Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has issued recent guidance on liability for the costs of preparing a building safety case on cladding remediation requirements.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As part of the new building safety regime, all those accountable for higher-risk buildings are required to assess and manage building safety risks for their building, and prepare a safety case report which will be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator. The Building Safety Regulator produced guidance on developing a safety case and on preparing a safety case report which can be found at: Preparing a building assessment certificate application - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has issued guidance on liability for the costs of preparing a building safety case on cladding remediation requirements.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As part of the new building safety regime, all those accountable for higher-risk buildings are required to assess and manage building safety risks for their building, and prepare a safety case report which will be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator. The Building Safety Regulator produced guidance on developing a safety case and on preparing a safety case report which can be found at: Preparing a building assessment certificate application - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Installing chess tables in parks and public spaces: prospectus, published on 1 September 2023, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional funding to local authorities for chess pieces to accompany the chess tables.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
85 local authorities that received Levelling Up Parks Fund funding were invited to apply for the chess tables funding. In total, 55 local authorities applied for the funding. We have provided funding to those 55 local authorities to install 99 chess tables across England.
We have asked local authorities to consider how the location they choose creates new opportunities, helps to strengthen relationships, builds local social cohesion and provides opportunities for people to come together in a joint activity.
Prior to the announcement of funding, we engaged stakeholders across Government, as well as local authorities and the English Chess Federation.
Local authorities know their communities best and are best placed to manage the use and assess the effects of the chess tables locally, if they choose to do so.
Any decisions to provide chess sets are for local authorities to take.
Further announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to ensure that newly-installed chess tables funded by his Department are used for their intended purpose.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
85 local authorities that received Levelling Up Parks Fund funding were invited to apply for the chess tables funding. In total, 55 local authorities applied for the funding. We have provided funding to those 55 local authorities to install 99 chess tables across England.
We have asked local authorities to consider how the location they choose creates new opportunities, helps to strengthen relationships, builds local social cohesion and provides opportunities for people to come together in a joint activity.
Prior to the announcement of funding, we engaged stakeholders across Government, as well as local authorities and the English Chess Federation.
Local authorities know their communities best and are best placed to manage the use and assess the effects of the chess tables locally, if they choose to do so.
Any decisions to provide chess sets are for local authorities to take.
Further announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of Levelling Up funding was provided to cultural activities in the 2022-23 financial year; and how much and what proportion of planned funding for cultural activities was unallocated in the same period.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Culture Top Slice of the Levelling Up Fund has now been allocated. Details were set out at Budget. Further announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Major investment to transform future of English chess announced, published on 22 August 2023, whether he plans to assess the impact of funding chess tables on (a) levels of loneliness and (b) people's problem solving skills.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
85 local authorities that received Levelling Up Parks Fund funding were invited to apply for the chess tables funding. In total, 55 local authorities applied for the funding. We have provided funding to those 55 local authorities to install 99 chess tables across England.
We have asked local authorities to consider how the location they choose creates new opportunities, helps to strengthen relationships, builds local social cohesion and provides opportunities for people to come together in a joint activity.
Prior to the announcement of funding, we engaged stakeholders across Government, as well as local authorities and the English Chess Federation.
Local authorities know their communities best and are best placed to manage the use and assess the effects of the chess tables locally, if they choose to do so.
Any decisions to provide chess sets are for local authorities to take.
Further announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department held discussions with relevant stakeholders prior to the announcement of funding for local authorities to install chess tables in public spaces.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
85 local authorities that received Levelling Up Parks Fund funding were invited to apply for the chess tables funding. In total, 55 local authorities applied for the funding. We have provided funding to those 55 local authorities to install 99 chess tables across England.
We have asked local authorities to consider how the location they choose creates new opportunities, helps to strengthen relationships, builds local social cohesion and provides opportunities for people to come together in a joint activity.
Prior to the announcement of funding, we engaged stakeholders across Government, as well as local authorities and the English Chess Federation.
Local authorities know their communities best and are best placed to manage the use and assess the effects of the chess tables locally, if they choose to do so.
Any decisions to provide chess sets are for local authorities to take.
Further announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many local authorities submitted bids for funding for new chess tables.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
85 local authorities that received Levelling Up Parks Fund funding were invited to apply for the chess tables funding. In total, 55 local authorities applied for the funding. We have provided funding to those 55 local authorities to install 99 chess tables across England.
We have asked local authorities to consider how the location they choose creates new opportunities, helps to strengthen relationships, builds local social cohesion and provides opportunities for people to come together in a joint activity.
Prior to the announcement of funding, we engaged stakeholders across Government, as well as local authorities and the English Chess Federation.
Local authorities know their communities best and are best placed to manage the use and assess the effects of the chess tables locally, if they choose to do so.
Any decisions to provide chess sets are for local authorities to take.
Further announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the balance of risk between the buyer and seller of a house when entering a contract.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed to reforming the home buying and selling process and has set its intent to work with industry to ensure the better availability of essential property information upfront, in a digital format. As a result, buyers will have all the critical information they need to know before making an offer on a property, which should lead to an increased level of commitment once an offer is accepted.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2023 to Question 142735 on Housing: Disability, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to encourage estate agents to publish information on whether properties they are selling are accessible for wheelchair users.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Departmental officials work with housing stakeholders who are considering the question of market place visibility of wheelchair-accessible homes. There are other stakeholders working on compiling their own registers of accessible housing.