets to provide further assistance, including access to food and essential supplies.
The Government has also confirmed an additional £63 million for local authorities to help those who are struggling financially due to the impact of Covid-19. This will allow authorities to step in and provide discretionary financial help to those facing severe hardship due to Covid-19 and help them to pay for food and other necessities.
We are working with DHSC to support local authorities to respond to Covid-19 outbreaks by ensuring capacity and accessibility is available for testing vulnerable groups. The Test and Trace scheme ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) can quickly be tested to find out if they have the virus, and also includes targeted asymptomatic testing of NHS and social care staff and care home residents
Meetings of the Economic Recovery Working Group, which brings together local growth partners to discuss emerging themes and concerns across the country, have been held at both official and ministerial level. Officials will also be establishing 5 locally led task and finish groups to bring together local partners on specific recovery challenges, to foster strong collaboration between national and local partners and understand how we can support recovery.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to collaborate with Cabinet colleagues to provide (a) food and (b) other humanitarian support for vulnerable people as part of (a) Test and Trace, (b) Local Lockdowns and (c) the Government's programme of economic recovery after the covid1-9 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We are working with other Government departments and supporting local authorities to respond to additional vulnerability created by the COVID-19 outbreak through financial support, as well as engaging civil society and supermarkets to provide further assistance, including access to food and essential supplies.
The Government has also confirmed an additional £63 million for local authorities to help those who are struggling financially due to the impact of COVID-19.
We have worked with Defra to provide approximately 3.5 million free food parcels in total, and currently around 250,000 each week, to people in England who are shielding and have said they need support getting essential food supplies.
The Government has also announced up to £16 million to provide food for charities and other organisations supporting those who are struggling financially as a result of coronavirus.
As part of this, Defra has also opened up the £3.5 million Food Charities Grant Fund for front-line food aid charities, offering grants up to £100,000 to support charities to continue to provide food to vulnerable people.
We are working with DHSC to support local authorities to respond to Covid-19 outbreaks by ensuring capacity and accessibility is available for testing vulnerable groups. The Test and Trace scheme ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus can quickly be tested to find out if they have the virus, and also includes targeted asymptomatic testing of NHS and social care staff and care home residents.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure local authorities have the (a) responsibility, (b) funding and (c) guidance to provide (i) food, (ii) shelter and (iii) emotional support as part of the Government's (A) programme of response and recovery in response to the covid-19 outbreak and (B) planning for future emergencies.
Answered by Simon Clarke
My Department has been working closely with local councils and sector representing organisations throughout the response to this crisis to understand the challenges they face. We have a number of established engagement channels in place to help ensure effective communication.
We are providing local authorities with an unprecedented package of support, allocating £4.3billion of support for expenditure pressures, including £3.7 billion of un-ringfenced grants and the £600 million Infection Control Fund.
The Government announced up to £16 million to provide food for charities and other organisations supporting those who are struggling financially as a result of coronavirus.
£3.2 million in emergency funding for local authorities has also been announced to support vulnerable rough sleepers?. Nearly 15,000 vulnerable people have been housed in emergency accommodation, including hotels, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Building on this,?we?announced that Dame Louise Casey is spearheading a Taskforce to lead the next phase of the Government’s support for rough sleepers during this pandemic.
On 24 May, the?Secretary of State?announced?plans for thousands of long-term, safe homes?to support many of the?vulnerable rough sleepers who have been supported during the Covid-19 pandemic. This?unprecedented?commitment?– the biggest of its kind since the Government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative?began?– will be backed by?£160?million?in 2020/21 to inject 3,300 new units of accommodation?into the system over the following 12 months, part of?6,000 in total.
On 24?June?we ?announced that we are?providing local authorities with?a further?£105 million?to enable them?to?best?support those placed into emergency accommodation during the pandemic.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that (a) at-risk and (b) vulnerable individuals (i) with irregular immigration status, (ii) who are homeless and (c) are victims of labour and sexual exploitation are provided with adequate accommodation during local covid-19 lockdowns.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable people and have acted decisively to ensure that we support everyone through this pandemic.
We are ensuring local authorities are supported, with £3.2 million in targeted funding to help support individuals who are sleeping rough off the streets, and an additional £3.7 billion provided to local authorities as part of the wider Government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This funding has been provided to help local authorities to reduce risks to public health and to support individuals on the basis of need.
We are aware of concerns about those with no recourse to public funds experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis.
The legal position on those with no recourse to public funds has not been amended.
On 6 April, in line with Public Health England guidance and social distancing measures, the Safeguarding Minister announced that all modern slavery victims accommodated by the Victim Care Contract would not be required to move on from their Government-funded accommodation for a period of three months.
On 24 May, the Housing Secretary announced plans for thousands of long-term, safe homes to support many of the vulnerable rough sleepers who have been supported during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, vulnerable rough sleepers taken off the streets during the pandemic can get the specialist support they need to rebuild their lives. This unprecedented commitment, the biggest of its kind since the Government's Rough Sleeping Initiative began, will be backed by £160 million in 20/21 to inject 3,300 new units of accommodation into the system over the following 12 months, part of 6,000 in total.
In addition, on 24 June the Housing Secretary announced that we are providing local authorities with a further £105 million to enable them to best support the almost 15,000 vulnerable people placed into emergency accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government recognises that these are unprecedented times, and expects local authorities to support people who are sleeping rough, and also to minimise unnecessary risks to public health, acting within the law.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will issue guidance on ensuring that clinically and extremely vulnerable are supported in areas that have local covid-19 lockdown restrictions imposed on them.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has always been clear that it will continually monitor the transmission of the virus in our communities and, if rates rise too much, our advice to those who are shielding may change.
For those shielding in Leicester, the guidance published on 23 June remains in place and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable should continue to follow it.
The Government is committed to supporting all those who are shielding.