Tag: Steve Reed

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how his Department plans to enable the sharing of best practice from current and completed devolution deals.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Government is pleased to have reached agreement on devolution deals with seven local areas during 2015 which will enable local people to make decisions on the priorities and investments which will best help local areas to succeed and grow. We are now focused on implementation of these deals, and as part of this process monitoring and evaluation will be crucial.

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the methodology used by his Department to calculate the distribution of the Transitional Grant announced in the local government finance settlement 2016-17.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Secretary of State has published an explanatory note setting out the method of calculation of the Transition Grant. It is available to view at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the Government’s policy is on requiring local authorities to adopt elected mayors as part of further proposals for the devolution of powers to local areas.

Andrew Percy

The Government will continue to work closely with local areas and remains open to discussion on any devolution proposals that include strong, accountable governance and clear accountability, including the adoption of elected mayors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how his Department plans to monitor whether income from the proposed two per cent rise in council tax intended to contribute to the social care levy is being spent on social care.

Mr Marcus Jones

I refer the hon. Members to information accompanying the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17, which was announced by my rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark) 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 1722.

This is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-in-2016-to-2017 and https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx

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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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the local government finance settlement 2016-17, whether he consulted the Office for Budget Responsibility on the distribution of the transitional grant.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Office for Budget Responsibility is concerned with national economic forecasting, while the Transition Grant is a subnational distribution. It was therefore not necessary nor would it have been standard practice to consult the OBR on this issue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many premature babies were born in (a) England and (b) each local authority in 2015.

Mr Philip Dunne

Information is not available in the format requested. The gestation length is not recorded on an individual birth record, but on the mother’s delivery episode. Therefore we cannot provide the number of births, as a single delivery may involve multiple births.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of (a) the level of funding required to cover local authority spending on social care in the period to 2020 and (b) how much the proposed two per cent increase in council tax intended for the social care levy will have raised in funding by 2020 if every authority implements that proposal to the full.

Mr Marcus Jones

Ahead of the Spending Review, the Local Government Association estimated the gap in adult social care funding to be £2.9 billion – arising from a growing elderly population and introduction of the National Living Wage.

At Spending Review the Government outlined a package of support worth up to £3.5 billion to ensure councils are able to support some of their older and most vulnerable residents. That included giving authorities with social care responsibilities the flexibility to raise council tax in their area by up to 2% above the referendum threshold for each year between 2016-17 and 2019-20, to fund adult social care services. It is also providing £1500 million additional funding for local authorities to spend on adult social care by 2019-20, to be included in an improved Better Care Fund. Taken together, these measures provide significant resources to address the demographic pressures facing the social care system.

In terms of what the social care flexibility could raise, I refer the hon. Member to information accompanying the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17, which my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark), announced to the House on 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 1722. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-in-2016-to-2017 and https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx

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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.