Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards increasing the availability of pet-friendly housing for people renting their homes.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government has committed to giving tenants the right to request a pet that the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse. We will amend the Tenant Fees Act 2019 so that landlords can require insurance to cover damage to their property caused by pets. We will legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their A Fairer Private Rented Sector white paper, published on 16 June 2022, whether they intend to introduce legislation to allow more people to be able to own a pet in their rented home; and if so, when.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government has committed to giving tenants the right to request a pet that the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse. We will amend the Tenant Fees Act 2019 so that landlords can require insurance to cover damage to their property caused by pets. We will legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether a requirement to deliver biodiversity net gain will be obligatory for planning decisions under the proposed Levelling up and Planning legislation.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
As the requirement for mandatory biodiversity net gain has already been introduced through the Environment Act 2021, and will be brought into force by 2023, it is not necessary to make provisions for mandatory net gain in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
We are working alongside the principles in the Environment Act 2021 to ensure that development results in environmental improvement rather than merely preventing harm. We will work with Defra to further embed this approach through updates to national planning policy, to ensure that environmental considerations feature fully in all planning decision making.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Greenhalgh on 28 April (HL7965), how many applications for the Community Right to Bid have been received for local land sales.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Department does not collect this information. Councils in England are responsible for overseeing their own Community Right to Bid schemes and are not required to provide updates to Government on local applications. They are however required to make this information available locally by publishing local updates.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce land reform measures to enable local people to bid for land put up for sale.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their statement that “there is a shortage of affordable housing, particularly for local workers” in rural areas in their response on 2 July 2019 to the report by the Select Committee on the Rural Economy Time for a strategy for the rural economy (HL Paper 330, Session 2017–19), what is the net increase in affordable homes in rural areas since July 2019.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Government believes that meeting the housing needs of rural communities is important and nearly 165,000 affordable homes have been provided in rural local authorities in England between April 2010 and March 2019.
We are investing £12.2 billion in affordable housing over 5 years from next year (2021-2026). This represents the highest single funding commitment to affordable housing in a decade.
This investment includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme which will be delivered over 5 years from next year (2021-2026), providing up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow. Homes England’s funding prospectus for this supports the delivery of rural housing, with the commitment of 10% of the housing delivered to be in settlements with a population fewer than 3,000. Furthermore, Homes England has dedicated rural housing champions in each of their operating areas and they remain active across the rural housing sector.
The department collects annual data on new affordable housing supply but does not collect all the data required on disposals of affordable housing that would allow to calculate the net change in affordable housing in rural areas.
The latest available official statistics on new affordable housing supply are for 2018-19. The publication of the statistics for 2019-20 has been provisionally pre-announced for 3rd December 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to require all new-build properties to be built to high energy efficiency standards of a minimum of Energy Performance Certificate C.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to meeting its of net zero emissions by 2050 and recognises the important contribution that the energy efficiency of buildings has to make in meeting it
By 2025, the government will introduce a Future Homes Standard for new build homes to be future-proofed with low carbon heating to create healthy homes that are fit for the future, with low carbon heating and world-leading levels of energy efficiency
As a stepping stone to the Future Homes Standard we are proposing a meaningful but achievable strengthening in these requirements in 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the of the speed of recovery in the communities affected by the November 2019 floods.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The Government has been supporting local authorities from the outset of the November flooding. The Flood Recovery Framework was swiftly activated, to ensure that local authorities could implement local recovery schemes. In partnership with BEIS, the framework provides funding for local authorities to help affected residents and businesses to recover from the flooding, as well as reimbursements to local authorities for providing 100% council tax and business rates to these affected properties.
The Government also committed to matching up to £1 million of funds raised by the South Yorkshire Flood Disaster Relief Appeal Fund. We have pledged a further £300,000 of match-funding for other eligible areas affected by recent flooding, where the Flood Recovery Framework has been activated.
Government continues to engage with local partners to wholly understand the local situation and provide adequate support.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what targets the Regulator of Social Housing has introduced to ensure Registered Social Landlords deliver improved energy efficiency in their homes to meet low carbon commitments.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
In 2018, the Government released the The Clean Growth Strategy which set a target to upgrade all fuel poor homes to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) grade C by 2030 where practical, cost effective and affordable.
The Social Housing Green Paper consultation published this Summer asks what changes to the Decent Homes Standard we should consider, including changes arising from The Clean Growth Strategy.
The Regulator of Social Housing’s Home Standard sets out the required outcomes registered providers are expected to meet in terms of decent homes through the Decent Homes Standard.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to modernise energy performance certificates so that home owners and landlords can make informed choices about how best to deliver low carbon homes.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Energy performance certificates (EPCs) include recommendations for improving the energy efficiency of dwellings and other relevant buildings and are regularly updated to include new energy saving technologies. EPCs are subject to regular auditing and a recently revised set of operating requirements designed to ensure appropriate standards. We have also recently published a joint call for evidence with BEIS, which invited views on several suggestions to improve and modernise the EPC system.