Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to ensuring that building owners, whether freeholders, commonhold associations or enfranchised leaseholders, who are required to remedy non ‘life-critical fire safety defects’ have an automatic remedy against the person responsible for the defective construction.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Interested parties including freeholders, leaseholders, commonhold associations or enfranchised leaseholders can potentially look to pursue a previous freeholder, developer and any associated company or person for remediation costs through a remediation contribution order. They also have the potential to pursue developers, contractors, or manufacturers where they are liable for defects which meant one or more dwelling in the building was not fit for habitation when the relevant works were completed.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department issues to the police on their role in investigating allegations of bribery in local council operations; and what support his Department provides to local forces handling such cases.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is committed to ensuring the good record of transparency, probity, scrutiny, and accountability is maintained across councils in this country.
Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 requires that a councillor must not participate in a discussion or vote on a matter where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest in any matter to be considered at a meeting. Section 30(3) of the Localism Act 2011 further provides that any relevant pecuniary interests of a councillor’s spouse or partner are considered as a disclosable pecuniary interest of the councillor. Government has published guidance on disclosable pecuniary interests available.
It is a criminal offence to fail to declare pecuniary interests, which acts as a strong deterrent against corruption.
Every principal council has a Monitoring Officer, whose statutory role is to report on matters that they believe are, or likely to be, illegal or amount to maladministration.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidelines his Department issues to (a) local authorities and (b) police forces for handling allegations of bribery and corruption in council operations.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is committed to ensuring the good record of transparency, probity, scrutiny, and accountability is maintained across councils in this country.
Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 requires that a councillor must not participate in a discussion or vote on a matter where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest in any matter to be considered at a meeting. Section 30(3) of the Localism Act 2011 further provides that any relevant pecuniary interests of a councillor’s spouse or partner are considered as a disclosable pecuniary interest of the councillor. Government has published guidance on disclosable pecuniary interests available.
It is a criminal offence to fail to declare pecuniary interests, which acts as a strong deterrent against corruption.
Every principal council has a Monitoring Officer, whose statutory role is to report on matters that they believe are, or likely to be, illegal or amount to maladministration.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a cross-departmental strategy to end youth homelessness.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is committed to tackling all forms of homelessness including youth homelessness.
The Government’s ‘Ending Rough Sleeping for Good’ Strategy, published in 2022 and backed by £2.4 billion, recognises young people face particular challenges. The strategy confirmed a £200 million investment in the Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP) which will deliver homes for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping, including young people. In addition, £2.5 million of Rough Sleeping Initiative funding for 2022-2025 supports youth services in local areas.
The department will continue to work with local authorities and partners in the voluntary and community sector and private sector to tackle youth homelessness.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to amend the list of acceptable photo ID before the next General Election.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/supporting-our-veterans-a-consultation. Further policy will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 23 November 2023 to Question 1227 on Local Government Finance: Audit, how many new professionals have qualified to audit local authority accounts from the Chartered Institute of Public Accountancy; and how that figure compares with expectations for 2024.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Local Audit Qualification was launched by the Chartered Institute of Public Accountancy. The department does not hold the requested information.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government which types of defect data they collect when assessing the prevalence of non-cladding defects in residential buildings.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department receives quarterly updates from Registered Providers of social housing on progress towards remediating buildings for which they are the Responsible Entity. This includes data on buildings with external and/or internal life-critical fire safety defects. In addition to unsafe cladding, relevant defects may include but are not limited to: compartmentation between dwellings or between dwellings and common parts; inadequate fire stopping or fire barriers; incorrect or missing fire escape signage; inadequate or defective fire detection and alarm systems; unprotected means of escape; and inadequate or defective firefighting equipment or installations.
The Department also receives quarterly updates from developers that have signed the developer remediation contract. This too includes data on buildings with external and/ or internal life-critical fire safety defects.
Asked by: George Galloway (Workers Party of Britain - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of mould in the (a) owner-occupied, (b) private rented and (c) social rented sector.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As set out in my answer to Question UIN 24168 on 3 May 2024, the English Housing Survey sets out levels of damp and mould in all tenures of residential accommodation. Details are available online.
For more information on the health impacts of damp and mould in homes, please see our consolidated guidance developed with the Department of Health and Social Care. It can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/damp-and-mould-understanding-and-addressing-the-health-risks-for-rented-housing-providers.
Following the tragic death of the two-year-old Awaab Ishak, due to the appalling housing conditions that Awaab Ishak and his family had to live in, the Secretary of State summoned the leadership of their landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, to explain why such catastrophic failures had been allowed to happen. The Government has also legislated for ‘Awaab’s law’, introduced via the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023.
In his written statement of 9 January 2024 (HCWS174) the Secretary of State launched a consultation on how ‘Awaab’s law’ will operate in practice, including the specific requirements on social landlords. The consultation closed on 5 March 2024 and we are analysing the responses. Once this has been completed, we will bring forward secondary legislation as soon as possible.
The department, last year, provided £15 million of funding to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to tackle the worst cases of damp and mould. They have now completed improvements to around 4,000 homes.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to help ensure that help to buy homeowners are advised accurately by Homes England on retaining their exiting mortgage when they are going through divorce and have the means to pay.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
It is not the role of Homes England to offer financial advice to Help to Buy: Equity Loan customers. Customers are advised to consider seeking independent advice before making any financial decisions. I have asked Departmental officials to reach out to my Hon Friend to discuss this further.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment on the potential impact of increased service charges on (a) leaseholders and (b) local authorities in Oxfordshire.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Service charges should be transparent, reasonable and there should be a clear route to challenge or redress if things go wrong and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill will help make this reality.
The Government has set out its position on leasehold reform as part of progress on the Leasehold and Freehold reform Bill. Full details of the measures can be found here: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.