Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that students are not exploited in the private renting market.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Government has taken significant action over the past decade to protect all tenants, including students. This includes capping tenancy deposits at five weeks' rent and preventing landlords and agents from charging undue or excess letting fees. We have also improved standards by requiring landlords to provide smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as well as conduct electrical safety checks.
The Government published a White Paper on 16 June 2022 setting out our plans to reform the private rented sector and level up housing across the country. Our reforms will provide more secure and high-quality homes and create a stable rental market for landlords to remain and invest. We know that some landlords are concerned about how the new tenancy system will work for students, and we are considering how we can best support the student lettings market.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to paragraph 104 of the Government’s response to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee report on Leasehold Reform, CP 99, published in July 2019, what recent progress he has made on reforming leasehold, working with the Law Commission.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Government has already legislated via the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 to protect future leaseholders and we are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
On 11 January 2022, the Government launched a consultation on a number of recommendations made by the Law Commission that broaden the rights of leaseholders. We will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of leasehold regulation relating to service charges.
Answered by Lee Rowley
Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. Leaseholders may make an application to the appropriate tribunal to challenge the reasonableness of their service charges.
We are committed to better protecting and empowering leaseholders by giving them more information on what their costs pay for. This will help them more effectively challenge their landlord if they consider their fees are unreasonable. We are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this parliament.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the affordability of renting in the private sector for young people.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The most recent English Housing Survey found that on average households in the private rented sector with a household reference person* aged 16-24 spent 37% of their income on rent. This is higher than the overall average across private renters of 31% of income being spent on rent.
*A HRP or household reference person is the person in whose name the accommodation is rented. If the property is rented jointly, it is the person in the household with the highest income.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to allow housing associations to share energy efficient data through the publication of Energy Performance Certificates.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Disclosure of data gathered to support an Energy Performance Certificate is prohibited by Regulation 29 of the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2012 unless in accordance with specific provisions; sharing data outside these tightly defined parameters may create a criminal liability.
There has been no change in the Government’s position in this area. Energy efficiency information from Energy Performance Certificates is available to housing associations from the Energy Performance of Buildings Register and the Open Data Communities website. We recognise that wider use of Energy Performance of Buildings data could support energy efficiency investment plans for building stock, making further progress towards net zero in both domestic and non-domestic properties.
We intend to hold a consultation on potential changes to the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations later this year and officials in my department are developing a proposal for sharing a larger subset of the data collected for Energy Performance Certificates with building owners.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the decision to instruct housing associations to stop sharing energy efficiency data due to a clause in the Energy Performance of Building Regulations 2012 that makes it an offence for Energy Performance certificate (EPC) data to be shared.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Disclosure of data gathered to support an Energy Performance Certificate is prohibited by Regulation 29 of the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2012 unless in accordance with specific provisions; sharing data outside these tightly defined parameters may create a criminal liability.
There has been no change in the Government’s position in this area. Energy efficiency information from Energy Performance Certificates is available to housing associations from the Energy Performance of Buildings Register and the Open Data Communities website. We recognise that wider use of Energy Performance of Buildings data could support energy efficiency investment plans for building stock, making further progress towards net zero in both domestic and non-domestic properties.
We intend to hold a consultation on potential changes to the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations later this year and officials in my department are developing a proposal for sharing a larger subset of the data collected for Energy Performance Certificates with building owners.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the capability of housing associations being in a position to (a) develop stock investment plans and (b) apply for funding such as the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Disclosure of data gathered to support an Energy Performance Certificate is prohibited by Regulation 29 of the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2012 unless in accordance with specific provisions; sharing data outside these tightly defined parameters may create a criminal liability.
There has been no change in the Government’s position in this area. Energy efficiency information from Energy Performance Certificates is available to housing associations from the Energy Performance of Buildings Register and the Open Data Communities website. We recognise that wider use of Energy Performance of Buildings data could support energy efficiency investment plans for building stock, making further progress towards net zero in both domestic and non-domestic properties.
We intend to hold a consultation on potential changes to the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations later this year and officials in my department are developing a proposal for sharing a larger subset of the data collected for Energy Performance Certificates with building owners.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether small housing association providers with fewer than1000 properties will be covered by the provisions of the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Bill will enable a new, proactive approach to regulating social housing landlords on consumer issues, and will give tenants and the Regulator of Social Housing new tools to hold landlords to account. These changes will drive up the standard of social housing across the country and relate to all registered providers of social housing, regardless of their size.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reason non-direct debit applications for the council tax energy rebate are required to be verified via a credit and bank check before a payment is issued.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Councils should undertake pre-payment checks prior to the payment of any rebate which is not awarded to the holder of a live direct debit instruction. The checks are intended to help reduce the risk of fraud or error through ensuring the person applying for the rebate is entitled to the payment and that the payment details provided belong to an entitled person and relate to the relevant address.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department has taken to ensure appropriate vetting and safeguarding measures are in place during the matching process of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme to protect lone female refugees from exploitation.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
In addition to the security and police checks completed on all adults in a sponsor household prior to issuing a visa, guidance about security and local authority checks designed to safeguard individuals can be found via https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homes-for-ukraine-scheme-frequently-asked-questions#sponsors and www.gov.uk/guidance/homes-for-ukraine-guidance-for-councils#role-of-councils .