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178457

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Community Relations: Bristol
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what projects in the City of Bristol have been supported by the Near Neighbours fund in each year since that fund was established; and how much that fund has awarded in total.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	223888
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/02/2015 answer text <p>The Near Neighbours programme does not operate in the City of Bristol. The programme operates in eight hubs around England and includes a small grants element alongside other activities aimed at building productive working relationships between people of different faiths. In total, since the programme was established in 2011, the Government has invested over £8 million with Church Urban Fund match-funding of £600,000. More information on the programme can be found here: <a href="http://www.cuf.org.uk/how-we-help/near-neighbours" target="_blank">http://www.cuf.org.uk/how-we-help/near-neighbours</a>.The Church Urban Fund also offers funding through the Together Grants programme, supporting faith based organisations to engage in social action, by supporting them to initiate or develop community work. The Church Urban Fund has made nearly two hundred grants in the Diocese of Bristol (including the city of Bristol and the surrounding areas), totalling more than £2.1 million.</p> answering member constituency Bristol West answering member printed Stephen Williams question first answered 12/02/2015 16:57:19 answering member 1492 label Biography information for Stephen Williams
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie

178458

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he has issued to local authorities about the use of (a) Twitter and (b) other social media to communicate with the public.
tabling member constituency	West Bromwich East
tabling member printed	Mr Tom Watson
uin	223808
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/02/2015 answer text <p>Digital and social media are an effective and low-cost way of communicating with the public.</p><p> </p><p>This Government has amended the law to strengthen the rights of the press and public to report and film council meetings using digital and social media. In August 2014, we published a plain English guide to help councils, the press and the public with these new rights.</p><p> </p><p>We made clear that there is no prohibition on councillors from tweeting and blogging at meetings, and they should be able to do so provided it is not disruptive and does not detract from the proper conduct of the meeting.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities should have regard to the local government Publicity Code, which seeks to prevent the misuse of taxpayer-funded resources, including social media.</p><p> </p><p>Notwithstanding, last June, Ministers challenged and criticised guidance to parish councils issued by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) that sought to prevent elected councillors from issuing media comments without prior written permission of the council. NALC has now produced a new Media Policy Example that takes into account the new national rules on filming and recording at parish and town council meetings.</p><p> </p><p>In December, we invited bids for local pilots to bring statutory notices into the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. This could include supporting the increased use of digital and social media by councils and commercial partners, as one of the ways that such notices could be improved and reformed.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 12/02/2015 16:49:07 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	1463 label Biography information for Lord Watson of Wyre Forest

178459

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Birmingham City Council
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2015 to Question 222916, what the total cost to Birmingham City Council will be of funding the Independent Improvement Panel.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hall Green
tabling member printed	Mr Roger Godsiff
uin	223766
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2015 answer text <p>As indicated in the Panel’s Terms of Reference agreed with the City Council, it will be supported by a secretariat provided jointly by Birmingham City Council and the Department for Communities and Local Government, and the expenses it incurs will be shared equally by the City Council and the Department.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 23/02/2015 16:09:02 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	304 label Biography information for Mr Roger Godsiff

178460

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Help to Buy Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many first time buyers have been assisted by the Help to Buy scheme in (a) Lancashire and (b) the UK.
tabling member constituency	Ribble Valley
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Evans
uin	223864
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/02/2015 answer text <p>This Government is committed to supporting people's aspirations to own their own home.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>By 31 December 2014, over 58,000 first time buyers in the UK had bought a home with the support of the Help to Buy schemes.</p><p> </p><p>In Lancashire, 2,089 families had bought a home using the support of the three Help to Buy schemes by 31 December 2014. The Government does not collate statistics on the number of first-time buyers for all Help to Buy schemes at a local authority level.</p><p> </p><p>The Department’s official statistics on sales for the respective Help to Buy schemes are available at:</p><p> </p><p>Help to Buy: Equity Loan (broken down by constituency, local authority (including first-time buyer), and postcode), to 31 December 2014: <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-monthly-statistics" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-monthly-statistics</a></p><p> </p><p>Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee (broken down by constituency, local authority and postcode), to 30 September 2014: <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantee-scheme-quarterly-statistics-october-2013-to-september-2014" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantee-scheme-quarterly-statistics-october-2013-to-september-2014</a></p><p> </p><p>Help to Buy: New Buy (broken down by local authority), to 31 December 2014: <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-and-help-to-buy-newbuy-statistics-april-2013-to-december-2014" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-buy-equity-loan-scheme-and-help-to-buy-newbuy-statistics-april-2013-to-december-2014</a> Figures are not available by constituency.</p> answering member constituency Great Yarmouth answering member printed Brandon Lewis question first answered 12/02/2015 16:54:10 answering member 4009 label Biography information for Sir Brandon Lewis
tabling member	474 label Biography information for Mr Nigel Evans

178461

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Local Government Finance: Sefton
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the level of Sefton Council's (a) allocated and (b) unallocated reserves.
tabling member constituency	Southport
tabling member printed	John Pugh
uin	223746
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2015 answer text <p>As at 31 March 2014, Sefton held £67.7 million in revenue reserves, of which £17.8 million was schools reserves and £49.9 million was non-ringfenced reserves. Of the non-ringfenced reserves, £39.7 million were earmarked reserves, and £10.2 million were unallocated reserves.</p><p> </p><p>These figures are taken from the Revenue Outturn form which has been completed by all local authorities in England and published at the following link;</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2013-to-2014-individual-local-authority-data-outturn" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2013-to-2014-individual-local-authority-data-outturn</a></p><p><br>We have encouraged councils to make creative use of reserves, such as &quot;invest to save&quot; projects to reduce long-term costs.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 23/02/2015 16:02:49 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	1454 label Biography information for John Pugh

