Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much funding his Department awarded to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In England, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will be delivered over the strategic geographies of Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, and district councils and unitary authorities elsewhere.
The West Midlands Combined Authority is the lead authority for the strategic geography covering the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and will be responsible for delivering UKSPF. Its UKSPF allocation amounts to £105 million over the three years (including the Multiply programme).
The allocations for the Fund have been published on GOV.UK and include how allocations for strategic geographies have been reached.
While the lead authority will have overall responsibility for the Fund, individual local authorities may take responsibility for a particular UKSPF intervention or policy, where this reflects the right approach to local needs.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to support local authorities to ensure there is an adequate provision of publicly available disabled toilets.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Changing Places Fund forms part of the National Disability Strategy launched in 2021. The Strategy made a public commitment to make £30 million capital funding available over 3 years to unitary and district councils in England with the objective to increase both the number and geographic spread of Changing Places Toilets (CPTs) and to provide them in venues of greatest need. Changing Places Toilets unlike standard accessible toilets, have an adult changing bench and hoist facilities as well as extra space for carers.
The CPF prospectus was published in July 2021 inviting unitary and district authorities to submit an expression of interest.
Following the outcome of the Round 1 assessment process the government has announced that 191 unitary and district councils across England have been allocated £23.5 million of funding to increase the number and spread of Changing Places Toilet facilities across England.
A further round of the Changing Places Fund is anticipated later in 2022.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
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 25 February to Question 126535 on European Social Fund and UK Shared Prosperity Fund, if he will list the types of organisations his Department plans to consult to inform the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund prospectus in the Spring.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have engaged widely with stakeholders across a range of sectors and from all four nations of the UK. In summer 2021 we held roundtables with stakeholders from the following sectors: Local Business, Environment and Sustainability, Rural, Skills, Employment, Communities & Place and Voluntary & Community.
In England, Scotland and Wales, local government will be given responsibility for developing an investment plan for approval by the UK Government, and for delivery of the Fund thereafter. To inform our plans, we have engaged widely with: local authorities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland including District Councils, County Councils, Unitary Councils, Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, since local authorities will deliver the funds and submit investment plans for their area (UKG will have oversight of the Fund in Northern Ireland). We have also engaged strategically through the Local Government Association, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Welsh Local Government Association, Northern Ireland Local Government Association and other Government departments.
In Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland we have also engaged constructively with the devolved governments.
Finally, and drawing on the information set out in the UK Shared Prosperity Pre-Launch Guidance, each lead local authority is encouraged to start identifying a diverse range of local stakeholders, appropriate groups and organisations to represent cross-sector voices.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the success of district councils on implementing the Everyone In campaign in the early stages of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Councils have made a tremendous effort working with their local partners to support those experiencing rough sleeping throughout the pandemic and I would like to thank them wholeheartedly for their efforts.
The Annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot for 2020 published on 25 February showed there were 2,688 people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2020, which is a 37% decrease from the previous year.
Our work to support people off the streets and protect the most vulnerable from COVID-19 continues and we are committed to ending rough sleeping for good. The Government is spending more than £800 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping this year alone.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with district councils on the development of county deals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
District council representatives were invited to an online seminar held by the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government on July 27 2021. Since then a series of meetings have taken place between local representatives, officials and ministers to understand areas’ proposals for county deals; district councils were welcome at these meetings. In discussions thus far, we have been pleased to see collaboration between county and district councils on devolution proposals to deliver better outcomes for their area. Further details on county deals will be set out in the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which district council leaders he has directly engaged regarding the development of county deals.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
District council representatives were invited to an online seminar held by the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government on July 27 2021. Since then a series of meetings have taken place between local representatives, officials and ministers to understand areas’ proposals for county deals; district councils were welcome at these meetings. In discussions thus far, we have been pleased to see collaboration between county and district councils on devolution proposals to deliver better outcomes for their area. Further details on county deals will be set out in the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have held discussions with representatives of district councils on the development of county deals.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
District council representatives were invited to an online seminar held by the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government on July 27 2021. Since then a series of meetings have taken place between local representatives, officials and ministers to understand areas’ proposals for county deals; district councils were welcome at these meetings. In discussions thus far, we have been pleased to see collaboration between county and district councils on devolution proposals to deliver better outcomes for their area. Further details on county deals will be set out in the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) effectiveness of the that role district councils played in the rapid deployment of the £9 billion covid-19 business support grants programme and (b) impact that role had on preserving businesses and jobs; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government has introduced an unprecedented package of support for businesses, including grants for those businesses that are required to close, or which are severely affected by the restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives. Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has allocated a total of over £26 billion on business grants. All Covid-19 Business Grant schemes have been administered through lower tier local authorities in England
The Government recognises the important and valuable contribution that local government employees make to the delivery of excellent public services, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has presented real and complex challenges for local authorities and has put their resources under pressure.
The Government continues to work closely with local authorities in England to support the implementation of business grants during the Covid-19 pandemic and monitor the distribution of grant funds.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of available nursery places in (a) Canterbury constituency, (b) Canterbury district, during the (i) 2021-22 and (ii) 2022-23 school year.
Answered by Will Quince
Department for Education officials monitor the sufficiency of childcare places in England through a combination of regular surveys, telephone calls and email contact with local authority early years teams. We have not seen councils reporting any substantial place supply issues, and we have not seen a substantial number of parents unable to secure a childcare place this term or since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020. Kent County Council, which holds the statutory duty to secure sufficient childcare places in Canterbury, is not reporting any issues with childcare places at present.
According to Ofsted data published on 30 November, the number of places offered by non-domestic providers on the Early Years Register in the Kent County Council area has remained broadly stable between August 2015 and August 2021, as is true across England.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to South Cambridgeshire District Council not signing off its 2018-19 accounts and not publishing audited accounts for 2019-20 and 2020-21, what steps he is taking to help ensure that local councils are required to resource and prioritise the production of annual accounts within statutory deadlines.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
It is vital that local authorities continue to fulfil their responsibilities in the timely completion of audits to maintain transparency and assurance of local authority accounts.
It is for local authorities to do all they can to clear the backlog of delayed audits. In the meantime, the Department continues to prioritise measures to improve timeliness of completed audits, and have taken several steps to improve the situation, including extending the publication deadline for 2019/20 accounts from July to November to ease pressures on councils and audit firms as a result of COVID19. We are also making available an additional £15 million in 2021/22 to help affected bodies meet the growing cost pressures in the audit market and will consider in due course funding arrangements for future years. In October 2021, we laid regulations to allow for greater flexibility around fee-setting and fee variations.
In its capacity as interim system leader for local audit, the Department recently wrote to s151 officers of local authorities to stress the need for local authorities to prioritise clearing outstanding audits and the timely completion of draft accounts going forward in preparation for external audit.