Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 potential impact of reinstating the Community Housing Fund on levels of housing supply.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
When the Homes England Community Housing Fund (CHF) programme closed in 2020, it had built up a pipeline of project anticipating the delivery of 10,780 homes outside London. Within London, the CHF is being delivered by the Greater London Authority which, in January 2023, reported a development pipeline of 1194 homes. The 2021/22 round of the CHF was delivered by the Community Led Homes partnership, and has supported projects anticipating the delivery of 1263 homes.
The most recent round of the CHF closed in March 2022. The government is considering what support it may provide to the community-led housing sector and a decision will be made in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many units of housing were delivered as a result of funding under the Community Housing Fund.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
When the Homes England Community Housing Fund (CHF) programme closed in 2020, it had built up a pipeline of project anticipating the delivery of 10,780 homes outside London. Within London, the CHF is being delivered by the Greater London Authority which, in January 2023, reported a development pipeline of 1194 homes. The 2021/22 round of the CHF was delivered by the Community Led Homes partnership, and has supported projects anticipating the delivery of 1263 homes.
The most recent round of the CHF closed in March 2022. The government is considering what support it may provide to the community-led housing sector and a decision will be made in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 it his policy to reinstate the Community Housing Fund.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
When the Homes England Community Housing Fund (CHF) programme closed in 2020, it had built up a pipeline of project anticipating the delivery of 10,780 homes outside London. Within London, the CHF is being delivered by the Greater London Authority which, in January 2023, reported a development pipeline of 1194 homes. The 2021/22 round of the CHF was delivered by the Community Led Homes partnership, and has supported projects anticipating the delivery of 1263 homes.
The most recent round of the CHF closed in March 2022. The government is considering what support it may provide to the community-led housing sector and a decision will be made in due course.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing additional protections for survivors of domestic abuse during the cost-of-living crisis.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and is providing £26bn in cost-of-living support for 2023/24. This includes Cost of Living Payments for the most vulnerable. In addition, the Home office Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan invests over £230 million, including over £140 million to support victims.
For those who require extra support, the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. This is on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion. In England this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities use to help households with the cost of essentials. It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.
DWP recognises the pressures and challenges that this group face, which is why we have made Discretionary Housing Payments available to allow LAs to provide financial help with rental costs. These are aimed at a number of groups likely to be affected by welfare reforms, including individuals or families fleeing domestic violence and abuse. Discretionary Housing Payments may also be given to victims that have remained in their home, which has been adapted under a sanctuary scheme.
Jobcentres remain a safe place to share concerns and obtain advice and support for those impacted by domestic abuse.
- Shared Accommodation Rate
From 1 October 2022, up to 11,000 victims of domestic abuse and modern slavery on Universal Credit or Housing Benefit will be able to claim extra help towards their rental costs, as they will no longer be expected to share accommodation. These groups will be able to claim the higher one-bedroom rate of Local Housing Allowance. This is worth approximately £140 on average per month but the amount will vary depending on the area in which they live.
- Benefit cap levels increase
In April 2023, the government will also increase the benefit cap levels in line with inflation by 10.1%. The benefit cap levels will rise from £23,000 to £25,323 for families in Greater London and from £20,000 to £22,020 for families nationally. The levels for single households without children will rise from £15,410 to £16,967 in Greater London and from £13,400 to £14,753 nationally.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil service staff working are paid a rate equivalent to the real living wage, broken down by Government Department.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
In the majority of Government departments, at least 98% of staff earn a rate equivalent or greater than the 2021/22 Voluntary Living Wage (£11.05 if based in London, or £9.90 if based outside of London), as at 31 March 2022. In all departments the proportion is over 90%.
