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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what loans have been issued for what purposes to Business Improvement Districts in each (a) region of the UK and (b) local authority area in each of the last two years; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Percy

The Government is committed to Business Improvement Districts and the impact they have on their local areas.

We are keen to see the setting up of more Business Improvement Districts and we recognise that their development requires up front expenditure. In October 2013 we launched a £500,000 recyclable loan fund and have supported 20 areas with loans totalling £658,555. In the last two years the following loans have been issued to areas requesting support in setting up a Business Improvement District:

Area	Amount	Region	Local Authority
Cheltenham	£35,000	South West	Cheltenham Borough Council
Eastbourne	£41,000	South East	Eastbourne Borough Council
Hastings	£31,400	South East	Hastings Borough Council
Hexham	£40,000	North East	Northumberland County Council
Leicester	£50,000	East Midlands	Leicester City Cuncil
Lichfield	£20,000	West Midlands	Lichfield District Council
Milton Keynes	£35,000	South East	Milton Keynes Council
Oxted	£30,000	South East	Tandridge District Council
Poole	£42,000	South West	Poole Borough Council
Purley	£10,000	Greater London	London Borough of Croydon
Runcorn	£27,000	North West	Halton Borough Council
Watford	£49,822	East of England	Hertfordshire Borough Council
York	£30,000	Yorkshire and Humber	York City Council

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding the UK received from the European Regional Development Agency in (a) total, (b) each action region of the UK and (c) each local authority area in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

Margot James

The UK was allocated €7.8 billion from the European Regional Development Fund for the period 2007-16. This was broken down between the different parts of the UK for each year as follows:

€m	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
England	545.3	515.9	485.2	453.0	414.6	427.7	436.3	Nil	985.8	507.8
Wales	177.9	181.5	185.1	188.8	192.6	196.5	200.4	189.2	193.0	196.9
Scotland	80.5	77.6	74.6	71.5	68.1	64.6	61.0	64.1	65.4	66.7
Northern Ireland	41.3	42.1	42.9	43.8	44.7	45.6	22.5	41.4	42.2	43.1

Within England, the European Regional Development Fund for 2007-2013 was administered on the basis of NUTS 1 regions (as defined by the European Statistical Office). The breakdown for each year was as follows:

€m	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
North West	156.8	138.5	119.5	99.6	78.9	80.4	82.0
Yorkshire & Humber	127.1	110.8	93.7	76.0	57.5	58.7	59.8
North East	50.5	51.5	52.6	53.6	54.7	55.8	56.9
East Midlands	36.1	36.8	37.6	38.3	36.5	39.9	40.7
West Midlands	53.8	54.9	56.0	57.1	58.2	59.4	60.6
East of England	14.9	15.2	15.5	15.8	16.2	16.5	16.8
London	24.5	25.0	25.5	26.0	26.5	27.0	27.6
South East	3.2	3.3	3.3	3.4	1.4	3.5	3.6
South West	16.8	17.1	17.4	17.8	18.2	18.5	18.9
Cornwall & Isles of Scilly	61.6	62.8	64.1	65.4	66.7	68.0	69.4

For the 2014-2020 period, England’s share of the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund was allocated across Local Enterprise Partnership areas (see list of allocations at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/307492/bis-14-772-uk-allocations-eu-structural-funds-2014-2020-letter.pdf). Local partners decided how the total in each area should be split between the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which local authorities have asked the Local Government Boundary Commission to consider changes to their boundaries; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England informs me that it has no plans to conduct any Principal Area Boundary Reviews, but their current programme includes 13 electoral reviews requested by:

• Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council
• London Borough of Croydon
• Harborough District Council
• Tendring District Council
• West Berkshire District Council
• Babergh District Council
• Forest of Dean District Council
• South Gloucestershire Council
• Cheshire West & Chester Council
• Forest Heath District Council
• St Edmundsbury Borough Council
• Scarborough Borough Council
• Carlisle City Council

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has (a) made and (b) received from outside sources of the increase in demand for social care services from local councils over the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Marcus Jones

I recognise that demand for social care is growing and this was a consideration in last year’s Spending Review.

The Spending Review settlement provides up to £3.5 billion of new support for adult social care by 2019/20 – greater than the £2.9 billion that the Local Government Association estimated was needed for adult social care in their Spending Review submission. The vast majority of councils have already taken advantage of the opportunity to introduce a new Social Care Precept, which allows them in increase council tax by 2% above the existing threshold. By the end of the Parliament, this will raise up to £2 billion that must be spent exclusively on adult social care. In addition, by 2019/20 an extra £1.5 billion per year will be available for inclusion in the Better Care Fund.