178462

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Coastal Communities Fund
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities have bid for each round of the Coastal Communities Fund but have so far received no funding.
tabling member constituency	Southport
tabling member printed	John Pugh
uin	223747
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2015 answer text <p>The Coastal Communities Fund has had three bidding rounds to date, across the United Kingdom. My answer of 9 February 2015, PQ 223748, provided a list of areas which had received grants. I have placed in the Library of the House, a table listing the local authority areas from which bids have been received.</p><p>Ministers are not involved in the grant application or assessment process. The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for inviting and assessing applications to the Fund and makes recommendations to Ministers on which projects should be supported.</p><p>Whilst the Coastal Communities Fund is currently closed for further applications, I hope there will be further opportunities to support local schemes which have not benefitted from Government support to date.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 19/03/2015 15:45:11 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	1454 label Biography information for John Pugh

178463

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Coastal Communities Fund
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which coastal resorts have received support in more than (a) one round and (b) two rounds of coastal communities funding awards.
tabling member constituency	Southport
tabling member printed	John Pugh
uin	223748
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2015 answer text <p>The Coastal Communities Fund has had three bidding rounds to date. A table has been placed in the Library of the House giving details of 164 coastal communities across the UK that have received grants from the Fund in one, two or three bidding rounds. The table covers all grants awarded in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to date.</p><p> </p><p>In addition to the coastal communities in the table, 22 grants were awarded to projects in local authority areas, and a further five grants awarded to cross local authority projects including two long distance coastal footpaths, where we do not have details of the individual coastal communities they will help.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers are not involved in the grant application or assessment process. The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for inviting and assessing applications to the Fund and makes recommendations to Ministers on which projects should be supported.</p><p> </p><p>The Coastal Communities Fund is currently closed for further applications. No decisions have been taken yet on whether there will be further bidding rounds. This will be a matter for the next Spending Review. However, I hope there will be further opportunities to support local schemes which have not benefitted from Government support to date.</p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 06/03/2015 14:36:52 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	1454 label Biography information for John Pugh

178464

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Population
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of population growth on local government finance needs.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Lyn Brown
uin	223874
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2015 answer text <p>Parliament approved the Local Government Finance Report for 2015-16 on 10 February 2015. The settlement is fair to all; councils with the highest needs have higher spending power per household than those with lower needs. <br><br>The focus of the settlement has deliberately changed away from keeping authorities dependent on grant, to providing them with the tools they need to grow their economies. As a result, although we took into account relative needs when setting the baseline for the new system, we have frozen this to maximise the incentive effect. All councils can benefit from the incentives for growth we have put in place - the New Homes Bonus and business rates retention.<br><br></p><p>For example Newham’s retained income from Business Rates in 2013-14 was just under £7 million above its baseline funding level; and the authority's own forecasts suggest it will be over £10 million above its baseline funding level in 2014-15. In addition Newham's housing stock has increased by over 8,000 units over the period of the New Homes bonus scheme, providing a further £28 million of funding to the Borough in the years to 2015-16. <br><br><br></p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins grouped question UIN 223875 223876 question first answered 23/02/2015 16:12:55 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

178465

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Population
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to link local government finance settlements to ONS population growth figures.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Lyn Brown
uin	223875
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2015 answer text <p>Parliament approved the Local Government Finance Report for 2015-16 on 10 February 2015. The settlement is fair to all; councils with the highest needs have higher spending power per household than those with lower needs. <br><br>The focus of the settlement has deliberately changed away from keeping authorities dependent on grant, to providing them with the tools they need to grow their economies. As a result, although we took into account relative needs when setting the baseline for the new system, we have frozen this to maximise the incentive effect. All councils can benefit from the incentives for growth we have put in place - the New Homes Bonus and business rates retention.<br><br></p><p>For example Newham’s retained income from Business Rates in 2013-14 was just under £7 million above its baseline funding level; and the authority's own forecasts suggest it will be over £10 million above its baseline funding level in 2014-15. In addition Newham's housing stock has increased by over 8,000 units over the period of the New Homes bonus scheme, providing a further £28 million of funding to the Borough in the years to 2015-16. <br><br><br></p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins grouped question UIN 223874 223876 question first answered 23/02/2015 16:12:55 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

178466

registered interest
date	09/02/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Population
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to compensate (a) Newham, (b) other councils in East London and (c) other areas in the UK where population growth is above average for the increased demand for council services resulting from population growth.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Lyn Brown
uin	223876
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2015 answer text <p>Parliament approved the Local Government Finance Report for 2015-16 on 10 February 2015. The settlement is fair to all; councils with the highest needs have higher spending power per household than those with lower needs. <br><br>The focus of the settlement has deliberately changed away from keeping authorities dependent on grant, to providing them with the tools they need to grow their economies. As a result, although we took into account relative needs when setting the baseline for the new system, we have frozen this to maximise the incentive effect. All councils can benefit from the incentives for growth we have put in place - the New Homes Bonus and business rates retention.<br><br></p><p>For example Newham’s retained income from Business Rates in 2013-14 was just under £7 million above its baseline funding level; and the authority's own forecasts suggest it will be over £10 million above its baseline funding level in 2014-15. In addition Newham's housing stock has increased by over 8,000 units over the period of the New Homes bonus scheme, providing a further £28 million of funding to the Borough in the years to 2015-16. <br><br><br></p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins grouped question UIN 223874 223875 question first answered 23/02/2015 16:12:55 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown