Written questions by Jogee.

Communities and Local Government, how many people have received funding from the Disabled Facilities Grant in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire in each of the last 14 years.

Government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling older and disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment. This is why on 3 January 2025 government announced an immediate £86 million in-year uplift to the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), taking the funding total to £711 million for 2024-25. This will allow 7,800 more eligible people to make vital improvements to their home allowing them to live more independent lives and reducing hospitalisations.Furthermore, government announced an £86 million additional investment in the DFG for the 2025-26 financial year at the Autumn Budget (bringing total funding for 2025-26 to £711 million).Government continues to keep all aspects of the DFG under consideration. As part of this process, we are reviewing the suitability of the current upper limit.Government does not hold data on how many people have received DFG funding. The table below sets out the number of completed grants for the (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire in each of the last 14 years, taken from voluntary, unaudited and incomplete data provided annually by local authorities in England. Due to changes in reporting mechanisms, completions data for financial year 2017-18 is not available.YearNumber of DFGs completed(a) Newcastle-under-Lyme(b)Staffordshire2010-20111309322011-201211610182012-2013Incomplete dataIncomplete data2013-201495Incomplete data2014-20151196832015-2016Incomplete dataIncomplete data2016-2017118Incomplete data2017-2018N/AN/A2018-20191207542019-2020756592020-2021605732021-20221357032022-2023878642023-202492984

Communities and Local Government, what steps she plans to take to improve outcomes in the conveyancing process.

The government recognises that the current home buying and selling process in England is slow, costly and stressful, and that conveyancing is one reason for this.Digitalisation can make the home buying and selling process more transparent and efficient for the conveyancing sector.His Majesty's Land Registry (HMLR) have already made progress on this issue through their Local Land Charges programme which will assist in providing quicker, more accurate responses to property search requests, potentially taking weeks off transaction times.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using digitisation to speed up the conveyancing process.

The government recognises that the current home buying and selling process in England is slow, costly and stressful, and that conveyancing is one reason for this.Digitalisation can make the home buying and selling process more transparent and efficient for the conveyancing sector.His Majesty's Land Registry (HMLR) have already made progress on this issue through their Local Land Charges programme which will assist in providing quicker, more accurate responses to property search requests, potentially taking weeks off transaction times.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with the Land Registry on digitising the conveyancing process.

The government recognises that the current home buying and selling process in England is slow, costly and stressful, and that conveyancing is one reason for this.Digitalisation can make the home buying and selling process more transparent and efficient for the conveyancing sector.His Majesty's Land Registry (HMLR) have already made progress on this issue through their Local Land Charges programme which will assist in providing quicker, more accurate responses to property search requests, potentially taking weeks off transaction times.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has had discussions with representatives from the Church Urban Fund since 5 July 2024.

My officials are in regular contact with the Church Urban Fund and I am pleased to say that my department has recently agreed to fund the Church Urban Fund up to £515,000 in this financial year to deliver the Near Neighbours programme. This funding is subject to clearance through the department’s internal finance and due diligence processes.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help reduce the number of (a) people and (b) children living in temporary accommodation in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected. Local authorities report their statutory homelessness statistics on a quarterly basis and these can be accessed: here.The Government is taking action by setting up a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) which the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) will chair, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including:Delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament.Abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of allowing the people of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands to elect Members to sit in the House of Commons.

The Government has made no assessment on allowing people of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands to elect Members to sit in the House of Commons.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has had recent discussions with the Electoral Commission on the use of photo ID issued by the Ministry of Defence by veterans when voting in elections.

On the 15th of October the government laid the statutory instrument required to add the Veteran Card to the list of photographic identifications accepted in polling stations as voter ID, thereby fulfilling a key manifesto commitment.The Ministry consulted with the Electoral Commission on this statutory instrument in August this year – the Commission supported the amendments proposed.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of compulsory voting in (a) local and (b) general elections.

No assessment of compulsory voting has been made.