argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Housing First — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): First, let me thank my hon. Friend for the role that he played on the Bill Committee in getting that legislation on to the statute book. It will help to prevent homelessness in Poole and elsewhere. I agree that there is a lot that individuals can do to help to end the homelessness cycle, including by getting involved with voluntary groups such as Routes to Roots in his constituency, and to make a real difference for vulnerable people.
Housing First — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I can tell that the hon. Lady shares our desire, and that of all Members, to fight homelessness and rough sleeping. That is why I am sure that she will welcome the £1 billion that the Government have allocated to 2020 to fight homelessness, including £315 million for core funding for local authorities.
Housing First — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): I commend the Government for initiating the Housing First pilots, but what assessment has my right hon. Friend made of rough sleeping in London, which is clearly under the greatest pressure? We want to ensure that people get a firm home of their own and that the Mayor of London actually delivers affordable housing for the capital.
Housing First — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that my hon. Friend cares deeply about this issue and has done much on it, not least through his work on the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. He is right to raise this issue. We will not solve the problem of homelessness in this country unless London does its bit, and I am afraid that the Mayor of London is letting the people of London down. In his first year in office, not a single home for social rent was started in London. That is a tragic record.
Housing First — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope that the hon. Lady agrees that it makes sense to pilot Housing First properly so that we ensure that when it can be rolled out across the country, it will work properly. That is why we have set up the pilot areas. There are still lots of types of help in other parts of the country, much of which comes from the £1 billion of funding that we have allocated to 2020, which includes funding for local authorities such as York.
Housing First — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I share the concerns of many hon. Members, which is why the Government have made fighting homelessness and reducing rough sleeping an absolute priority. The hon. Lady’s question recognises that action is required on many fronts—economic, mental health, addiction and other issues—and the Government have put together a programme to pursue them.
Fire Safety — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful for the recommendations of Dame Judith Hackitt’s "Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety". Our building safety programme is making good progress in identifying potentially unsafe aluminium composite material cladding in English tower blocks. Through that and future action, we will make buildings much safer.
Fire Safety — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Royston Matthew Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): The use of sprinklers in high-rise blocks has been widely discussed since the tragic event at Grenfell Tower. Many of our tower blocks are constructed using individual compartments that are designed to prevent the spread of fire to other flats. However, there are many examples of where the integrity of such compartments has been compromised. Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that the fire resistant properties of individual flats will form part of the ongoing reviews?
Fire Safety — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Public Lands
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend raises an important point. Fire and rescue services have visited over 1,250 high-rise buildings since the tragedy at Grenfell Tower, and those inspections have included the checking of compartmentalisation, fire doors and other relevant features. The National Fire Chiefs Council has reaffirmed the principle of "stay put", but it is the responsible person who must determine what is appropriate for each particular building.
Fire Safety — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I am happy to reiterate that the responsible person in such situations is clearly the freeholder. Whatever the legal case might be, the freeholder should take responsibility. My hon. Friend the Minister for Housing has spoken to the chief executive officer of Proxima GR Properties, the company in this case, and is engaged in dialogue to try to see what we can do to ensure that it does the right thing.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): There are too many people sleeping rough and I am determined to do more. That is why the rough sleeping and homelessness reduction taskforce will deliver a cross-Government strategy to tackle this issue, with the help of an expert advisory panel.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): That is an interesting question, because those statistics are not aligned with November’s rough sleeping statistics. However, we recognise concerns about viability assessments for affordable housing. Last autumn we consulted on proposals to simplify viability assessments and increase transparency. We will announce further details of our approach when we publish the new national planning policy framework consultation later this year.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her question but, frankly, this is not a laughing matter. The Government are clear that one person without a home is too many. We have already taken steps towards combating rough sleeping and homelessness. For instance, we have implemented the most ambitious legislative reform in decades through the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which comes into force this April. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for all his hard work on that Act. We will ensure that more people get the help they need earlier to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, which rather seemed to be about a devolved matter. As the nation gets to grips with this issue, the rough sleeping advisory panel, which I will chair, will include key figures from local and central Government, as well as homelessness charities. The panel’s role will be to support the taskforce in developing a cross-Government strategy to halve rough sleeping by 2022, and to eliminate it altogether by 2027. The first meeting of the advisory panel will take place on 1 February.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): I like truths across the whole UK. The interesting issue will be the amount of money and the packages that we can put in place to spread funding for affordable housing across the nation. That is something that we are determined to do.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): The interesting thing about the Wolverhampton area is that it is part of the west midlands, so we are working very hard with Mayor Andy Street, who will be joining me on the rough sleeping strategy panel. I look forward to our first meeting on 1 February.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Michelle Emma May Elizabeth Donelan (Conservative, Centre-right): I am launching an appeal for mobile phones with local charity Doorway to enable those who are homeless or suffering to get back on their feet—literally—and have an emergency lifeline. Will the Minister offer support for what is, for some people, a controversial initiative locally and agree that it is much more controversial that in the UK today we still have some people who are homeless, which is why the Government are prioritising that area?