Table 1: Percentage of civil servants earning at or above the Voluntary Living Wage in March 2022 by Department
Departments (including agencies) | % at or above the VLW |
Attorney General’s Departments | 98.8% |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | 99.6% |
Cabinet Office | 99.7% |
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | 100.0% |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 99.9% |
Education | ≥99.9%¹ |
Transport | 92.5% |
Health and Social Care | 99.5% |
International Trade | ≥99.9%¹ |
Work and Pensions | 100.0% |
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 99.5% |
HM Revenue and Customs | 100.0% |
HM Treasury | 99.5% |
Home Office | 98.6% |
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities | 99.4% |
Defence | 96.3% |
Justice | 98.5% |
Other² | 99.1% |
Scottish Government | 100.0% |
Welsh Government | 100.0% |
¹ Exact figure suppressed due to low numbers
² Other includes staff in Government organisations not listed separately (CC, CMA, COD, ESTYN, FSA, HMLR, NCA, NIO, OFGEM, OFQUAL, OFSTED, OFWAT, ORR, SO, TNA, UKEF, UKSA, UKSC, WO)
Figures are based on the centrally held numbers and salaries of civil servants collected in the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey as at March 2022, and may differ from those provided by individual departments. Civil servants located outside the UK or with an unreported location (6,995) or without a reported hourly rate (an additional 150) have been excluded. Percentages are calculated on a headcount basis and rounded to the nearest percentage point, due to the rounding a very small number of employees in departments listed as 100% may earn below the Voluntary Living Wage.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the £3.15 billion funding to the Greater London Authority for the delivery of 90,000 housing starts by the 2020-21 financial year announced in the Autumn Statement 2016, how many and what proportion of these starts have been delivered as of 15 November 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Greater London Authority (GLA) housing statistics are published quarterly and can be found here.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the costs for the average leaseholder in a block of flats who has both cladding issues and other fire safety issues to rectify.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022 will ensure that the majority of leaseholders will have to pay no more than £10,000 (£15,000 in Greater London) over ten years for non-cladding remediation and interim measures, and zero for cladding remediation.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November 2022 to Question 75786 on Armed Forces: Housing, if he will provide a regional breakdown of the figures provided.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The table below shows a count of Service personnel who have occupied Permanent Single Living Accommodation (SLA) which incurred no rental charge as the accommodation was categorised below grade 4. The table has been broken down by Region as recorded on JPA. Please note - Service personnel can occupy more than one SLA in a calendar year.
Calendar Year | |||||
Region | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 to date |
Aberdeenshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | 10 | 10 |
Angus | 10 | 10 | 30 | 60 | 50 |
Antrim | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Argyll | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 |
Armagh | ~ | ||||
Avon | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Ayrshire | ~ | ~ | 10 | 10 | ~ |
Banffshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Bedfordshire | 10 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Berkshire | 40 | 20 | 60 | 50 | 40 |
Berwickshire | ~ | ~ | |||
Buckinghamshire | 40 | 60 | 50 | 60 | 80 |
Caithness | ~ | ~ | |||
Cambridgeshire | 50 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
Cheshire | 20 | 30 | 20 | 20 | 30 |
Clackmannanshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | ||
Cleveland | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Clwyd | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | 10 |
Cornwall | 90 | 90 | 60 | 50 | 50 |
County Antrim | ~ | ~ | ~ | 10 | ~ |
County Armagh | ~ | ||||
County Down | ~ | ~ | 10 | ~ | ~ |
County Durham | ~ | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
County Fermanagh | ~ | ||||
County Londonderry | ~ | ~ | |||
County Tyrone | ~ | ~ | |||
Cumbria | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 |
Derbyshire | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 |
Devon | 200 | 340 | 420 | 320 | 280 |
Dorset | 110 | 130 | 170 | 120 | 110 |
Down | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Dumfriesshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Dunbartonshire | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Durham | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 |
Dyfed | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | ~ |
East Lothian | ~ | ~ | ~ | ||
East Sussex | 10 | 10 | ~ | 10 | 10 |
East Yorkshire | 10 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 60 |
Essex | 20 | 40 | 60 | 60 | 50 |
Fife | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 |
Gloucestershire | 40 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 20 |
Greater London | 10 | 10 | 30 | 20 | 10 |
Greater Manchester | ~ | ~ | ~ | 10 | 20 |
Gwent | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Gwynedd | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | |
Hampshire | 430 | 420 | 480 | 460 | 360 |
Herefordshire | 20 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Hertfordshire | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Highland | ~ | ~ | |||
Humberside | ~ | ~ | |||
Inverness-Shire | 80 | 50 | 30 | ~ | ~ |
Isle of Man | ~ | ~ | ~ | ||
Isle of Skye | ~ | ||||
Isle of Wight | ~ | ~ | 10 | ~ | |
Kent | 30 | 40 | 40 | 50 | 30 |
Kincardineshire | ~ | ~ | |||
Kirkcudbrightshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Lanarkshire | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 |
Lancashire | 40 | 40 | 30 | 50 | 40 |
Leicestershire | 10 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 20 |
Lincolnshire | 120 | 70 | 130 | 70 | 60 |
Londonderry | ~ | ~ | |||
Lothian | ~ | ~ | ~ | ||
Merseyside | 20 | 20 | 20 | 30 | 20 |
Mid Glamorgan | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 |
Middlesex | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Midlothian | 10 | 10 | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Moray | ~ | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Morayshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | 10 | ~ |
Norfolk | 30 | 40 | 20 | 160 | 200 |
North Humberside | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
North Yorkshire | 100 | 70 | 200 | 260 | 310 |
Northamptonshire | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Northumberland | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Nottinghamshire | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 10 |
Oxfordshire | 510 | 540 | 470 | 370 | 320 |
Perthshire | ~ | ~ | |||
Powys | ~ | ~ | ~ | 10 | 20 |
Renfrewshire | 10 | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Roxburghshire | ~ | ||||
Rutland | 10 | 40 | 30 | 160 | 180 |
Shetland | ~ | ~ | |||
Shropshire | 40 | 20 | 20 | 40 | 30 |
Somerset | 520 | 540 | 530 | 490 | 400 |
South Glamorgan | 20 | 30 | 50 | 60 | 60 |
South Humberside | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
South Yorkshire | 20 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 |
Staffordshire | 20 | 30 | 30 | 40 | 20 |
Stirling | ~ | ||||
Stirlingshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Strathclyde | ~ | ~ | ~ | ||
Suffolk | 90 | 260 | 170 | 110 | 100 |
Surrey | 460 | 160 | 70 | 100 | 70 |
Sutherland | ~ | ||||
Tayside | ~ | ~ | ~ | ||
Tyne and Wear | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 10 |
Tyrone | ~ | ||||
Warwickshire | 50 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
West Glamorgan | 10 | ~ | ~ | 10 | 10 |
West Lothian | ~ | ~ | 10 | 10 | ~ |
West Midlands | 90 | 80 | 40 | 30 | 40 |
West Sussex | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 30 |
West Yorkshire | 20 | 20 | 20 | 30 | 30 |
Western Isles | ~ | ||||
Wigtownshire | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Wiltshire | 120 | 70 | 60 | 130 | 140 |
Worcestershire | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Overseas | 100 | 100 | 40 | 40 | 30 |
Not recorded | 1,100 | 1,160 | 1,320 | 1,180 | 1,100 |
Grand Total | 4,560 | 4,530 | 4,690 | 4,670 | 4,410 |
This information was extracted from the Joint Personnel Administration MI System on 15 November 2022.
All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 are rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
~ denotes 5 or fewer.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will ensure that ancient woodlands in the Greater London area continue to be protected in the event that they are located in an area which is to become an investment zone.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer my Rt. Hon. Friend to Question UIN71118, answered on the 2 November 2022.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 protect customers of construction companies who do not meet their safety obligations.
Answered by Paul Scully
Under the Building Safety Act 2022, those responsible for creating historical safety defects will bear the burden of costs for remediation and will be held accountable. Before attempting to pass on costs for historical safety remediation to leaseholders, landlords should consider whether any monies can be obtained from third parties in connection with the undertaking of the remediation work and, if so, to pursue this.
To enable them to pursue those responsible for defective work, we have brought forward an ambitious toolkit of measures through the Act. Civil claims can be brought against manufacturers of, or those who have supplied, defective or mis-sold construction products, or those supplied or marketed in breach of regulations, where these products have been incorporated in a dwelling and that has caused or contributed to a dwelling being unfit for habitation. This provision, which applies to all dwellings, has retrospective effect for cladding products with a limitation period of 30 years and prospective effect for all construction products with a limitation period of 15 years.
The Act also retrospectively extend the limitation period under section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 from 6 to 30 years and our extension of the reach of civil liability to associated companies of developers, including trusts, to ensure that some of the largest businesses in the sector who have used shell companies and other complex corporate structures can be pursued for contributions towards the remediation of historical safety defects. These provisions will help to ensure that all parties that play a part in creating building safety defects are in line for costs to rectify them.
Where it is not possible to identify those directly responsible for historical safety defects, the leaseholder protections spread the costs of decades of malpractice equitably across the system. The leaseholder protections in the Act mean that building owners and landlords must fix historical safety defects in their buildings above 11m or 5 storeys where they are, or are connected to, the developer. Qualifying leaseholders are protected from all cladding remediation costs, and those whose landlord group has a net worth of more than £2 million per relevant building or whose property is valued at below £325,000 in Greater London, or £175,000 elsewhere in England, are also protected from non-cladding and interim measure costs (including waking watch). Any contribution that is required from qualifying leaseholders for non-cladding remediation and interim measures is firmly capped and spread over 10 years, with costs already paid since 28 June 2017 counting towards the cap.