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  • John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the statistics it produces on homelessness and rough sleeping comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics in relation to each of the requirements identified by the UK Statistics Authority in its report, Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics: Statistics on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping in England, published in December 2015.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Departmental statisticians are currently using the report to help plan future developments in homelessness statistics.

    In 2010, we overhauled the way local authorities count rough sleepers, to provide a more accurate assessment of the scale of the problem and reflect the reality on the streets.

    Under the Labour Government, including when the rt hon Member was Housing Minister, the process did not actually require all local authorities to submit a return, meaning the number of rough sleepers was consistently under estimated.

  • Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of full-time members of staff in his Department work on the Northern Powerhouse initiative.

    James Wharton

    The Northern Powerhouse is a key ambition of this Government and requires input from officials across my Department and other Government Departments across a wide range of policy areas. This enables bottom-up ownership of the Northern Powerhouse agenda by Northern areas to drive evidence and strategic policymaking to ensure the North can influence, direct and benefit from the Northern Powerhouse, including through Devolution Deals.

  • Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many official visits he has made to local authorities since May 2015 where the primary purpose of the visit was in connection with the Northern Powerhouse policy.

    Greg Clark

    As part of my Ministerial duties I visit local authorities across the country, including regular visits in connection with the Northern Powerhouse.

  • Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support Help to Buy applicants whose new build completion has been delayed.

    Brandon Lewis

    Current arrangements provide substantial support to Help to Buy purchasers in these circumstances. As with any new build sale, the house builder and purchaser, after exchange of contracts, have a binding contract that will specify arrangements for legal completion. As such, if there are delays to completion, the purchaser should speak to their conveyancer. The Help to Buy scheme specifies that house builders must include a completion date at the point they make a claim to the Homes and Communities Agency for the Help to Buy funding to assist the purchase. If the completion date is subsequently delayed the Agency can seek to reclaim or withhold the funding from the builder if there is very little prospect of ever achieving purchaser legal completion within a reasonable time frame.

  • Chuka Umunna – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Chuka Umunna – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has issued on the applicability of Florrie’s law, capping council housing repair bills, to works which were commissioned but not implemented before that law was introduced in August 2014.

    Brandon Lewis

    Free advice and information about service charge issues, including the applicability of The Social Landlords Mandatory Reduction of Service Charges (England) Direction 2014 (known as ‘Florrie’s Law’), is available from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE). This is a specialist body funded by my Department to provide initial advice and guidance on a wide range of residential leasehold issues.

    These Directions do not apply to service charges for major works where a local authority has already been awarded Government funding to carry them out, regardless of whether the works have commenced before the law was introduced.

  • Chuka Umunna – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Chuka Umunna – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of proposals to impose mandatory rent reductions on social landlords of one per cent each year for four years on housing co-operatives which have had a policy of maintaining low levels of rent.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Housing Benefit bill for England in the social sector now has risen by a quarter over the last 10 years, reaching £13.2 billion in 2014/15. Rising rents in the social housing sector are fuelling this increase in Housing Benefit, with average social rent increases of 55% over the last ten years, compared to 23% in the private rented sector. In the interests of fairness the Government plans to bring rent increases within the social sector back into line with the private rented sector by cutting rents for social housing tenants by 1% a year, for four years.

    The Government recognises that rent reductions may have a bigger impact on some providers and some specific types of housing and has decided to put in place a one-year exception from the rent reduction for fully mutual co-operative housing, almshouses, community land trusts and supported housing while we consider the approach for the second year of the reductions onwards.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, when he expects the Local Government Boundary Commission for England to next review the (a) ward and (b) councillor arrangements in metropolitan districts in West Yorkshire.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Local Government Boundary Commission for England informs me that arrangements for both wards and councillors are recommended through its electoral review procedure.

    The Commission further informs me that Leeds City Council is in the early stages of an electoral review to consider the number of councillors elected to the authority in the future and the ward boundaries which will accommodate those elected members. None of the other metropolitan districts in the West Yorkshire area are part of the Commission’s programme of electoral reviews for the next twelve months. The Commission’s programme of reviews for the following year will be agreed in autumn 2016.

    There are three reasons why a local authority could become part of the Commission’s programme of electoral reviews. First, the Commission assesses levels of electoral inequality across all local authorities in England on an annual basis. Where the Commission determines that there are high levels of variances between wards or electoral divisions, namely where some councillors represent many more – or many fewer – voters than the average for the authority, it will initiate an electoral review to address the imbalances.

    The Commission will also carry out a review at the request of a local authority. Since 2011, the Commission has carried out 48 electoral reviews of councils that have asked the Commission to intervene. The majority of requested reviews have been initiated by authorities that have asked the Commission, in particular, to consider the total number of councillors elected to the council.

    Thirdly, the Commission will intervene where it believes that an electoral review will help an authority deliver effective local government. Such reviews have been conducted in Stoke-on-Trent, Doncaster and – currently – in Birmingham where an independent report recommended that an electoral review should take place.

  • John Mann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Mann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the deliverable five-year housing allocation is for each local authority in (a) Derbyshire, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) Nottinghamshire.

    Brandon Lewis

    We do not collate information centrally on the number of sites that are available for residential development. Local planning authorities are required to identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide five years worth of housing against their housing requirements.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people were employed as occupational therapists in each of the last five years; what information his Department holds on unfilled vacancies in occupational therapy in the last 12 months; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of people trained as occupational therapists.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Department for Communities and Local Government does not collect information on the number of occupational therapists in employment or the number of unfilled vacancies in occupational therapy.

  • David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what the average hourly earnings for their (a) female and (b) male (i) full-time and (ii) part-time employees was in each of the last five years.

    Mrs Caroline Spelman

    The following information relates to employees of the Church of England’s National Church Institutions (NCIs). Senior salaries, gender and race information are published each year in the annual reports of Archbishops’ Council, Pensions Board and Church Commissioners.

    Women make up 55% of the total workforce and hold just over 40% of the roles at a senior level. Most roles fit into a pay banding structure which pays the same for equivalent jobs in each band. The equal pay draft regulations have just been published and the NCIs will be reporting in line with the requirements when they have been passed into law.

    Clergy officeholders, as distinct from employees, are paid a stipend rather than a salary. For information female and male Bishops in office receive the same level of stipend. All other clergy officeholder stipends are based on a national stipend benchmark which is set by post and is the same for female and male clergy in each diocese.