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1052333

	registered interest
	date	31/01/2019
	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	Social Services: Children
	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 potential effects on children of not using the children’s services relative needs formula to distribute the social care support grant announced in Budget 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	215161
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/02/2019 answer text <p>At Autumn Budget 2019, the Chancellor made available £410 million in 2019/20 for social care services in local authorities – both adult and children’s social care. We proposed in the provisional local government finance settlement to distribute these resources based on the existing Adult Social Care relative needs formula, as the best available method. Consultation responses overwhelmingly supported this approach which was confirmed in the final settlement. Local authorities have welcomed the additional funding and the discretion to spend in a way which best fits their community’s needs.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak question first answered 06/02/2019 16:56:38 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

1240855

	registered interest
	date	06/10/2020
	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 Finance: Coronavirus
	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 he has made of the potential effect of the covid-19 outbreak on local authorities' finances.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	99597
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/10/2020 answer text <p>Councils across the country are supporting communities, protecting the most vulnerable and helping the NHS in our efforts to combat Covid-19. In order to meet these additional cost pressures, the Government has continued to support local authorities by delivering an unprecedented package of measures. So far, we have provided over £4.8 billion in funding for spending pressures, including £3.7 billion of un-ringfenced grants and £1.1 billion to help stop the spread of the virus in care homes. This underlines Government’s commitment to ensuring adult social care has the resources it needs to keep residents and staff safe. In addition, the Prime Minister has announced a further £1 billion of funding for local authorities, details of which will be announced shortly. <br> <br> In total, over £28 billion has already been committed to local areas to support councils, businesses and communities across government. This comprehensive package of support includes direct financial support and cashflow measures for councils, bus and tram services, support for the homeless and both grants and rates reliefs for businesses. <br> <br> We will continue to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on local government.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall question first answered 14/10/2020 13:20:19 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

1307984

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2021
	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	Housing: Insulation
	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 his plans are to increase the glazing renovation rate of existing houses.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	179044
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>Double glazing is a popular energy efficiency measure and the English Housing Survey suggests that more than 85% of properties in England are fully double glazed, with less than 4% having no double glazing. As such, there is limited potential for further energy savings because so much of the stock already has efficient windows. Nevertheless, there are other benefits to more efficient glazing such as reduced internal noise, and improving the remaining single glazed windows would contribute to lower emissions.</p><p>The Government is committed to improving the energy efficiency of all homes. As part of reaching Net Zero by 2050, the Clean Growth Strategy set out that all homes should reach EPC C by 2035 where that is cost effective, affordable, and practical.</p> answering member constituency Tamworth answering member printed Christopher Pincher question first answered 20/04/2021 16:38:29 answering member 4075 label Biography information for Christopher Pincher
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

1240852

	registered interest
	date	06/10/2020
	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: Property
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of commercial property investments made by local authorities in the UK.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	99595
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/10/2020 answer text <p>Local authorities borrow and invest under the Prudential Framework (the Framework) which is designed to ensure that the capital plans of local authorities are affordable, prudent and sustainable, while giving councils the freedom to set their own capital strategies. Government is responsible for ensuring the Framework remains effective in driving sound decision making, and collects appropriate data to monitor trends and identify risks, including from commercial investment activity. Government does not routinely undertake any assessment of the effectiveness of local decisions to borrow and invest; local authorities remain accountable to their electorate for managing their own investment strategies and meeting their best value duty. However, councils have to appropriately comply with the Framework’s statutory guidance, including the requirement to report performance against a set of metrics designed to demonstrate the objectives of the Framework are being met, and to publish an investment strategy.</p><p>Government is aware of recent trends where some local authorities are taking on high levels of debt to invest for commercial income, rather than for providing the functions of a council. We are clear that borrowing to invest for yield is not in keeping with the intent of the Framework and exposes councils and taxpayers to undue financial risk. We have already tightened our statutory guidance on investments to improve decision making, and we are now carefully considering the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee’s report on local authority investment in commercial property (July 2020) and what further interventions are needed.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall grouped question UIN 99596 question first answered 14/10/2020 13:21:12 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

1240853

	registered interest
	date	06/10/2020
	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: Property
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of the borrowing undertaken by local authorities to fund investments in commercial property.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	99596
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/10/2020 answer text <p>Local authorities borrow and invest under the Prudential Framework (the Framework) which is designed to ensure that the capital plans of local authorities are affordable, prudent and sustainable, while giving councils the freedom to set their own capital strategies. Government is responsible for ensuring the Framework remains effective in driving sound decision making, and collects appropriate data to monitor trends and identify risks, including from commercial investment activity. Government does not routinely undertake any assessment of the effectiveness of local decisions to borrow and invest; local authorities remain accountable to their electorate for managing their own investment strategies and meeting their best value duty. However, councils have to appropriately comply with the Framework’s statutory guidance, including the requirement to report performance against a set of metrics designed to demonstrate the objectives of the Framework are being met, and to publish an investment strategy.</p><p>Government is aware of recent trends where some local authorities are taking on high levels of debt to invest for commercial income, rather than for providing the functions of a council. We are clear that borrowing to invest for yield is not in keeping with the intent of the Framework and exposes councils and taxpayers to undue financial risk. We have already tightened our statutory guidance on investments to improve decision making, and we are now carefully considering the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee’s report on local authority investment in commercial property (July 2020) and what further interventions are needed.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall grouped question UIN 99595 question first answered 14/10/2020 13:21:12 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

