Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
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 potential merits of making thank you payments to those families who opened their homes to Ukrainians through the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
Sponsors receive an optional ‘thank you’ payment of £350 for the first 12 months from the date that a guest first arrived in the UK, and £500 from 12 months thereafter. Further information about thank you payments can be accessed here.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to prevent landlords in the private rented sector from stipulating that they will not accept tenants in receipt of social security payments.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The White Paper 'A Fairer Private Rented Sector' , published in June 2022, sets out our plan to bring forward legislation banning blanket 'No DSS' practices. The government remains committed to introducing a Renters Reform Bill within this Parliament, and we will do so as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the extension of covid-19 restrictions beyond 21 June 2021, if he will review his decision to revoke his Department's guidance on emergency parking passes for (a) NHS staff members, (b) social care workers and (c) NHS volunteer responders.
Answered by Luke Hall
At the end of March 2020, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government reached an agreement with the Local Government Association that local councils in England would voluntarily offer free car parking to all NHS workers, social care staff and NHS volunteer responders during the emergency response period.
With the national lockdown drawing to a close, and an increasing number of councils moving toward offering local concessions for health workers and other groups, it was agreed that the national pass guidance should be withdrawn.
This is reflected in new joint parking enforcement advice provided in April to local authorities by the Local Government Association, British Parking Association and London Councils.
Councils are responsible for setting their own local policy and those interested in local parking concessions can check their local councils' website for further details of any local schemes.
NHS staff continue to be eligible for free parking in hospital car parks and funding for this has been provided to NHS Trusts by Government.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether landlords can require that tenants have a covid-19 test before undertaking safety checks within a property.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Landlords can take steps to carry out repairs and safety inspections, including routine and essential inspections and repairs, as well as any planned internal works to the property under the national lockdown which is in force in England, provided these are undertaken in line with guidance for people working in other people's homes and the relevant coronavirus (COVID-19) legislation. This legislation does not allow landlords to require tenants to have a test for COVID-19.
It is important to remember that tenants still have a right to a decent, warm and safe place to live – and it is in the best interests of both tenants and landlords to ensure that properties are kept in good repair and free from hazards.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to introduce legislative proposals to further protect commercial tenants unable to trade throughout the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Government recognises that Covid-19 is having a significant impact on businesses. The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support for business in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The Chancellor announced on 5 January that closed businesses would be eligible for a further one-off payment of up to £9,000. This is the Closed Business Lockdown Payment. An additional £500 million in discretionary funding for local authorities is also being made available. This is in addition to £1.1 billion in discretionary funding that has also been allocated to local authorities to support businesses.
Government has introduced a range of legislative measures to protect commercial tenants.
Section 82 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 provides for a moratorium on forfeitures of commercial leases due to the non-payment of rent accrued during the pandemic. This means that landlords of commercial properties will not be able to evict tenants for not paying rent accrued since March 2020.
The Government has also extended the restrictions on the service of statutory demands and winding-up petitions implemented through the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 in line with the moratorium’s new expiry date. This prevents creditors petitioning for a company to be wound up on the grounds it cannot pay its debts, unless the court permits and is satisfied that the inability to pay debts is not as a result of Covid-19.
The Government has also extended the restrictions on landlords’ abilities to recover rental arrears through the seizure of tenants’ goods through the use of Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery.
The Government has published a voluntary Code of Practice to encourage constructive dialogue between tenants and landlords; and is clear that those tenants who can pay in full should do so, those who cannot should pay what they can, and those landlords who can grant concessions should do so. We will publish further guidance to support negotiations between landlords and tenants in due course.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people have had a fair rent registered in (a) Tynemouth constituency and (b) North Tyneside borough since 2010.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Valuation Office Agency registers fair rents under the Rent Act 1977 on behalf of my Department. They do not hold information on the number of people who had fair rents registered in Tynemouth constituency or North Tyneside borough.
The information set out in the table below, relates to the number of registered rents in the Tyne and Wear registration area.
Fair rent registration in Tyne & Wear (2010 - Dec 31 2015)
Year | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | TOTAL |
Number of registered rents | 116 | 149 | 101 | 183 | 507 | 547 | 1603 |
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families were on social housing waiting lists in (a) Tynemouth constituency and (b) North Tyneside Borough in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The numbers of households on local authority waiting lists are available in the Department statistics live table 600, that is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies
Figures are not available at constituency level.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people have been registered as council tenants in (a) Tynemouth constituency and (b) North Tyneside Borough in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Figures on local authority lettings including those to new tenants are available at local authority level including North Tyneside are published in the Department’s Local Authority Housing Statistics at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-housing-data
The local authority housing statistics returns include lettings data is in Section D. Data on total local authority stock, including occupied dwellings, is provided in Section A. This may be taken as an estimate of the total households in local authority housing.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many houses have been repossessed in (a) Tynemouth constituency and (b) North Tyneside Borough in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Mortgage and landlord repossession statistics are published by the Ministry of Justice.
Figures at local authority level are published in the Mortgage and landlord possession statistical data:
Figures are not available at constituency level.
Asked by: Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changes in the business rate on the British solar industry.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Business rates are based on valuations from the Valuation Office Agency and we do not intervene in their independent assessments. We have put in place a £3.6 billion transitional relief scheme to ensure that no ratepayer is unfairly penalised by the 2017 revaluation.