I refer the Hon Member to the answers given to Question UIN 65447 on 2 November 2021 and Question UIN 64643 on 1 November 2021 regarding the details of the funding.

The £1.8 billion funding announced at Spending Review will help to regenerate communities and level up the country. This includes £1.5 billion to regenerate underused land and deliver transport links and community facilities, and £300 million locally led grant funding to unlock smaller brownfield sites for housing, regenerating and improving communities. Further details on how to access the funding will be provided as soon as possible

This is on top the of £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund, which will help unlock 26,000 homes by bringing under-utilised brownfield land back into use and. The fund was allocated as follows:

Mayoral Combined Authority Allocation
Greater Manchester £96,999,805
Liverpool City Region £44,643,420
North of Tyne £23,853,618
South Yorkshire £40,340,322
Tees Valley £19,352,315
West Midlands  £108,031,802
West Yorkshire £66,778,719
Total  £400,000,001*

*Total of £400,000,001 is due to rounding.

And also our Brownfield Land Release Fund, which has so far allocated the following: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-new-homes-to-be-built-and-derelict-land-transformed

The Building Safety Bill contains provisions to support local authorities to fulfil their functions under the Bill, including to widen the scope of local authorities' charging schemes under the Building Act, and to enable the Building Safety Regulator and the Secretary of State to reimburse a local authority for work carried out by its inspectors in support of the Building Safety Regulator.

The Government encourages local planning authorities to increase the number of traveller sites in appropriate locations and are supporting efforts through the new Affordable Homes Programme. Local authorities, and social housing providers can bid for funding through the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 which will leverage up to £38 billion of private and public investment, and includes funding for permanent traveller sites and transit sites.

Guidance published by the National Fire Chiefs Council recommends that a Waking Watch should only be in place for a short period of time in those buildings where the fire safety strategy has moved from 'stay put' to 'simultaneous evacuation'.

The guidance is clear that the Responsible Person should move quickly to install a common fire alarm system as they are a more cost effective and reliable option. On 17 December the Secretary of State announced a £30 million Waking Watch Relief fund to pay for the costs of installing a common fire alarm system in residential buildings in England taller than 18 meters with unsafe cladding, to remove costly Waking Watch measures.

The Social Housing White Paper announced a review of the Decent Homes Standard to consider whether it needs to be updated to ensure it is delivering what is needed for safety and decency now, including on energy efficiency and green spaces.

As a first step, the review will consider the case for change. If the evidence demonstrates that we need to revise the Standard, we will consider new criteria as a second stage of the review.

Section 11 of the Building Safety Bill: Impact Assessment provides estimates of the average costs per building for addressing safety remediation in high rise (18 metres and above) buildings. These estimates consider all necessary remediation, which goes beyond façade remediation. Social sector building owners have been able to access the £400m Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund, which supports the removal and replacement of non-compliant ACM cladding on buildings over 18 metres. We have also launched a fund of £1 billion to cover the costs of remediating unsafe non-ACM cladding on residential buildings over 18 metres tall - and whilst this is focused on private sector leaseholders, it is available to social landlords facing affordability issues, and will also cover the costs of leaseholders in social housing. On 10 February we announced a multi-billion pound investment to protect hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes. We are also establishing a generous scheme to ensure, where required, cladding removal can take place on buildings between 11 and 18 metres. As part of this financing scheme, leaseholder payments towards remediation costs will be capped at a maximum £50per month.

The Charter for Social Housing Residents: Social Housing White Paper sets out a package of measures that will improve the lives of social housing residents in England, including a review of standards on decency and energy efficiency of existing stock.

The Regulator of Social Housing requires homes to be maintained to at least Decent Homes Standard.

The Decent Homes Standard has driven improvements to the quality of social housing. Between 2011 and 2016 Government provided a total of £1.76 billion to 45 councils across England to tackle the backlog of non-decent homes, making over 158,000 homes decent. In 2019, 12 per cent of dwellings in the social rented sector failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard. This is lower than the proportion of private rented (23 per cent) and owner occupied (16 per cent) homes.

At the Chancellor’s summer economic update, the Government announced a £50 million demonstrator project and at the Spending Review 2020, the Chancellor announced £60 million of further funding to upgrade the least efficient social housing. The Fund will bring a significant amount of the social housing stock that is currently below EPC C up to that standard.

Council tax data on the number of empty properties and second homes for council tax purposes as at October 2020 have been published today (Wednesday 11 November). Figures for England can be found in the statistical release and for Coventry within the local authority level tables. The release and tables can be found at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-taxbase-statistics .

Regional data are not published but can be aggregated from the local authority level table published.

We intend to reform the current approach to developer contributions by creating a new, single system, the Infrastructure Levy. This new levy would be a flat rate, value based charge, set nationally, at either a single rate, or at area specific rates, and charged on the final value of a development.

We will aim for the new Levy to raise more revenue than under the current system of developer contributions. Our proposals are set out in our White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ which was published on 6 August and is out to consultation until 29 October. The consultation responses will support the assessment of the proposals, and detailed design.

Nationally provided food parcels are part of the Government’s support programme to people who are shielding and are funded centrally. Neither local authorities nor recipients are charged for these parcels.

Local authorities are playing a critical role in the response to the coronavirus, including supplementing nationally provided food boxes where individuals have dietary requirements. The Government has provided councils with over £3.2 billion to help them deal with the immediate impacts of the coronavirus, and councils are able to meet additional food costs through this funding. We have committed to keeping additional funding needs under review.

Nationally provided food parcels are part of the Government’s support programme to people who are shielding and are funded centrally. Neither local authorities nor recipients are charged for these parcels.

Local authorities are playing a critical role in the response to the coronavirus, including supplementing nationally provided food boxes where individuals have dietary requirements. The Government has provided councils with over £3.2 billion to help them deal with the immediate impacts of the coronavirus, and councils are able to meet additional food costs through this funding. We have committed to keeping additional funding needs under review.

Local authorities have a vital role to play in protecting and supporting their communities during the Covid-19 outbreak.

My Department is in regular contact with the sector about the support they are offering communities. Already the Government is supporting individuals by extending sick pay for those advised to self-isolate and making it easier for them to access benefits. For businesses, we are increasing business rates relief, introducing a new guarantee loan scheme, and developing more bespoke arrangements for firms to repay outstanding tax liabilities.

My Department collects data from local authorities on the total amount of expenditure for development control and building control combined. Expenditure for 2018-19 was reported as approximately £828 million, with funding raised by sales, fees and charges in 2018-19 as approximately £528 million. These figures are set out in the MHCLG local government revenue outturn table RO5 which is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2018-to-2019-individual-local-authority-data-outturn

The New Homes Bonus is an unringfenced grant, this allows local authorities to use the funding as they see fit, as the Government recognises that authorities are in the best position to make decisions about local priorities. Authorities are expected to engage with their local community to decide how the money is spent. The Department does not monitor how individual authorities spend their allocations.