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228689

registered interest
date	19/03/2015
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	Council Housing: City of Westminster
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the written submission from the Department for Communities and Local Government to the Supreme Court in support of Titian Nzolameso’s appeal against Westminster City Council’s decision to offer her accommodation near Milton Keynes.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5871
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>I am placing a copy of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s written submission in the case of Nzolameso v City of Westminster in the Library of the House. The Department's submission reflects our long-standing policy practice and guidance. We await the full judgment on this specific case.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 26/03/2015 13:12:51 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

228692

registered interest
date	19/03/2015
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	Homelessness: Tower Hamlets
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 9 March (HL5059), whether they will place in the Library of the House copies of their correspondence with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets about the number of homeless families with children in bed and breakfast accommodation beyond the six week limit.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5874
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2015 answer text <p>I refer the noble Lady to the answer given by my rt Hon Friend the former Minister of State for Housing (Grant Shapps) on 25 June 2012, <em>Official Report</em>, column 680W.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 25/03/2015 14:14:14 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

228693

registered interest
date	19/03/2015
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	Homelessness
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will resume the publication of homelessness statistical "live table" 783 giving details of the number of homeless households in each type of temporary accommodation by region.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5875
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement on 18 September 2012, <em>Official Report</em>, column 32WS, the Department no longer publishes statistics at a regional level. This follows the abolition of regional government by the Coalition, which does not believe that regions provide a coherent or meaningful framework for assessing public policy. Instead, our published statistics present, where relevant, other sub-national geographies which are more aligned with public policy.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is committed to preventing and tackling homelessness. We have increased homelessness prevention spending, making over £500 million available since 2010 to local authorities and the voluntary sector to help the most vulnerable in society. Homelessness remains lower than in 26 of the last 30 years. It is around half the average level it was under the previous Administration.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 26/03/2015 13:08:28 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

222715

registered interest
date	23/02/2015
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	Council Tax Benefits
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 6 November 2014 (HL2301), whether they will now publish the detailed terms of reference for the review of the impact of abolishing Council Tax Benefit.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5056
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2015 answer text <p>The Department is currently working with the Council Tax Partnership Forum and local authorities to identify appropriate and proportionate data for the independent three-year review of the local council tax support policy.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The timetable, coverage, process for data collection and detailed terms of reference for the review will be agreed and published in due course.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Spending on council tax benefit doubled under the last government, costing taxpayers £4 billion a year – equivalent to almost £180 per year per household. Welfare reform is vital to tackle the budget deficit left by the last Administration.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Our reforms to localise council tax support now give councils stronger incentives to support local firms, cut fraud, promote local enterprise and get people into work. We are ending the last Administration’s “something for nothing” cultures and making work pay.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 09/03/2015 16:53:09 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

222716

registered interest
date	23/02/2015
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
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Statement on 3 February by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (HLWS223), whether they will provide a breakdown by local authority of the additional £74 million for local welfare, health and social care in the 2015–16 local government settlement.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5057
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2015 answer text <p>In December 2014, the Government identified £129.6 million within upper-tier local authority budgets for local welfare provision funding.</p><p> </p><p>The additional £74 million to assist with dealing with wider pressures on local welfare and health and social care has been distributed to upper-tier local authorities in line with their settlement funding assessment formula. A breakdown of the figures is set out within the attached table.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 09/03/2015 16:47:55 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon attachment 1 file name 150302 PQ807286 table -final.xlsx title Local Gov Settlement 2015-16
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

222717

registered interest
date	23/02/2015
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: Debt Collection
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government which local authorities have announced plans to establish in house bailiff teams to recover outstanding Council Tax and other debt; and whether they will issue guidance to local authorities on such an approach.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5058
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2015 answer text <p>Collection and enforcement is a matter for local authorities, who are best placed to decide on the appropriate way to manage their collection and debt recovery operations.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In our Department for Communities and Local Government’s best practice document, “50 ways to save”, we listed improving council tax collection rates and reducing arrears as a key way of making sensible savings to help keep overall council tax bills down and protect frontline services. Every penny of council tax that is not collected means a higher council tax for the law-abiding citizen who does pay on time.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It is important that councils are sympathetic to those in genuine hardship, are proportionate in enforcement and do not overuse bailiffs (we have published guidance for councils to stop unjustified, aggressive collection practices; this guidance is available at: www.gov.uk/goverment/publications/council-tax). However, these figures show that there is a significant potential source of income for councils, which councils across the country could use to support frontline service or freeze council tax bills next year.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 09/03/2015 16:53:37 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

