Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the building of homes for social rent from the 7,000 built in 2019 to help address the waiting list of more than 1.1 million households.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Local authorities have freedom to set their own criteria determining who qualifies for social housing in their district, through changes introduced in the Localism Act 2011. However, they must ensure that reasonable preference (overall priority) for social housing is given to certain categories of people in housing need, including homeless households, people living in overcrowded housing, and those who have medical and welfare needs.
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and are investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade.
This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, which will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow. The new programme will deliver more than double the social rent than the current programme, with around 32,000 social rent homes due to be delivered.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on what basis they decided to reduce housebuilding in northern cities such as Newcastle and Liverpool; and what assessment they have made of how such a reduction will impact (1) house prices, and (2) rents, in affected areas.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
There has been no such decision. The consultation on changes to the current planning system set out the elements we want to balance when determining local housing need, including meeting our target of building 300,000 homes, tackling affordability challenges in the places people most want to live, regenerating brownfield sites and renewing and levelling up our towns and cities.
The proposals were out for consultation until 1 October 2020. Following consideration of the consultation responses received, the Government will reflect carefully on feedback and publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are planning to take to avoid a substantial number of tenants of private housing being evicted when the stay on house possession proceedings is lifted.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
To help prevent people getting into financial hardship or rent arrears, the Government has put in place an unprecedented support package, including support for business to pay staff salaries through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, £9.3 billion of additional support through the welfare system this year, and increasing Local Housing Allowance rates so that they are set at the 30 th percentile of local market rents in each area.
Legislation has been introduced that means, from 29 August 2020, landlords must give tenants six months’ notice before they can evict in most circumstances, apart from the most egregious cases – such as incidents of anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse perpetrators – where it is right that landlords should be able to start progressing cases quicker, because of the pressure they place on landlords, other tenants and local communities. This will be in force until 31 March 2021.
In addition, new court rules, which will come into force on 20 September, will mean landlords will need to set out in their claim any relevant information about a tenant’s circumstances, including information on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Where this information is not provided, judges will have the ability to adjourn proceedings.
We will keep these measures under review?and decisions?will continue?to be guided by the latest public health advice.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that private tenants who have fallen into rent arrears as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic will not be liable for eviction.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
To enable tenants to continue to pay their living costs, the Government has implemented a strong package of financial support. This includes support for business to pay staff salaries through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, £9.3 billion of additional support through the welfare system this year and an increase of the Local Housing Allowance rate to the 30th percentile.
The stay on possession proceedings has been extended until 20 September 2020, meaning that in total no tenant can have been legally evicted for six months at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Legislation has also been introduced that means, from 29 August 2020 until 31 March 2021, landlords must give tenants six months’ notice before they can evict in most circumstances, apart from the most serious cases.? The extension of the stay on possession proceedings and changes to notice periods will ensure those most at risk will be protected and provide time for tenants to agree a solution with their landlord if they are unable to pay their rent or consider moving to avoid building up unsustainable debt.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage landlords and developers of high rise blocks to address the fire risks associated with (1) dangerous cladding, and (2) other sources of risk.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government has made £1.6 billion of funding available for the removal of unsafe cladding systems. We have also put in place additional project management support with construction expertise to help support individual projects and oversee remediation, so there is no excuse for delay. Where building owners are failing to make acceptable progress on remediation, those responsible should expect enforcement action to be taken by local authorities and Fire and Rescue Services. The Government established a Joint Inspection Team to support local authorities in taking enforcement action.
The Government?has?also introduced?the Fire Safety Bill to put beyond doubt that, as part of the fire risk assessment process, building owners and managers of multi-occupied residential premises of any height are required to fully consider and mitigate the risks of any external wall systems and front doors to individual flats. The Fire Safety Bill completed its passage through the House of Commons on 7th September and was introduced in the House of Lords on 8th September.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish their social housing White Paper.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government will publish the Social Housing White Paper later this year and I refer the noble Lord to my answer on 16th June 2020 to Baroness Sanderson of Welton (Official Record, House of Lords, Vol. 803. Col. 2043).
Asked by: Lord Beecham (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 11 May (HL3496), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what estimate they have made of the number of properties in which second home owners falsely claim to live to avoid council tax.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government has undertaken no such estimate since second homes are liable for council tax, subject to any discounts which the council may apply locally, irrespective of whether they are occupied or not. 95% of properties that are classed as second homes are charged the full rate of council tax.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (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 report by the Affordable Housing Commission Making Housing Affordable Again: Rebalancing the Nation’s Housing System, published in March; and what estimate they have made of the number of properties in which second home owners falsely claim to live to avoid council tax.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government agrees that we need to maximise the supply of new affordable housing and make sure that more people in housing need can have access to a good quality social home.? We announced at Budget 2020 that we are investing £12bn to build affordable homes between 2021/22 and 2025/26. This will be the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade.
All second homes are liable for council tax, subject to any discounts which the council may apply locally, regardless of whether they are occupied. 95% of properties that are classed as second homes are charged the full rate.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much revenue funding they have provided to English local authorities in each year since 2010.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
Spending Power is our best measure of the resources which local authorities can access each year. The definition of Spending Power is not comparable over the period 2010-11 to 2020-21 due to changes in the finance and function of local government. A consistent measure of Core Spending Power is however available for the period 2015-16 to 2020-21. Please see a link to the CSP table on the Gov Website (attached): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2020-to-2021 The full table is under ‘supporting information’.