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Other
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for referring to that interesting, innovative way to deal with such issues in the future, and I would be interested to see how the pilot in her area works. I congratulate her local area on being so proactive.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is quite correct: this is a complex matter involving some inherent difficulties such as mental health issues, family breakdown, crisis and chaos, but equally, the state has to be fair-handed, and if people are begging aggressively and have properties of their own, the state will do what it has to do. Our focus is on rough sleepers who need the help most.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a pleasure to welcome the Minister to her place. She will be aware that, following a grant that provided funding for the Torbay End Street Homelessness campaign, we have seen the number of rough sleepers fall. Will she confirm how work of that sort will be complemented by the Homelessness Reduction Act coming into force later this year?
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend, whom I have known for many years, for his good question. We want to pick up on the pilots around the country that are working so well, and the Homelessness Reduction Act means that councils will have a duty to try to help people before they become homeless. That is why, as part of a suite of efforts, we are looking into dealing with these matters. We are confident that, by 2022, we will halve rough sleeping in this country.
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): There has been a noticeable increase in the number of rough sleepers in Shipley over the past year or so. Will the Minister set out what the Government are doing with Bradford Council to try to deal with that issue? Does she agree that, to help homeless people, it is important that Bradford Council develops new housing in cheaper, affordable areas in Bradford, rather than concentrating on building unaffordable, expensive houses on the green belt in Wharfedale in my constituency?
Rough Sleeping — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that question; he never fails to disappoint. Interestingly, one area where councils will be able to flex their muscles more is in taking on empty homes and looking into quality rented properties that are affordable for everybody so that communities stay together. I think that is something Bradford Council ought to do.
Affordable Homes: Rural Areas — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): More than 119,000 affordable homes have been delivered in rural communities since 2010. Homes England has invested £142 million in the rural affordable homes programme schemes in the past four years, which is around 9% of total spend.
Affordable Homes: Rural Areas — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Neil Quentin Gordon Parish (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much welcome those figures on affordable homes. There are redundant farm building sites, which could be classed as brownfield sites. If they were, that would release a lot more land for affordable homes. Will the Minister consider that, please?
Affordable Homes: Rural Areas — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right: we have introduced a requirement for each local authority to publish registers of brownfield land. More than 90% of local authorities have done so, and the information to date suggests that nearly 16,500 brownfield sites covering 26,000 hectares have already been identified in England alone.
Affordable Homes: Rural Areas — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): Since 2010, we have delivered more than 370,000 new affordable homes, but of course we are ambitious to do more—working with housing associations and local mayors such as Andy Street. Of course, we have raised the housing revenue account borrowing cap for local authorities to give them greater flexibility.
Affordable Homes: Rural Areas — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Public Lands
Patrick McLoughlin (Conservative, Centre-right): In welcoming my hon. Friend to his new role, may I ask him to look, with the intellectual vigour that I know he has, into what national parks do to supply affordable homes? They are not exempt from the need.
Affordable Homes: Rural Areas — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has considerable experience, both as a Minister and as a long-standing Member. We will certainly look into all such matters because we are absolutely committed to using every lever that we possibly can to increase home building in this country for the next generation.
Affordable Homes: Rural Areas — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is right, and a lot of social housing is of a co-operative nature. It particularly depends on any given community’s specific needs, which are often for the local authorities to help to identify. Local authorities in rural areas need to focus on the particular needs of their communities. For example, some areas have rural exception sites, which provide long-term protection for affordable homes in rural areas.
Coastal Communities — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Jacob Gilchrist Berry (Conservative, Centre-right): Since 2012, we have invested £174 million in 295 coastal communities fund projects throughout the UK. Those projects are forecast to deliver 18,000 jobs, and we have announced that round 5 of the coastal community fund, worth £40 million, will open shortly.
Coastal Communities — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Public Lands
Peter James Guy Aldous (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the Minister for that reply. The Lowestoft coastal communities team has developed an exciting strategy for the regeneration of the town’s historic seafront. Will my hon. Friend visit Lowestoft to see for himself the work that will transform Britain’s most easterly town into the east coast’s destination of choice?