1247373

	registered interest
	date	30/10/2020
	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	Planning Permission: Local Press
	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 he has made of the importance of advertising planning notices in local newspapers to (a) the elderly and vulnerable, (b) other local residents and (b) local media organisations.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	109304
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/11/2020 answer text <p>Local planning authorities are required to publicise certain types of planning applications in local newspapers as set out in Article 15 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.  In response to coronavirus restrictions, temporary regulations have been introduced to supplement the existing statutory publicity arrangements for planning applications. Local planning authorities now have the flexibility to take other reasonable steps to publicise applications if they cannot discharge the specific requirement for newspaper publicity – for instance, if the local newspaper is not now in circulation. These steps can include the use of social media and other electronic communications, such as local online news portals, and must be proportionate to the scale and nature of the proposed development. However, if a local planning authority is required to publicise a planning application in a local newspaper, and that paper is still in circulation, then they must continue to do so.</p> answering member constituency Tamworth answering member printed Christopher Pincher question first answered 09/11/2020 14:30:32 answering member 4075 label Biography information for Christopher Pincher
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

873552

	registered interest
	date	28/03/2018
	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	Temporary Accommodation
	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 information his Department holds on how much each local authority has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on temporary accommodation in the last three years; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	134666
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/04/2018 answer text <p>MHCLG publishes information on yearly local authority expenditure: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing</a>.</p><p>MHCLG also publishes regular statistics on rough sleeping, statutory homelessness, temporary accommodation and homelessness prevention and relief. These are published at national, London and local authority level. The latest statistics can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics</a>.</p><p>Flexible Homelessness Support Grant gives local authorities more control and flexibility in managing homelessness pressures. Unlike the DWP Temporary Accommodation Management Fee, which was a reactive payment that could only be used for particular types of Temporary Accommodation, this grant is upfront funding which can be used flexibly as part of councils’ resourcing for their homelessness strategies.</p><p>The grant forms part of the Government’s end to end approach to preventing and tackling homelessness. We are ring-fencing the grant of £615 million for three years to secure its investment in homelessness services and enable local authorities to focus on homelessness prevention.</p><p>It sits alongside other funding for homelessness, including the £316 million Homelessness Prevention funding and our £50 million homelessness prevention package.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 16/04/2018 15:30:33 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

1002698

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	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	Sleeping Rough: Private Rented Housing
	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 plans the Government has to support landlords in the private rented sector to let to people with a history of rough sleeping.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	188803
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/11/2018 answer text <p>On 10 October we launched the Private Rented Sector Access Fund which makes available £20 million for schemes that will help landlords in the private rented sector let to people who are, or at risk of becoming homeless and sleeping rough. In the rough sleeping strategy, published in August, we committed to deliver the Rapid Rehousing Pathway. This includes support for both increased tenancy sustainment support for rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping and funding for local lettings agencies to strengthen relationships between landlords and tenants.</p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 16/11/2018 14:43:01 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

1287740

	registered interest
	date	19/02/2021
	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	Planning: Public Consultation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the proposed changes to community input in planning at the local plan stage set out in the Planning for the future White Paper published in August 2020, what plans he has to maintain (a) local determinism and (b) the right of community voice in the future planning system.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	154991
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2021 answer text <p>Our proposal for a reformed planning system will make it simpler, quicker and more accessible for local people to engage with. We believe that the best way to bring forward new, significant development is by improving community engagement and input at an earlier stage in the process. Local councillors will have full involvement in deciding on the allocation of sites in Local Plans and on setting supporting design codes, and there will still be the opportunity for people to comment on planning applications where these are still required. We are currently reviewing and analysing responses to the Planning for the Future White Paper and will publish a response in the Spring setting out our decisions on the proposed way forward.</p> answering member constituency Tamworth answering member printed Christopher Pincher question first answered 01/03/2021 14:38:12 answering member 4075 label Biography information for Christopher Pincher
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman

982993

	registered interest
	date	08/10/2018
	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	Housing First: Young People
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government has plans to undertake a (a) trial and (b) evaluation of Housing First for under-25s, including people who are not entrenched rough sleepers.
	tabling member constituency	Harrow East
	tabling member printed	Bob Blackman
	uin	176253
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/10/2018 answer text <p>Piloting Housing First was a 2017 manifesto commitment and was first announced at the Autumn Budget 2017. It is an important element of the Government’s effort to end rough sleeping by 2027. It will build on the implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act, and the new Rough Sleeping Initiative that the previous Secretary of State announced on 30 March.</p><p>The Housing First Pilots that Government are funding in West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region combined authorities will provide support to rough sleepers with the most complex needs, regardless of their age. The £28 million funding also includes £2.7 million for the external evaluation of the pilots. This will ensure we have a robust evidence base for the effectiveness of the approach.</p><p>There are currently no plans to develop a trial and evaluation of Housing First specifically for under-25s. However, we are committed to preventing youth homelessness and ensuring that young people get the support they need. That is why we announced in our Rough Sleeping Strategy that we are launching a new Social Impact Bond (SIB) targeted at young people who are at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping.</p><p>The Young Futures Fund will be aimed at young people aged 18-24 who are homeless and not in education, employment and training, with the ultimate goal of improving their life outcomes by offering them the tailored wrap around support that they need. It will build on the successes of the Fair Chance Fund which supported over 1,900 homeless young people to improve accommodation, employment and education outcomes. We will take the learning from the Fair Chance Fund to inform our approach.</p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 16/10/2018 15:00:19 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	4005 label Biography information for Bob Blackman