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Tag: Clive Betts

  • Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new social rented homes he plans will be funded by the resources identified for housing in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    Through the Spending Review the Government has committed to investing £8 billion to deliver over 400,000 affordable housing starts, doubling our investment from 2018-19.

    This funding includes £1.7 billion for around 100,000 homes for affordable or intermediate rent, which will be delivered between 2015 and 2021.

  • Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what further steps he plans to take to ensure that local government pension scheme members are consulted on proposed guidance on the ability of local government to account for non-financial factors in pension scheme investment decisions; and what steps he plans to take to ensure that that proposed guidance will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government’s response to the consultation, which will set out our next steps in relation to these issues, will be published shortly.

  • Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new homes of each type of tenure he plans will be funded by measures announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Spending Review and Autumn Statement made last week reaffirmed this Government’s commitment to keeping the country building, to delivering the homes communities want and supporting hard-working people who aspire to own their own home to be able to do so.

    Over £20 billion was secured for housing from the Spending Review. This includes £8 billion to deliver over 400,000 affordable starts, and a further £12 billion of housing investment which will support our 1 million homes ambition by 2020/21.

    The Spending Review package announced last week supports a variety of tenures, including affordable homes for rent, shared ownership schemes and starter homes. It also supports home ownership through supporting custom build, the extension of Help to Buy, and extending the Right to Buy to tenants of housing associations.

    Precise splits between differing types of tenure will depend on the nature and quality of bids recieved for new funding programmes, and on the type of sites coming forward.

  • Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the responses to the non-financial factors section of the recent consultation on revoking and replacing the Local Government Pension Scheme.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government’s response to the consultation, which will set out our next steps in relation to these issues, will be published shortly.

  • Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which charities have used government grants to pay for campaigns in (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16 to date; what the nature of each such campaign was; what estimate he has made of the amount of government funding used for each such campaign; and which such charities have been asked to repay part of their grant on the grounds that such expenditure was outwith the terms and conditions of that grant.

    Matthew Hancock

    The information requested is not held centrally.

  • Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of his Department’s progress on improving municipal statutory notices since his Department’s press release, Councils and media invited to bring statutory notices into 21st century, published on 23rd December 2014.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Statutory Notices Pilots project is now complete. We are currently in the process of giving careful consideration to the findings of the final reports of the 24 pilots, before drawing any conclusions and deciding what action, if any, to take.

  • Clive Betts – 2022 Parliamentary Question on TransPennine Express Rail Services

    Clive Betts – 2022 Parliamentary Question on TransPennine Express Rail Services

    The parliamentary question asked by Clive Betts, the Labour MP for Sheffield South East, in the House of Commons on 1 December 2022.

    Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)

    The other day, I read with amazement an article in The Guardian which said, with regard to cancellations on the TransPennine Express, that between the middle of October and the middle of November, the reported figures were between 5% and 12% a week, but actual cancellations were over 20% each week. The difference is that train operators do not count as a cancellation a train that is cancelled before 10 pm the night before. When train operators are penalised under their contracts for non-performance, are the cancellation figures used those that the train operators report, or those that passengers experience?

    Huw Merriman

    I will write to the hon. Gentleman and specify how those figures are calculated. I will also give him up-to-date figures from the methodology that we calculate. I am confident that those figures recognise the same experience that passengers have suffered and he has described, but I will write to him and set that out in full.

  • Clive Betts – 2022 Speech on Social Housing Standards

    Clive Betts – 2022 Speech on Social Housing Standards

    The speech made by Clive Betts, the Labour MP for Sheffield South East, in the House of Commons on 16 November 2022.

    May I associate myself with the aims that the Secretary of State has set out in his statement? I think they will be supported across the House.

    I draw the Secretary of State’s attention to the Select Committee’s report, “The Regulation of Social Housing”, published in July—I gently remind him that the Department has not yet replied to it. In the report, we identified some social housing that was unfit for human habitation, and causing the sorts of health problems that tragically have been seen in this case. We identified problems with repair reporting, complaints handling, and a lack of proactive inspection of properties by housing providers and the social housing regulator. We put that in context and said

    “some blame must attach to successive Governments for not investing enough in new homes, which has increased the sector’s reliance on outdated stock, and for not providing funding specifically for regeneration.”

    Some of those are not individual repairs; there are failures of whole blocks and whole estates. I say to the Secretary of State: let us share the common objectives, and let us work together to get the money to ensure that those objectives can be realised.

  • Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Care Act 2014 and the care and support statutory guidance, what guidance his Department gives to local authorities on the action they should take if they receive evidence that self-funders and those with personalised care budgets are not paying social care firms enough to pay their staff at least the minimum wage, including remuneration for travel time between appointments.

    Norman Lamb

    Self-funders and people with personal budgets whose care is arranged by their local authority have no obligations under the provisions of the Care Act 2014, draft statutory Care Act guidance or draft regulations on the Care Act, to show that they pay social care providers enough to pay their staff at least the minimum wage, including remuneration for travel time between appointments. Social care providers must fulfil their legal obligations as employers which include ensuring that staff salaries conform to the national minimum wage.

    If a person chooses to request their personal budget as a direct payment to purchase their own care and support, the draft Care Act guidance details what the local authority should do as part of its general monitoring of the direct payment to ensure that the person fulfils their legal obligations as an employer. This includes ensuring that the person is registered as an employer with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and is making the appropriate contributions for PAYE and income tax, and that payments conform to the national minimum wage. Where it is apparent that these obligations are not being met, the local authority should review the care plan and making of the direct payment to ascertain if alternate arrangements need to be made that result in the person no longer being an employer (para 12.46-12.49, p172-73).

    The draft guidance and regulations on the Care Act are currently open for public consultation. The Department is also undertaking a series of engagement events with social care stakeholders to gather feedback on the content of the guidance and regulations.

  • Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Care Act 2014 and the care and support statutory guidance, whether self-funders and those with personalised care budgets are under an obligation to show that they are paying social care firms enough to pay their staff at least the minimum wage, including remuneration for travel time between appointments.

    Norman Lamb

    Self-funders and people with personal budgets whose care is arranged by their local authority have no obligations under the provisions of the Care Act 2014, draft statutory Care Act guidance or draft regulations on the Care Act, to show that they pay social care providers enough to pay their staff at least the minimum wage, including remuneration for travel time between appointments. Social care providers must fulfil their legal obligations as employers which include ensuring that staff salaries conform to the national minimum wage.

    If a person chooses to request their personal budget as a direct payment to purchase their own care and support, the draft Care Act guidance details what the local authority should do as part of its general monitoring of the direct payment to ensure that the person fulfils their legal obligations as an employer. This includes ensuring that the person is registered as an employer with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and is making the appropriate contributions for PAYE and income tax, and that payments conform to the national minimum wage. Where it is apparent that these obligations are not being met, the local authority should review the care plan and making of the direct payment to ascertain if alternate arrangements need to be made that result in the person no longer being an employer (para 12.46-12.49, p172-73).

    The draft guidance and regulations on the Care Act are currently open for public consultation. The Department is also undertaking a series of engagement events with social care stakeholders to gather feedback on the content of the guidance and regulations.