Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many homes they plan to construct in the Oxford–Cambridge Arc (Ox–Cam Arc); in what years they will be built; and how many will be built each year.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
In October 2021, Government completed a 12-week public consultation gathering views to shape a vision for the OxCam Arc Spatial Framework. We continue to work through next steps, in alignment with the priorities set out in the Levelling Up White Paper and will provide more information in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with local authorities concerning the Oxford–Cambridge Arc (Ox–Cam Arc); and what matters each discussion covered.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Department engages regularly with local authorities across the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. These discussions cover a breadth of issues, including local growth, devolution, regeneration, infrastructure, housing and levelling up.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - 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 value of a specialist housing court; and when they will make an announcement of their intentions regarding establishing such a court.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government published a call for evidence in 2018 to better understand and improve the experience of people using courts and tribunal services in property cases and to consider the case for a housing court. A government response is being prepared and will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their appointment on 23 July 2019 of an independent expert to advise on a definition of Islamophobia, when they intend to appoint a second independent adviser to work with Imam Qari Asim.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
We will outline our next steps with the review on the Definition of Islamophobia in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made with reaching a definition of Islamophobia since their statement on 23 July 2019 that "there needs to be a formal definition of Islamophobia to help strengthen our efforts against anti-Muslim hatred".
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Government remains committed to stamping out anti-Muslim hatred and all forms of religious hate crime. It is unacceptable for anyone to feel unsafe while practicing their religion and we continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Muslim hatred. The adoption of a definition of Islamophobia by the Government remains under consideration.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in tackling Islamophobia.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Government has taken strong steps in tackling anti-Muslim hatred in our society. These have included providing TellMAMA with over £4m between 2017 and 2022 to support Muslim victims of hate crime. We have ensured the Protective Security Grant has supported over 84 Mosques to receive enhanced protection measures. Most recently, we have held a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders from the field of countering anti-Muslim hatred to discuss how we can build on this success.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what purposes, if any, they consider will be served by a register of landlords which will not be served by the Landlord–Tenant redress scheme.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is committed to requiring all private landlords to belong to a redress scheme. This will give tenants in the private rented sector a free, non-adversarial route to getting disputes with their landlord resolved outside of court where they have a legitimate complaint about their home. It will also support long-term improvements in the sector.
We have also committed to exploring the merits of introducing a national landlord register in England and there are a range of potential benefits that different models of registration could have, which are additional to those served by expanded redress provision.
These include, but are not limited to, providing local authorities with intelligence on private rented sector properties in their locality, making it easier for private landlords to understand their obligations and helping tenants decide whether to rent a property.
As part of exploring proposals for introducing a landlord register in England, we are considering how the register could interact with wider commitments for reforming the private rented sector.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - 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 need for a register of Landlords and Tenants alongside a separate register for a redress scheme for landlords and tenants.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government has committed to exploring the merits of introducing a national landlord register in England as part of a commitment to drive up standards in privately rented accommodation.
We are engaging with a range of stakeholders and potential users of a register such as private landlords, local authority enforcement officers, letting agents and private tenants to inform this work.
We are committed to giving the private rented sector access to redress. Currently half of all landlords do not use an agent to manage their property and therefore their tenants do not have access to redress where they have a legitimate complaint about their home. This means private tenants who rent directly from a landlord have little course for redress other than through the courts, unlike private tenants who rent through an agent and all social housing tenants who have access to redress schemes. Going to court can be expensive and time-consuming for tenants and landlords and takes up valuable court time and resources. This approach will avoid any confusion for private landlords and will make it easier for them to understand their obligations.
We will publish a White Paper in Spring this year that will set out our proposals for reform of the private rented sector.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - 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 case for specific legislation to protect Gypsies, Roma and Travellers from hate crimes.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
We have one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world to protect communities from hostility, violence and bigotry, and to deal with the perpetrators of hate crime. Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are currently protected under these existing laws.
We asked the Law Commission to conduct a review into the coverage and approach of current hate crime legislation. We are grateful to the Law Commission for the detailed consideration it has given to its review of hate crime laws and we will consider its proposals carefully and respond to the recommendations in due course. We are also bringing forward legislation on our plans to tackle online harms – through the Online Safety Bill – which will set clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.
The Government will publish a new hate crime strategy in due course, which will include tackling racial hate crime, to help stamp out the abhorrent crimes that harm victims and their communities. We have sought views from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community representatives in the development of this new strategy.