Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 make additional resources available to the Health and Safety Executive for the proposed establishment of the Building Safety Regulator.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is funding and will continue to fund the Health and Safety Executive to establish and run the Building Safety Regulator. Budgets will be determined following the Spending Review. We intend to use the Building Safety Bill to give the Building Safety Regulator powers to recoup a significant proportion of costs from regulated parties.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to help support pet ownership among those living in shared ownership properties.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
There is nothing within the Government's Shared Ownership model which prohibits pet ownership. Instead, decisions on pet ownership lie with the landlord and will be set out as part of people's lease agreements.
Pet owners should, therefore, check the details of their lease with the relevant Shared Ownership provider prior to purchase. Help to Buy agents will be able to supply contact details for local Shared Ownership providers. A full list of Help to Buy agents can be found on the Government's Own Your Home website.
The Government is in the process of introducing a new model of Shared Ownership that will be more consumer friendly, fairer and more accessible. As with the current version of Shared Ownership, there will be nothing within the new model that prohibits pet ownership.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the average time from an application to the Building Safety Fund proceeding to the second stage to funds being released to the building owner.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Detailed information on the Building Safety Fund application process and estimated timelines can be found in the Building Safety Fund application guidance available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-application-process.
It is the responsibility of the applicant to submit correctly completed applications as soon as possible. The quicker an applicant submits their application correctly, the quicker their application will be processed. A poorly completed full application will result in delays.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make a further extension to the Building Safety Fund so that remediation works can follow a contract, rather than design and procurement route.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is the responsibility of the applicant to the Building Safety Fund to choose an appropriate procurement model to ensure that the remediation works are carried out in a timely manner. The Department is working closely with applicants to ensure that works take place as quickly as possible and we are also providing expert construction consultation support to actively engage and advise applicants on procurement and project management.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make additional funding available to leaseholders who are being asked to pay for the costs of remediating their balconies to make them compliant with fire safety regulations.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Safety Fund will cover all works directly related to the removal and replacement of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems, this will include costs to remediate balconies where they are integral to the cladding system. This is because unsafe cladding acts as an accelerant to fire spread, and funding will remove the biggest obstacle to remediation proceeding.
Works which are not directly related to the remediation of unsafe cladding systems will not be covered by public funding. Government guidance is clear that building safety is the responsibility of building owners and the consolidated advice note published in January 2020 provides information to building owners on the actions they should take to address the risk of fire spread from external wall systems including and balconies.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the projected cost of remediation works to balconies on blocks.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
An Economic Impact Assessment was published alongside the draft Building Safety Bill on 20 July 2020 which includes estimates of the average costs per building for addressing safety remediation in high rise buildings, including balconies.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether buildings that were not registered with the Building Safety Fund between 1 June to 31 July 2020 will be eligible for the additional £3.5billion of funding for cladding remediation.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The announcement on 10 February of an additional £3.5 billion of funding provides assurance for residents that all eligible applications to the Building Safety Fund will be able to proceed. We will publish more details on how the additional funding will work alongside the existing funds soon.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what meetings he has had in the last year with (a) leaseholder-run groups, (b) groups that directly represent leaseholders and (c) leaseholders living in blocks which are not fire-safe.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Ministers regularly meet with leaseholders and their representative groups.
Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on the Gov.uk website: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/956236/Ministerial_meetings_July_to_Sept_2020.csv/preview
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of a cap on service charge rises at the rate of CPI inflation for social housing tenants.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
All service charges must be set in line with the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 with service charges payable only to the extent that the costs have been reasonably incurred. The reasonableness of the service charge a social housing landlord is seeking will depend on the nature of the works required and other contributing factors.
The Government’s policy statement on rents for social housing (published in February 2019) encourages registered providers of social housing to keep increases for services charges within CPI+1%, to help keep charges affordable.
For tenants in Affordable Rent properties the calculation of their gross rent includes service charges. Gross rent for these properties is capped at 80% of market rent.
Social housing tenants have the ability to apply to the Property Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal for a determination where they do not believe the charges are reasonable, and must be consulted when major works are being proposed.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to improve the regulation of under-performing housing associations to provide greater protection for tenants and leaseholders and increased involvement in the governance structures of those organisations.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to ensuring a better deal for tenants. In November 2020 we published “The Charter for Social Housing Residents”, which sets out clearly what every social housing resident in England should expect of their landlord. The Charter will deliver a transformation of the social housing regulatory regime, creating proactive consumer regulation and rebalancing the relationship between landlord and tenant. It will ensure that complaints are dealt with quickly and fairly, improve the quality of social homes and empower tenants.
In the Charter we are also committed to deliver a new opportunities and empowerment programme to support resident’s effective engagement with landlords. We are also improving the complaints process for tenants; we have strengthened the Housing Ombudsman’s powers and increased their resources to help improve performance and delivery of services, along with other reforms such as speeding up access to the Housing Ombudsman by removing the Democratic Filter.
With regards to the Regulator of Social Housing’s investigation into Clarion Housing Group, the regulator is operationally independent, and Government does not interfere with how it regulates. Its general approach and how it ensures its standards are being met are set out in its guidance ‘Regulating the Standards’. I understand that as part of its recent investigation into Clarion Housing Group’s repairs service, the Regulator met with councillors who were raising concerns on behalf of residents. The Regulator kept the councillors updated on progress throughout the process. The Regulator did not meet directly with tenants or leaseholders as part of the investigation. The Department has not discussed the Regulator’s investigation into Clarion Housing Group with Lord Barwell.
Housing associations are independent organisations and are in charge of setting their own procedures for tenants to report repairs and complaints. By law, landlords need to respond within a reasonable timeframe, which will depend on the severity of the repair. The 20 working days referred to is a local, i.e. landlord, policy not a departmental policy.