Taken together, the Social Care Precept and the Better Care Fund will mean local government has access to the funding needed to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities in England have held council tax referendums in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Marcus Jones

The only council tax referendum to date was held by the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner. A proposed 15.8% increase in the Commissioner’s precept was rejected by a margin of 70% to 30% in May 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria are used to require local authorities to contract out the statutory children’s social work services; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson

The following local authorities are currently rated as ‘inadequate’ under Ofsted’s Single Inspection Framework:

Birmingham, Bromley, Buckinghamshire, Coventry, Cumbria, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Knowsley, Lambeth, Lancashire, Leicester City, Manchester, Norfolk, Reading, Rotherham, Sandwell, Slough, Somerset, Sunderland, Surrey, Torbay, Wandsworth, West Berkshire and Wirral.

The Government does not use set criteria to require local authorities to contract out their statutory children’s social care services.

The Department for Education has statutory powers to intervene in local authority children’s services under section 497A of the Education Act 1996. This legislation allows the Department to remove day-to-day operational control of children’s services from the local authority, for a period of time, if the Secretary of State believes that the local authority is failing to secure its relevant statutory functions by delivering children’s services to the required standard.

As a matter of policy, the Government has decided that any authority rated by Ofsted as ‘inadequate’ across all the key judgements in any one Ofsted inspection is deemed to be failing ‘systemically’, and any authority that is rated inadequate twice overall in any five year period is deemed to be failing persistently.

In these circumstances the Secretary of State appoints a children’s services commissioner to review services and then provide advice to the Secretary of State on whether they should remain in local authority control.

Once the Secretary of State has received the commissioner’s advice, she will decide whether to direct the authority to enter into a contract with a third party – for instance a Children’s Services Trust – to deliver those services on its behalf.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many enterprise zones there are in each (a) region and (b) local authority area in England; how long each zone has been in existence; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Percy

There are currently 36 Enterprise Zones in England. The attached table provides a breakdown by region, local authority area and when each Enterprise Zone was established.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he expects to publish the Local Government Settlement; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government published an historic four year local government finance settlement on 8 February 2016 which was debated by Members of the House on 10 February. We published a technical consultation which confirmed the approach for 2017-18 on 15 September. Councils across England applied for the four year offer by 14 October and the Government will respond as soon as practicable. We intend to publish in the normal way a statutory provisional settlement for 2017-18 that honours the Government’s commitment to the four year offer later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities’ children’s social work services have been rated inadequate; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson

The following local authorities are currently rated as ‘inadequate’ under Ofsted’s Single Inspection Framework:

Birmingham, Bromley, Buckinghamshire, Coventry, Cumbria, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Knowsley, Lambeth, Lancashire, Leicester City, Manchester, Norfolk, Reading, Rotherham, Sandwell, Slough, Somerset, Sunderland, Surrey, Torbay, Wandsworth, West Berkshire and Wirral.

The Government does not use set criteria to require local authorities to contract out their statutory children’s social care services.

The Department for Education has statutory powers to intervene in local authority children’s services under section 497A of the Education Act 1996. This legislation allows the Department to remove day-to-day operational control of children’s services from the local authority, for a period of time, if the Secretary of State believes that the local authority is failing to secure its relevant statutory functions by delivering children’s services to the required standard.

As a matter of policy, the Government has decided that any authority rated by Ofsted as ‘inadequate’ across all the key judgements in any one Ofsted inspection is deemed to be failing ‘systemically’, and any authority that is rated inadequate twice overall in any five year period is deemed to be failing persistently.

In these circumstances the Secretary of State appoints a children’s services commissioner to review services and then provide advice to the Secretary of State on whether they should remain in local authority control.

Once the Secretary of State has received the commissioner’s advice, she will decide whether to direct the authority to enter into a contract with a third party – for instance a Children’s Services Trust – to deliver those services on its behalf.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he expects to publish a response to the consultation his Department launched in March 2015 on the future of Business Improvement Districts; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Percy

The Government is committed to Business Improvement Districts, the role they play and the positive impact they are making in local communities across the country. We are considering the responses we received to the Consultation and will publish a response in due course.