Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to ensure that local authorities remain democratically accountable for the provision of social care, in the context of her Department's plans for devolution.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government has no intention of changing local authorities’ democratic accountability for provision of social care. As set out in the English Devolution White Paper, we will reset the relationship with local government, to give the sector more autonomy and put councils on the road to recovery.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to ensure that local authorities in rural areas receive higher levels of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26, in the context of her Department's plans to repurpose funding allocated for the Rural Services Delivery Grant.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is absolutely committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Places with a significant rural population will on average receive around a 5% increase in their Core Spending Power next year, which is a real terms increase. No council will see a reduction – and new funding will be available to rural areas in 2025-26 through guaranteed EPR payments.
The Rural Services Delivery Grant does not properly account for need and a large number of predominantly rural councils receive nothing from it – that’s clearly not right and a sign we need to allocate funding more effectively. The government is keen to hear from councils about how best to consider the impact of rurality on the costs of service delivery, and demand, as part of our longer term consultations on local authority funding reform.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 the next local government finance settlement includes additional funding to meet higher costs arising from changes to (a) the national minimum wage and (b) employer National Insurance contributions for (i) social care, (ii) respite, (iii) hospice, (iv) charitable, (v) occupational and (vi) other health providers that have been contracted by (A) local authorities and (B) the NHS.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We recognise the challenges that local authorities are facing. We have listened to voices across the sector and we prioritised local government at the Budget, where we announced over £4 billion in additional funding for local government services, including £1.3 billion which will go through the Settlement.
Overall, the provisional Settlement will mean local government receives an around 3.2% increase overall in Core Spending Power. This is a real terms increase. The government has committed to provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional employer NICs costs. This applies to those directly employed by the public sector, including local government.
We will set out further details at the provisional Settlement in December.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 (a) assess and (b) prevent unauthorised sub-letting of social housing for holiday lets.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to supporting landlords to tackle the small minority of social tenants who, by cheating the system, deprive those in need of a social home.
Under existing legislation, it is a criminal offence to sub-let social housing without the landlord’s permission. The courts are also able to award the social landlord the profit the tenant has made from their unlawful sub-letting.
Social landlords are encouraged to take a proactive approach to tackling fraud in their stock. If the tenant no longer occupies the property as their only or principal home, they also risk losing their secure or assured status as a tenant and their home.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 bring empty properties back into use; whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) introducing (i) incentives and (ii) penalties to encourage property owners to bring empty properties back into use and (b) making a proportion of her target for new housing the bringing into use of empty properties from existing housing stock.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 6686 on 14 October 2024.