222718

registered interest
date	23/02/2015
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	Homelessness
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that those local authorities currently breaching the maximum six-week limit on the placement of homeless families with children in bed and breakfast accommodation established by the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003 are prevented from doing so.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5059
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2015 answer text <p>The Government has been clear that the long term use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families with children is both unacceptable and unlawful. The law is very clear on this matter. It says that bed and breakfast accommodation should only ever be used to house homeless families in an emergency, and then for no longer than six weeks.</p><p> </p><p>Further legal protections also give households the right to challenge an authority’s use of this accommodation. Under section 202 of the Housing Act 1996, households have the right to challenge an authority’s decision to place them in such accommodation for longer than six weeks. Statutory homelessness guidance which local housing authorities must, by law, have regard to says that when using bed and breakfast accommodation the authority should notify the family of the effect of the law. In particular, that it is unlawful for the authority to continue to secure bed and breakfast accommodation for families with children any longer than six weeks. <br> <br> Recent figures show a significant reduction (38 per cent on the same quarter as last year) in the numbers of families with children in bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than six weeks.</p><p> </p><p>We have kept up the pressure on this issue. Actions included housing Ministers writing to those authorities with the highest numbers in bed and breakfast accommodation, challenging them to take action and calling them in to hear their plans to reduce the numbers.</p><p> </p><p>We invested almost £2 million to support local authorities to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to prevent unlawful bed and breakfast use for families with children. The seven funded authorities have achieved and sustained 96% average reduction in the number of households with children in bed and breakfast for longer than six weeks. Lessons learned from this funding have been used to develop a comprehensive training package to help those authorities who were not funded to develop the same successful approaches. <br> <br> This investment comes on top of over £500 million this Government has provided to prevent and tackle homelessness. Homelessness acceptances remain lower than in 27 of the last 30 years, and homelessness is around half the average level it was under the previous Government. Households now spend on average seven months less in temporary accommodation than at the start of 2010.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 09/03/2015 16:53:01 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

222719

registered interest
date	23/02/2015
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	Housing Ombudsman Service
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many complaints the Housing Ombudsman Service has dealt with in each of the past four years; and how many of those were upheld or refused in each year.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL5060
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/03/2015 answer text <p>It has been a number years since the Housing Ombudsman Service had a system where complaints where upheld or refused. The terms of reference for the Housing Ombudsman Service were changed on the 1 April 2013 to reflect the Localism Act 2011 and in preparation for this the Housing Ombudsman Service changed the dispute handling process, which now focuses on local and early resolution.</p><p>The table below shows the data from 2011 to the 31 March 2013, categorised as follows:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>January to March 2013</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Number of Complaints Received</p></td><td><p>5,739</p></td><td><p>6,757</p></td><td><p>1,675</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Number of Complaints Investigated Formally</p></td><td><p>641</p></td><td><p>577</p></td><td><p>77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Maladministration</p></td><td><p>147</p></td><td><p>123</p></td><td><p>10</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>No Maladministration</p></td><td><p>371</p></td><td><p>316</p></td><td><p>44</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The table below shows the data from 1 April 2013 to December 2014, categorised as follows:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td><p>April to December 2013</p></td><td><p>2014</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cases Received</p></td><td><p>4,619</p></td><td><p>7,688</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cases Locally Resolved</p></td><td><p>4,395</p></td><td><p>7,604</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Of the Cases Locally Resolved, number of complaints resolved locally</p></td><td><p>5,429</p></td><td><p>8,017</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cases Formally Resolved</p></td><td><p>224</p></td><td><p>84</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Of the Cases Formally Resolved, number of complaints resolved locally</p></td><td><p>231</p></td><td><p>79</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Of the Cases Formally Resolved, number of complaints resolved formally</p></td><td><p>211</p></td><td><p>49</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Of the Cases Formally Resolved, where the complaint was resolved at a formal level, the number of complaints that were maladministration</p></td><td><p>119</p></td><td><p>21</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Of the Cases Formally Resolved, where the complaint was resolved at a formal level, the number of complaints that were no maladministration</p></td><td><p>91</p></td><td><p>25</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 04/03/2015 14:02:59 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

175883

registered interest
date	27/01/2015
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 Rented Housing: Greater London
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much funding has been allocated to each London borough under the Decent Homes Backlog Funding initiative for 2015–16.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL4463
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/02/2015 answer text <p>The Government has made available £145 million for London in 2015/16 for the Decent Homes Backlog Fund.</p><p>This funding has been devolved to the Greater London Authority, which has strategic responsibility for housing in London.</p><p>The Greater London Authority recently announced which boroughs have been awarded the funding. Their amounts are set out in the table below.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Barking and Dagenham</p></td><td><p>£1,124,508</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Camden</p></td><td><p>£26,299,627</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Hackney</p></td><td><p>£3,159,962</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Haringey</p></td><td><p>£11,270,130</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Kingston upon Thames</p></td><td><p>£6,347,627</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Lambeth</p></td><td><p>£23,283,562</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Southwark</p></td><td><p>£53,035,851</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sutton</p></td><td><p>£7,202,328</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Tower Hamlets</p></td><td><p>£13,270,443</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>TOTAL</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>£144,944,038</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>All boroughs will need to have their grant claims independently verified. Service charges for leaseholders will be capped to £15,000 over five years for any work carried out using this funding.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 03/02/2015 15:23:10 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

175884

registered interest
date	27/01/2015
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 Rented Housing: Standards
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to extend the Decent Homes Backlog Funding initiative beyond 2015–16.
tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
uin	HL4464
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/02/2015 answer text <p>Spending decisions for 2016-17 onwards are a matter for the next Spending Review.</p><p> </p><p>£1.6 billion worth of funding was awarded to local authorities to tackle their Decent Homes backlog in 2011-15. A further £165 million was awarded for year 2015-16.</p><p> </p><p>Since the abolition of the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system in April 2012, councils have greater freedoms including the retention of their full rental income. This means that all 167 council landlords in England have a long term, stable source of funding, which they can use to plan better to meet the needs of their tenants and local area. These councils have, on average, 15% more to spend on managing and maintaining their homes, including meeting the Decent Homes Standard, than under the previous system.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 03/02/2015 15:21:27 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow