The number of people served by LEASE in 2016-17 and 2015-16 is as follows:

*This is actual customers. Total enquiries reflect total contacts i.e. a customer may come to us through more than one channel.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires local authorities, as category one responders, to take action in relation to emergencies. They are required to assess the risks to their local area, make plans to prevent an emergency occurring or to reduce, control or mitigate its effects. No central record is kept of the range of plans held by local authorities. The Department for Communities and Local Government provides help and support to local resilience fora, made up of the category one and two responders in a police area, where necessary, in developing their plans.

Less than 1 per cent.

This is a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Government is absolutely committed to protecting victims of domestic abuse.

In England, we have invested £33.5 million since 2014 in safe accommodation-based services that support victims of domestic abuse. 80 projects across the country are receiving part of our 2016/18 £20 million fund for safe accommodation and local service reform, which will create more than 2,200 bed spaces and support over 19,000 victims.

We set out our expectations of local areas in supporting victims of domestic abuse in our Priorities for Domestic Abuse services, published in November 2016. We are also undertaking a review of funding for refuge in England, including the critical care and support costs, and will conclude by Summer 2018. To inform our review, we have launched a tender for an audit of local authority commissioning of domestic abuse services, including refuge.

We are exploring all options for future delivery of domestic abuse services in England, including a national model for refuges. We are committed to working closely with sector partners, drawing on their expertise and knowledge, as we undertake our review.

As part of the Autumn Budget statement, it was announced that the Government will consult on ways to overcome the barriers landlords can face in offering longer, more secure tenancies to those tenants who want them. We do not have an estimate of those long-term rental units in London that have changed to or are additionally used for short term or holiday lets in the last five years.

The Government’s ambition is for the creation of 30,000 new jobs in Ebbsfleet. Across the main sites, there is currently outline planning permission for 622,259 square metres of office and industrial space, 26,850 square metres of retail space and 192,000 square metres of hotel and leisure space. So far, jobs have been created at a new restaurant/public house and primary school with a new hotel opening in January 2018. There has also been significant job creation in the construction sector, including new apprenticeships.

In the current parliamentary session the Department answered 58 written parliamentary questions on the grounds that some or all of the information requested was not collected or held centrally. This is out of a total of 1529 written parliamentary questions answered (as of 21 December 2017) or 3.8 per cent.

My Department is driving forward the devolution agenda in England. Across government we are making huge strides towards rebalancing the economy and empowering local government. 33 per cent of England’s population now has a directly elected mayor, with new powers to create jobs, improve skills, build homes and make it easier to travel. Across the whole of England we are devolving over £9 billion between 2015 and 2021 to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) through our Growth Deal programme to spend on their priorities for growth. We have also agreed City and Growth Deals in Scotland and Wales and are in the process of negotiating more, including in Northern Ireland, making sure all parts of the UK benefit from the benefits of devolution.

Our place-based Industrial Strategy sets out a bold vision for the future of the UK. We are strengthening the role of LEPs and agreeing new local industrial strategies that build on local strengths and deliver on economic opportunities. We have also committed to replacing EU Structural Funds when we have left the EU, delivering the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will be aimed at reducing inequalities between communities across all four nations.

My Department is also fixing the broken housing market, supporting first time buyers to get on to the housing ladder while ensuring the housing market works for all parts of our community, getting more of the right homes get built in the places people want to live. The reforms my Department has announced put us on track to raise housing supply by the end of the current Parliament to its highest annual level since 1970.

The Troubled Families Programme commits £920 million from my Department to make sure local services intervene early to support families with multiple problems, including for example those affected by domestic abuse, parental conflict, drug, alcohol or mental health problems and where children are in need of help. This programme makes sure children are in education, parents in work and families have better outcomes and are able to be socially mobile.

It is not compulsory for local authorities to offer residents such a choice. The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity provides a series of principles which they should have regard to. Ultimately, it is up to local authorities how they make best use of communications channels to ensure residents are appropriately informed.

The Department does not have any major IT contracts as defined in the guidance published in November 2017.

Officials in my Department follow best practise guidance and principles published by Cabinet Office where applicable to the Department to ensure consistent commercial activity and delivery of continually improved services.

The Government’s planning policies are set out in the National Planning Policy Framework, which was published 2012. This includes policies on assessing planning applications in areas subject to coastal change. In a Coastal Change Management Area, local planning authorities should consider whether development will be safe over its planned lifetime without having an unacceptable impact on coastal change.

They should also ensure that development does not hinder the creation and maintenance of a continuous signed and managed route around the coast. Further information is provided in our planning practice guidance on flood risk and coastal change, issued in 2014.

The Framework also sets out policies on conserving and enhancing the natural environment, including maintaining the character of the undeveloped coast and improving public access to and enjoyment of the coast. To prevent unacceptable risks from land instability, the Framework expects local planning policies and decisions to ensure that new development is appropriate for its location.

The Framework and the planning practice guidance can be accessed through at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-practice-guidance

The Government has a clear planning policy for airfields set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. It recognises the significant contribution that aviation makes to economic growth and requires local authorities, when preparing their Local Plans, to take account of the role of airfields in meeting business, leisure, training and emergency service needs.

Planning guidance supporting the Framework makes clear to local authorities that they should consider the interconnectivity between airfields of different sizes and that they should have regard to the Aviation Policy Framework.

The Government has a clear planning policy for airfields set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. It recognises the significant contribution that aviation makes to economic growth and requires local authorities, when preparing their Local Plans, to take account of the role of airfields in meeting business, leisure, training and emergency service needs.

Planning guidance supporting the Framework makes clear to local authorities that they should consider the interconnectivity between airfields of different sizes and that they should have regard to the Aviation Policy Framework.

No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why this Government has committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it altogether by 2027.

The newly formed Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce will drive forward the implementation of a cross-Government strategy to achieve this.

At Autumn Budget 2017, we announced £28 million of funding to pilot the Housing First approach for some of the country’s most entrenched rough sleepers. This funding forms part of the £1 billion that the Government has allocated until 2020 to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.

Local planning authorities are required to publish a statutory brownfield land register identifying which previously developed sites are suitable for housing by the end of 2017.

My officials have been supporting the implementation of brownfield registers and permission in principle through an active programme of engagement since early summer. We are also identifying authorities to work with whose positive or innovative approach can be used to promote good practice. Further assistance will be provided in 2018 to help promote permission in principle on suitable sites on registers.

Small sites, including sites on brownfield land, have a crucial role to play in increasing housing supply and speeding up delivery. That is why we announced in the Autumn Budget our proposal to expect authorities to bring forward 20 per cent of their housing supply as small sites. This will speed up the building of new homes and support the Government’s wider ambition to increase competition in the house building market. Brownfield registers can contribute to this alongside other measures as authorities have the discretion to include smaller sites in their registers and grant permission in principle on those sites if they wish.

Local planning authorities are required to publish a statutory brownfield land register identifying which previously developed sites are suitable for housing by the end of 2017.

My officials have been supporting the implementation of brownfield registers and permission in principle through an active programme of engagement since early summer. We are also identifying authorities to work with whose positive or innovative approach can be used to promote good practice. Further assistance will be provided in 2018 to help promote permission in principle on suitable sites on registers.

Small sites, including sites on brownfield land, have a crucial role to play in increasing housing supply and speeding up delivery. That is why we announced in the Autumn Budget our proposal to expect authorities to bring forward 20 per cent of their housing supply as small sites. This will speed up the building of new homes and support the Government’s wider ambition to increase competition in the house building market. Brownfield registers can contribute to this alongside other measures as authorities have the discretion to include smaller sites in their registers and grant permission in principle on those sites if they wish.

Local planning authorities are required to publish a statutory brownfield land register identifying which previously developed sites are suitable for housing by the end of 2017.

My officials have been supporting the implementation of brownfield registers and permission in principle through an active programme of engagement since early summer. We are also identifying authorities to work with whose positive or innovative approach can be used to promote good practice. Further assistance will be provided in 2018 to help promote permission in principle on suitable sites on registers.

Small sites, including sites on brownfield land, have a crucial role to play in increasing housing supply and speeding up delivery. That is why we announced in the Autumn Budget our proposal to expect authorities to bring forward 20 per cent of their housing supply as small sites. This will speed up the building of new homes and support the Government’s wider ambition to increase competition in the house building market. Brownfield registers can contribute to this alongside other measures as authorities have the discretion to include smaller sites in their registers and grant permission in principle on those sites if they wish.

My department is working with local authorities and with colleagues across Government to support people suffering from loneliness and to develop policies to reduce social isolation.

Through my department, the Communities Fund is providing resources for 54 partnerships between Local Authorities and communities, some of which are developing projects to help social isolation and loneliness through social prescribing interventions, volunteering and employment. For example, in South Norfolk, a social prescription intervention project will tackle social isolation, reduce use of primary care resources, and help increase access to services in a rural area, and, in Stoke-on-Trent, funding is being used to help communities support older residents, particularly those who are experiencing social isolation and loneliness.

The planning system also encourages local authorities to consider loneliness and social isolation when making decisions. Paragraph 1.16 of the Housing White Paper confirmed the strengthening of the National Planning Policy Framework so that planning authorities are expected to have clear policies for addressing the housing requirements of groups with particular needs, such as elderly and disabled people and the Neighbourhood Planning Bill introduced a new statutory duty on the Secretary of State to produce guidance for local planning authorities on how their local development documents should meet the housing needs of older and disabled people. Guidance produced will place clearer expectations about planning to meet the needs of older people, including supporting the development of such homes near local services.

Additionally, our Supported Housing and Disabled Facilities Grant programmes are helping the target populations live as independently as possible within the community, which helps to prevent loneliness.

All community spaces have an important role to play in preventing loneliness and the Department works closely with local authorities, community groups, and the voluntary and charity sectors to ensure communities know and use the rights they have over their community assets. That can be the local pub, park, community café or local employment services, youth clubs, or social prescribing initiatives. The Pocket Parks Programme, for example, transformed 87 small patches of waste land across England (2015/2016) into community green spaces. Communities not only got a pocket park, but also came together in the planning, execution, and enjoyment of their new community hub, which helped to increase community cohesion and decrease social isolation.

In 2013-14, the Department of Health also added a loneliness measure to the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework and Public Health Outcomes Framework and supported the development of a loneliness toolkit for Health and Wellbeing Boards by the Campaign to End Loneliness, which can be found at http://campaigntoendloneliness.org/guidance/. Local authorities can use these measures as guidance to develop interventions to tackle loneliness and social isolation.