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986388

registered interest
date	12/10/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Councillors: Somerset
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the (a) dates on which Ministers in his Department had meetings with any elected Somerset County Councillors since 7 May 2015 and (b) the agendas and minutes of the matters discussed for each of those meetings.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	178520
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/10/2018 answer text <p>Details of Ministers' meetings with external organisations are published on <a href="http://www.gov.uk/" target="_blank">www.gov.uk</a> and can be found at the following link: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dclg-ministerial-data" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dclg-ministerial-data</a>. The information published includes all meetings up to and including March 2018. Meetings that have not yet been published, but are due to be in the future, include:</p><p>On 11 July 2018 I met with Councillors David Fothergill and Faye Purbeck from Somerset County Council and Councillor Harvey Siggs from Mendip District Council following their request for a meeting to discuss their thoughts about future organisation of Somerset. There was no minute of the meeting, though I wrote to the Councillors on 26 July 2018 as a follow up to the meeting, and I am placing a copy of that letter in the Library of the House.</p><p>Following my meeting with the Somerset councillors, I invited all the Somerset MPs to meet with me on 11 September 2018 to discuss their thoughts on future organisation of Somerset. Following that meeting I wrote to all those MPs with some additional information.</p><p>On 19 July 2018, Jake Berry MP attended a roundtable meeting about high streets and local growth with various councillors and businesses. Councillor David Fothergill from Somerset County Council was in attendance.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak question first answered 17/10/2018 14:47:22 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

985632

registered interest
date	11/10/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Second Homes: Council Tax
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the level of Council Tax receipts of the practice of second homeowners avoiding the payment of council tax by registering a second home as a business.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	178364
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/10/2018 answer text <p>Owners of second homes are generally liable for council tax. Only where a property is available for short-term lets for 140 days or more per financial year, is it considered a holiday-let, and therefore assessed for business rates instead. However, the Government is aware of concerns about holiday homes and is looking into this issue to see if the criteria under which holiday lets are valued for business rates are appropriate.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak question first answered 19/10/2018 09:17:43 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

984963

registered interest
date	10/10/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Holiday Accommodation: Non-domestic Rates
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will make an assessment of the adequacy of the procedures for assessing the liability of holiday lets for business rates.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	177781
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/10/2018 answer text <p>Holiday lets are a valuable part of the local business landscape. They are assessed for business rates if they are available for short-term lets for 140 days or more per financial year. This rule is widely understood and provides a clear method of deciding whether a property should be liable for council tax or business rates. It ensures that properties do not switch year-to-year between council tax and business rates merely due to success in letting out the property. However, the Department is aware of concerns about this criterion, and is considering whether it remains appropriate.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak question first answered 16/10/2018 14:19:01 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

886231

registered interest
date	18/04/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Unitary Councils
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons his Department has changed the lower parameter of a population of 300,000 for a unitary authority from being set only in guidance to being a requirement; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	136426
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2018 answer text <p>It is the statutory guidance, issued by the Secretary of State on 27 March 2018 under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which states that a proposal for unitary local government should seek to achieve unitary authorities with populations as a minimum substantially in excess of 300,000.</p><p>The Secretary of State has issued this guidance, including on population size, having regard to past reorganisations, the Northamptonshire County Council Best Value Inspection Report of March 2018, and research, including that from the County Councils Network in 2016 into lessons from previous unitarisations which found that the scale of a unitary council was key, with larger authorities able to deliver economies of scale while smaller unitary councils were more likely to be less resilient, putting key services at potential risk.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak grouped question UIN 136427 136428 question first answered 23/04/2018 15:27:18 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

886232

registered interest
date	18/04/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Unitary Councils
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the (a) reasons and (b) evidential basis are for the threshold of a population of 300,000 being chosen as a requirement for unitary authorities.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	136427
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2018 answer text <p>It is the statutory guidance, issued by the Secretary of State on 27 March 2018 under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which states that a proposal for unitary local government should seek to achieve unitary authorities with populations as a minimum substantially in excess of 300,000.</p><p>The Secretary of State has issued this guidance, including on population size, having regard to past reorganisations, the Northamptonshire County Council Best Value Inspection Report of March 2018, and research, including that from the County Councils Network in 2016 into lessons from previous unitarisations which found that the scale of a unitary council was key, with larger authorities able to deliver economies of scale while smaller unitary councils were more likely to be less resilient, putting key services at potential risk.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak grouped question UIN 136426 136428 question first answered 23/04/2018 15:27:18 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

886233

registered interest
date	18/04/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Unitary Councils
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for other unitary authorities of its requirement for the population of a unitary council at a minimum being substantially in excess of 300,000.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	136428
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2018 answer text <p>It is the statutory guidance, issued by the Secretary of State on 27 March 2018 under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which states that a proposal for unitary local government should seek to achieve unitary authorities with populations as a minimum substantially in excess of 300,000.</p><p>The Secretary of State has issued this guidance, including on population size, having regard to past reorganisations, the Northamptonshire County Council Best Value Inspection Report of March 2018, and research, including that from the County Councils Network in 2016 into lessons from previous unitarisations which found that the scale of a unitary council was key, with larger authorities able to deliver economies of scale while smaller unitary councils were more likely to be less resilient, putting key services at potential risk.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak grouped question UIN 136426 136427 question first answered 23/04/2018 15:27:18 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

861129

registered interest
date	13/03/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Local Government: Elections
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will permit people running in local council elections to put their electoral ward as their address for personnel security reasons.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	132278
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/03/2018 answer text <p>In its Response (Cm9578) published on the 14 March 2018, to the Committee on Standards in Public Life Review of Intimidation in Public Life, the Government accepts the Committee’s recommendation to remove the requirement for candidates standing as local councillors to have their home address published on the ballot paper, and will look to bring forward secondary legislation to achieve this at a suitable opportunity with the aim of effecting this change in time for the 2019 local elections. The intention is for this secondary legislation to replace the requirement for a specific address with an option to include a statement of residence based on an electoral area where the candidate lives.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak question first answered 16/03/2018 14:20:50 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

843763

registered interest
date	19/02/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Local Government: Dorset
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of the proposed future Dorset local government review.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	128201
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/02/2018 answer text <p>The assessment that the Secretary of State made on 7 November 2017, when the he announced that he was 'minded-to' implement the locally-led proposal for improving local government in Dorset, was that this proposal if implemented is likely to improve local government across the area.</p><p>I am now assessing the proposal afresh, carefully considering all of the representations I have received, and I intend to announce my final decision shortly with the aim of achieving the best result for the people of Dorset.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak grouped question UIN 128202 question first answered 22/02/2018 14:11:20 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

843764

registered interest
date	19/02/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Local Government: Dorset
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of the Future Dorset Proposal.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	128202
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/02/2018 answer text <p>The assessment that the Secretary of State made on 7 November 2017, when the he announced that he was 'minded-to' implement the locally-led proposal for improving local government in Dorset, was that this proposal if implemented is likely to improve local government across the area.</p><p>I am now assessing the proposal afresh, carefully considering all of the representations I have received, and I intend to announce my final decision shortly with the aim of achieving the best result for the people of Dorset.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak grouped question UIN 128201 question first answered 22/02/2018 14:11:20 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

843765

registered interest
date	19/02/2018
answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Local Government
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the average cost to the public purse of local authority mergers in the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	128203
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/02/2018 answer text <p>The three proposals for merging district councils, which the Department has been considering over the last 12 months, have been assessed as delivering annual savings ranging from £0.8 to £3.1 million with pay back periods for covering one off transition costs from 1 to 3 years.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak question first answered 22/02/2018 14:11:47 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse