Asked by: Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following recent polling by the Belonging Forum which found that renters are more likely than the general population to (1) feel lonely, (2) not know their neighbours, and (3) feel unsafe walking home in the dark, whether they are developing any policies to promote greater integration of renters in their local communities.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government’s Levelling Up White Paper sets out the Government’s missions to end economic equality and level up the UK. As part of our mission to restore a sense of local community, pride and belonging, our ambition is for the number of non-decent rented homes to have fallen by 50% by 2030, with the biggest improvements in the lowest performing areas. We will require privately rented homes to meet the Decent Homes Standard for the first time. This will give renters safer, better value homes and remove the blight of poor-quality homes in local communities.
Through the Renters (Reform) Bill, which is currently progressing through parliament, we will deliver the manifesto commitment to abolish section 21 evictions. This will give tenants the confidence that they can remain in their home and are able to put down roots in their communities.
In addition, we have invested over £150 million since 2020 for over 400 projects through the Safer Streets fund. This has gone towards local crime prevention measures such as better CCTV and streetlighting, or local community projects, with a particular focus on driving down anti-social behaviour, preventing neighbourhood crimes such as domestic burglary and making streets safer for women and girls.