Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - 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 Bourne of Aberystwyth on 14 May (HL15410), why the building regulations do not take account of the contribution of glass cladding to global warming.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Building Regulations set minimum energy performance standards for new homes and non-domestic buildings. The principal way that developers demonstrate compliance is through a whole building energy calculation. For a new building, the properties of the glazing and façade would be taken into account in the calculation of overall energy performance and therefore the carbon emissions from the building.
Asked by: Lord Patten (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 risks attributed to the wooden cladding of flats and terraced homes in England.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
In December 2018, the Government banned combustible materials in the external walls of new high-rise residential buildings that contain flats, as well as hospitals, residential care premises, student accommodation and residential accommodation in schools for those buildings which have a top storey more than 18 metres above ground level.
The Department started in December 2018 a technical review of the statutory guidance to the Building Regulation dealing with fire safety. A call for evidence was published on 18 December 2018 and closed on 15 March 2019. The call for evidence asked for views on the trigger heights and thresholds used in the document.
Asked by: Lord Patten (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 (1) the cash reserves held by local authorities in England that are not ring-fenced; and (2) whether those reserves are necessary; and whether they intend to encourage councils to use some of those reserves to help local services.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Non-ringfenced revenue reserves are either earmarked, as a result of a policy decision to use them for specific purposes; or unallocated, these reserves are part of a local authority's risk management process, which would be called upon in the event of unexpected costs and emergencies.
All local authorities are required to hold sufficient unallocated reserves to meet unforecastable financial risks. Councils are free to determine the level of reserves they hold and are accountable to their electorate for the decisions they make. No powers exist to redistribute/reclaim this resource. Reserves are funds that are spent at the discretion of the local authority.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following their announcement of 15 April on changes to the private rental sector, whether it will still be possible for (1) universities, and (2) businesses, to procure short-term lets for people coming from abroad for a defined period; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is committed to modernising the private rented sector and intends to introduce a new, fairer deal for both landlords and tenants.
Following the recent announcement to put an end to ‘no-fault’ evictions by repealing section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, we will shortly publish a consultation on the details of our package of reforms. We will use the consultation to test whether specific provisions for different types of housing, such as student accommodation are wanted or needed.
Landlords will still be able seek possession using existing grounds under section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, including the ground relating to accommodation tied to employment. These reforms will allow the flexibility for renters to move, including for work, if they wish. Tenants will still be able to choose to end the tenancy, as long as they provide requisite notice to the landlord, retaining the flexibility we know is important to some renters.
Asked by: Lord Patten (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 effect of their announcement of 15 April on changes to the private rental sector on labour mobility.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is committed to modernising the private rented sector and intends to introduce a new, fairer deal for both landlords and tenants.
Following the recent announcement to put an end to ‘no-fault’ evictions by repealing section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, we will shortly publish a consultation on the details of our package of reforms. We will use the consultation to test whether specific provisions for different types of housing, such as student accommodation are wanted or needed.
Landlords will still be able seek possession using existing grounds under section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, including the ground relating to accommodation tied to employment. These reforms will allow the flexibility for renters to move, including for work, if they wish. Tenants will still be able to choose to end the tenancy, as long as they provide requisite notice to the landlord, retaining the flexibility we know is important to some renters.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the announcement made on 22 April by the New York City Mayor that he intends to ban glass clad skyscrapers because of their contribution to global warming; and whether they consider it to have any implications for future construction of high rise buildings in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Building Regulations set minimum energy performance standards for new homes and non-domestic buildings. They are deliberately couched in performance terms and do not prescribe the technologies, materials or fuels to be used, allowing builders the flexibility to innovate and select the most practical and cost effective solutions in particular circumstances. We plan to consult in the coming months on improving energy efficiency requirements in new and existing buildings where the evidence suggests it is cost effective, affordable, practical and safe to do so.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which local authorities in England have yet to take up the opportunity to apply a council tax premium of 50 per cent on unoccupied homes.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
35 billing authorities in England did not apply a council tax premium in 2017-18 on homes that have been empty for two years or more – which is the latest year for which data is available centrally (see table below). Some of these authorities may have introduced the premium in 2018-19. Of the 291 billing authorities that applied a premium in 2017-18, three applied premiums at less than the 50% rate. These are Harrogate (25%), Richmondshire (10%) and Rutland (10%)
Billing authorities that did not apply a council tax empty homes premium in 2017-18 |
Amber Valley |
Blaby |
Bolsover |
Bromley |
Bromsgrove |
Broxbourne |
Castle Point |
Cheltenham |
Chiltern |
City of London |
Corby |
Derbyshire Dales |
Dover |
Forest of Dean |
Gloucester |
Gosport |
Hambleton |
Harborough |
Hinckley & Bosworth |
Isles of Scilly |
New Forest |
North East Derbyshire |
North Lincolnshire UA |
North Somerset UA |
North Tyneside |
North West Leicestershire |
Redditch |
Ribble Valley |
Rushcliffe |
Tendring |
Tewkesbury |
Westminster |
Winchester |
Wyre |
Wyre Forest |
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to publish regularly the numbers of unoccupied homes in each English local authority area.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Statistics on vacant dwellings in England and in each local authority district are published in the Ministry’s live table 615 (attached) which is available at the following link. This table shows the annual total numbers of empty homes and those vacant longer than six months and also vacants in the local authority, housing association and other public sector tenures.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants
The number of long-term vacant dwellings across England remains lower than when records began.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the democratic accountability of the new Heart of the South West Joint Committee.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Heart of the South West Joint Committee is a voluntary arrangement of the 17 local authorities in the Heart of the South West geographical area.
A Joint Committee can be created using the provisions of sections 101 to 103 of the Local Government Act 1972, but has no decision making power. Such committees make recommendations to their constituent authorities, who may then choose whether or not to implement them using the usual democratic processes. In the Heart of the South West, the Joint Committee has the delegated function to approve the Heart of the South West Productivity Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - 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 Bourne of Aberystwyth on 23 January (HL4567), whether, since the statutory guidance was revised, they are satisfied that all new blocks of flats over 30 metres in height have had sprinklers fitted; and in the same period, how many existing buildings have been retro-fitted with sprinklers.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Building control bodies have a statutory responsibility to check the plans for building work (consulting fire and rescue authorities as appropriate) and to inspect work on site during the construction phase to assess whether it complies with the requirements in the Building Regulations. Where the work does not comply, under provisions in the Building Act, it is for local authorities to decide when a prosecution for non-compliance with the requirements in the Building Regulations would be appropriate.