Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to include in the legislative proposals on housing announced in the Queen’s Speech reforms to provide freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates with (a) equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rent charges and (b) rights to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services covered by estate rent charges.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. Where people pay estate rent charges it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights to challenge these costs.
That is why the Government intends to legislate to give freehold homeowners who pay estate rent charges the right to challenge their reasonableness and to go to the tribunal to appoint a new management company if necessary.
We will also consider the option of introducing a Right to Manage for residential freeholders once we have considered the Law Commission’s report and recommendations on changes to the Right to Manage for leaseholders.
The Government has brought forward legislation in the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill to set ground rents on newly created leases to a genuine ‘peppercorn’ rate of only one peppercorn per year or effectively zero financial value. This will be the first part of seminal two-part legislation to implement reforms in this Parliament.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will list parish councils by (a) reserves held and (b) indebtedness.
Answered by Simon Clarke
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many former (a) regular (b) reserve Service personnel at each rank have been classified as statutorily homeless in each year since 2000.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government collects quarterly and annual statistics on how many people approach local authorities as homeless in England. Until April 2018, veterans formed part of a wider vulnerable group category that included: care leavers, ex-offenders and those who have fled home because of violence or the threat of violence (other than domestic violence). As a result, individual statistics on homeless veterans before that date are not published.
In April 2018 the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government introduced a new case-level data collection called H-CLIC (Homelessness Case Level Information Collection). This gives local authorities and Government more information regarding homelessness and those presenting as homeless, including those individuals who are veterans as a separate category. The Government does not differentiate between regular and reserve personnel, nor does it record rank.
In England from April to June 2018, of the 58,660 households to who, at the point of initial decision, were owed a homelessness duty by the local authority, 0.7 per cent (430) of main applicants had served in the armed forces.
The latest local authority level statistics, and quarterly statistics since 2009, can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness
Data from earlier years can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness#discontinued-tables
This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many ex-service personnel (a) in each service, (b) of (i) regular and (ii) reserve status and (c) who (i) have and (ii) have not completed a pensionable engagement have been classified as rough sleepers in each year since 2000.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Department does not collect statistics on whether or not people sleeping rough have served in the armed forces.
However, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) a multi-agency database that represents the UK's most detailed and comprehensive source of information on rough sleeping in London. According to CHAIN, 3 per cent of the rough sleeping population in London have self-declared as having served in the armed forces.
This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the cost to the public purse has been of compulsory purchase orders in each London borough in each year since 1990.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Department does not hold the specific information requested. The Secretary of State’s role in a compulsory purchase order ends when he issues a decision whether or not to confirm the order. We have no role in the amount of compensation paid.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what metrics his Department uses to calculate compensation for owners of agricultural land under compulsory purchase.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Compensation is a matter for negotiation between the acquiring authority and the claimant according to the Compensation Code determined, if necessary, by the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). The Department does not, therefore, have any role in the calculation of compensation in any particular case.
The Department has published guidance on the compulsory purchase process which can be found at the following link: Guidance in particular see Stage 6 on Compensation.
There are some additional measures in relation to compensation where the Compulsory Purchase Order includes agricultural land and these can be found in Booklet 3 at the following link: Booklet 3.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many compulsory purchase orders have been made, by London borough, (a) in total, (b) for heritage purposes and (c) to provide housing in each year since 1990.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Department does not hold the specific information requested, compulsory purchase order data only exists from 2011 to present day. However, to obtain this information would involve interrogating individual case records, at disproportionate cost. We do not hold information on compulsory purchase orders for heritage purposes which are the responsibility of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities have made compulsory purchase orders in each year since 1990.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Department does not hold the specific information requested, compulsory purchase orders data only exists from 2011 to present day. However, to obtain this information would involve interrogating individual case records, at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that private letting agencies do not (a) transfer costs to landlords and (b) redefine tenant fees.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Government is keen to see tenants receiving a good service from their landlord and letting agent and that is why we announced in the Autumn Statement a ban on letting agent fees paid by tenants in England. This will support better competition in the market and bring down overall costs. Tenants will be better able to search around for properties that suit their budget and there will be no hidden costs. This may be preferable to tenants being hit with upfront charges that can be difficult for them to afford. The Government will consult in the New Year on the detail of how best to implement a ban.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what actions were agreed during meetings he had in the last six months with representatives from the Association of Residential Letting Agents relating to fees for private sector tenants.
Answered by Lord Barwell
In the last six months, I have met jointly with the managing directors of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). This was an initial briefing where the two organisations outlined their views on a range of private sector housing issues, but no actions were agreed.
I also opened the first meeting of the Affordability and Security Working Group, set up by the Department for Communities and Local Government, and attended the initial part of the meeting, at which ARLA was one of the organisations present.