Coastal Communities — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Public Lands
James Jacob Gilchrist Berry (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend’s constituency has already received more than £1.5 million from the coastal communities fund, which shows how he is delivering for his constituents through his campaigning. I would be delighted to visit when I am in his area.
Coastal Communities — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Public Lands
James Jacob Gilchrist Berry (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course I will be happy to discuss having a meeting with the people to whom the hon. Lady refers. However, I gently point out that this Government—the UK Government—have already invested £174 million in our coastal communities and are getting behind those communities. What have the Scottish Government done? I think nothing.
Self-build Housing: South-west — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Scott Leslie Mann (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Minister to his place. May I just ask him what discussions he has had with the Treasury regarding the continuation of the community housing fund to deliver more local houses for people in Cornwall?
Self-build Housing: South-west — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to raise this issue. The community housing fund was worth £60 million in its first year. In the context of the Budget in November, we announced that it would be continuing for a further three years. That includes capital and revenue funding, and it is part of the Government’s drive to support community groups bringing forward home-build projects.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Questions: What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.; What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are piloting 100% business rates retention and have seen extraordinary applications for those pilots, and we are learning from them to design the appropriate system to take over in 2019-20 together with, as the hon. Lady said, a full review of fair funding, so that we can get the allocations right.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Questions: What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.; What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I gently point out to the hon. Lady that core spending power per dwelling in the 10% most deprived local authorities is actually 23% higher than that in the least deprived, and indeed in her local authority, it is 11% higher than the national average.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.; What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Government’s best value inspection of Northamptonshire County Council. Will the Minister ensure that the transfer of the fire service out of the council to the police and crime commissioner is not delayed by this inspection?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.; What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.
Marcus John Hudson Fysh (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome my hon. Friend to his new post. Somerset, which is underfunded relative to other local authorities, was disappointed not to be part of the business rates pilot. Will he meet me to discuss the upcoming local government finance round?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Questions: What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.; What assessment he has made of the effect of the local government finance settlement on the ability of local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities.
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): The Valuation Office Agency made a mistake with the initial calculations. That was corrected and the Department has moved swiftly to provide accurate information to local authorities. I gently point out that overall the error meant that local authorities will receive an increase in the business rates retention forecast for this year.
Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Jacob Gilchrist Berry (Conservative, Centre-right): Under Sir John Armitt’s leadership, the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission is engaging all interested parties, including on last Friday’s visit to Southend airport, which I understand my hon. Friend attended. The commission is developing an ambitious vision for south Essex, north Kent and east London, and will publish its final report this spring.
Carillion — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Other
James Jacob Gilchrist Berry (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not aware of any meetings taking place or advice being given. However, I will check the records when I return to the Department and write to the hon. Gentleman if there have been such meetings.
Homes for Social Rent — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): We are not going to take on Labour’s plans in this area or any other, because frankly they are not sustainable. We are going to increase the affordable homes budget to £9 billion up to 2021. We are restless to deliver more affordable homes, including for social rent. The hon. Gentleman may like to know that in the past year there were 1,100 new housing starts in Manchester, and we are talking to the Mayor of Manchester about the housing deal, which will include a social housing component.
Homes for Social Rent — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): The record speaks for itself. We have delivered 357,000 more affordable homes since 2010—more than in the preceding seven years under the previous Labour Government. We are raising the cap; we did that in the last Budget. We are also creating a stable financial envelope for local authorities and housing associations with long-term rent deals: the settlement is CPI plus 1%. That is the sustainable way to drive home building in this country.
Surplus Public Land — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In the 2015 autumn statement, the Chancellor set out our aim to release enough Government land by 2020 for 160,000 extra homes to be built. The Government are providing local authorities with money to help to facilitate that. I met Nick Walkley, the CEO of Homes England, last week to make sure that we get cracking on this top priority.
Temporary Accommodation — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): Temporary accommodation ensures that no family is left without a roof over their head. Prevention is at the centre of our approach to protect the most vulnerable. We are spending over £1 billion until 2020 to prevent homelessness, as well as implementing the most ambitious legislative reform in decades—the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman).
Temporary Accommodation — House of Commons, 2018-01-22
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much regret to have to point out to the hon. Lady that the number of children living in temporary accommodation is lower than at its peak in 2006. In 2011, we changed the law so that councils can place families in decent and affordable private rented homes. This now—[Interruption.] Behave yourself, love, please. This now means that homeless households should not have to wait as long for settled accommodation.