Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to prevent insurers (a) refusing to quote on building insurance cover and (b) charging excessive increases in the premium due to a lack of remediation on buildings under 11 metres which have a B1 fire risk assessment rating.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government continues to actively encourage the insurance industry to take action where significantly inflated insurance costs are apparent. I regularly meet the sector, and its representatives, to press the case for an industry-led solution on this matter and I hope we will hear further, long-awaited news from the industry shortly on this matter. Specifically on buildings under 11m, it is generally accepted that life safety risk is proportional to the height of buildings. The risk to life from historical fire safety defects is lower in buildings under 11m, therefore building safety related remediation works are required in a very small number of buildings under 11m. Whilst individual premium rates are ultimately a matter for insurers, it follows that such rates should be proportionate to the risk.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to page 33 of his Department's Disability Action Plan 2023 to 2024: Consultation, published on 18 July 2023, when his Department plans to publish further details of the sector support programme with the Local Government Association which will consider support to councillors and prospective candidates for locally elected office.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The 23/24 sector support programme funded by DLUHC and delivered by the Local Government Association (LGA) has been published and is available on the LGA website here.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford of 13 April 2023, reference ZA49936.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I apologise for the delay in responding to the Hon. Member's correspondence. The department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Honourable Members. A response was issued on 21 July 2023.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure those seeking mortgages are not required to produce an EWS1 form for buildings under 11 metres for lending purposes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
There is no statutory requirement for an EWS1 form to be provided to support a mortgage application. Not all lenders will require an EWS1 form and where appropriate, customers should approach multiple finance providers to access the best commercial offering from the market.
Unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, in properties that are under 11m tall, we would not expect any building safety defects that would cause a risk to life, because it is generally accepted that risk to life is proportional to the height of buildings. Therefore, the lack of an EWS1 should not present a barrier to lending.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2023 to Question 120074 on Buildings: Safety, whether the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State has met representatives for disabled people to discuss (a) challenges faced by and (b) future engagement with disabled people living through remediation works.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We are in the process of arranging a meeting with Claddag, so that I can hear from them directly about the impacts that remediation works have on disabled residents. Ministerial meetings will be recorded on the department's website in the usual way.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of people employed within his Department have recorded that they have a disability.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer the Hon. Member to the publicly available data here.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has a Ministerial disability champion.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
As the Ministerial Disability Champion for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), I am proud to lead on ensuring the department delivers our commitments to disabled people , removing the barriers disabled people face and putting disability at the heart of government decision making.
DLUHC operate the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS) for all campaigns advertised on Civil Service Jobs. The scheme is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff. All Disability Confident Scheme applicants who meet the minimum standard for DLUHC campaigns are invited to attend interview.
DLUHC demographic data for applicants is deliberately anonymised so this cannot be used to identify candidates. We are therefore unable to differentiate between candidate types such as those applying on promotion or lateral transfer from within the department. As such, we have provided the success rates of all candidates who declared themselves as having a disability for financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.
2020-2021
2693 candidates declared a disability at application stage and submitted a full application. This was equal to 11% of all applications received.
485 of 2693 candidates were invited to interview. This was equal to 18% of applications received for those who declared a disability.
77 of 485 candidates invited to interview were successful and offered a role. This was equal to 16% of candidates invited to attend interview who declared a disability.
2021-2022
1680 candidates declared a disability at application stage and submitted a full application. This was equal to 12% of all applications received.
517 of 1680 candidates were invited to interview. This was equal to 31% of applications received for those who declared a disability.
87 of 517 candidates invited to interview were successful and offered a role. This was equal to 17% of candidates invited to attend interview who declared a disability.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will list any meetings he has held with disability campaign groups to discuss building safety since 25 October 2022, in particular on the impact on disabled people of living through remediation works.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We recognise the significant impact that building safety remediation works can have on residents living through them. The Secretary of State regularly meets with residents and campaign groups to hear directly from affected people on issues relating to building safety and remediation and we acknowledge the additional impacts these issues can have on those with disabilities.
Officials met groups representing disabled residents in November to discuss the challenges disabled people face in living through remediation works and to discuss how best to engage with disabled residents going forward. I hope to arrange a meeting to hear directly from them on these important issues in the near future. Ministerial meetings will be recorded on the Department's website in the usual way.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to strengthen the existing powers that social housing regulators have to enforce (a) reasonable adjustment requests and (b) compliance with the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This Government is clear that all residents deserve to receive high-quality services and are treated with dignity and respect by social housing staff.
Landlords are required to make reasonable adjustments for tenants who meet the Equality Act’s definition of disability. The Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard requires registered providers to treat all tenants with fairness and respect and to demonstrate they understand the different needs of their tenants. Landlords must pay due regard to tenants’ needs in the way they provide services, including in relation to the equality strands and additional support needs.
By law local authorities must give those who need to move for medical and welfare reasons priority for an allocation of social housing. In 2020/21, a fifth (20%) of new social housing lettings were to households with specific disability-related housing needs (such as wheelchair access, mobility aids, or adaptations relating to visual/hearing impairment), an increase of 2% from 2019/20.
The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), administered by local housing authorities, can help fund home adaptations for eligible older and disabled tenants. DLUHC funds a National Body for Home Improvement Agencies, which provides information and advice on DFG applications.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the campaign by Social Housing Action Campaign entitled Social Landlord Disability Charter Scheme.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This Government is clear that all residents deserve to receive high-quality services and are treated with dignity and respect by social housing staff.
Landlords are required to make reasonable adjustments for tenants who meet the Equality Act’s definition of disability. The Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard requires registered providers to treat all tenants with fairness and respect and to demonstrate they understand the different needs of their tenants. Landlords must pay due regard to tenants’ needs in the way they provide services, including in relation to the equality strands and additional support needs.
By law local authorities must give those who need to move for medical and welfare reasons priority for an allocation of social housing. In 2020/21, a fifth (20%) of new social housing lettings were to households with specific disability-related housing needs (such as wheelchair access, mobility aids, or adaptations relating to visual/hearing impairment), an increase of 2% from 2019/20.
The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), administered by local housing authorities, can help fund home adaptations for eligible older and disabled tenants. DLUHC funds a National Body for Home Improvement Agencies, which provides information and advice on DFG applications.