Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of recording actual rents on the new Private Rented Sector Database.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Private Rented Sector Database will support local authority enforcement action, help landlords understand their legal obligations and give tenants the information they need to make informed choices before entering into a tenancy agreement.
We intend for the Database to collect information about landlords and whether their rental property complies with key health and safety information.
In addition to data about the ownership and standard of PRS properties, we are considering the feasibility and merits of recording a wider range of data, including rent levels.
We will stipulate the specific requirements in regulations.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of use of management agencies to complete repairs by housing associations.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
All registered providers of social housing are required to ensure they meet regulatory standards and legal duties relating to repairs, regardless of whether they use a management agency to oversee their repairs services.
Under the regulatory standards set by the independent Regulator of Social Housing, all registered providers must provide an effective, efficient, and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service for the homes and communal areas for which they are responsible.
Social landlords are obliged by law to maintain the structure and exterior of their properties, and to keep in repair and proper working order the sanitation, water, gas, and electricity installations.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will introduce a statutory requirement for swift bricks.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question UIN 22080 on 15 January 2025.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to give local authorities in London a formal decision-making role in any future Integrated Settlement applied to the Greater London Authority.
Answered by Jim McMahon
At Autumn Budget 2024 the Government committed to exploring how the Integrated Settlement policy could be applied for the Greater London Authority from the 2026-27 financial year onwards, taking into account the capital’s unique devolution arrangements. This work is currently taking place and the Government plans to announce further details following the conclusion of Phase 2 of the Spending Review 2025.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to establish a formal shared decision-making arrangement between the Mayor of London and local authorities.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The Government remains committed to engaging local authorities, including London Borough Councils, and the wider local government sector on the detail of our reforms set out in the English Devolution White Paper. As part of this process, it will be important to consider London’s unique devolution settlement, including drawing on existing ways of working between the Greater London Authority and London Boroughs.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to ensure the provision of adequate funding for demand-led local government services in the next spending review.
Answered by Jim McMahon
We recognise the challenges that local authorities are facing as demand increases for critical services. Funding allocations from future settlements are subject to the outcome of future Spending Reviews.
The final Settlement for 2025-26 therefore makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.
We are also taking immediate action to begin addressing the significant challenges facing local government by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most in 2025-26.
The Ministry works closely with local government and other government departments to understand specific demand and cost pressures facing local government on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to ensure housing associations who raise rents for social housing tenants above inflation are using the increased revenue to invest in building new homes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Housing associations use income from social housing rents to deliver services to their tenants, manage and maintain their homes to the required standards, and invest in new homes.
Government does not place requirements on housing associations to use rental income to invest in new homes. However, we recognise the need to support them so they can build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply.
One way we are doing this is by providing capital grant through the Affordable Homes Programme. In October 2024, we announced an immediate one-year cash injection of £500m to the 2021-2026 Affordable Homes Programme over and above its £11.5bn budget, to support delivery of up to 5,000 new social and affordable homes.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made and assessment of the inclusion of measures of deprivation as part of funding reform for local government.
Answered by Jim McMahon
Building on the measures in the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement, the Government is committed to introducing an improved and updated approach to funding local authorities from 2026-27.
We are inviting views on our principles and objectives for funding reform through a consultation (18 December – 12 February), as well as engaging with the local government sector more broadly. As part of this, we are inviting views on the drivers of councils’ spending need, including measures of deprivation.
This consultation and engagement will inform the development of our detailed proposals, which we will consult on in late Spring following the multi-year Spending Review and ahead of the provisional multi-year Settlement for 2026-27.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of (a) changes in the number of housing association social tenants in rent arrears and (b) increased rents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Individual circumstances will vary, not least depending on whether tenants receive Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit to help pay their rent, and whether they are affected by the total benefit cap or the removal of the spare room subsidy, but the government recognises that increases in rents can have an impact on the disposable income of social housing tenants.
We recently consulted on a long-term rent settlement that would allow social housing rents to increase by up to CPI + 1% each year for five years from 2026. As part of that consultation, we invited views on whether this proposal or alternative options would strike the right balance between the need for increased investment in new and existing homes and the interests of those whose disposable income would be affected by rent increases, as well as the consequences for welfare spending.
The consultation closed on 23 December 2024 and my officials and I are giving careful consideration to the responses received.
The government has no plans to freeze rents or cap service charges for tenants and leaseholders.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has she made of the potential merits of (a) freezing rents and (b) capping service charges for housing association social tenants.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Individual circumstances will vary, not least depending on whether tenants receive Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit to help pay their rent, and whether they are affected by the total benefit cap or the removal of the spare room subsidy, but the government recognises that increases in rents can have an impact on the disposable income of social housing tenants.
We recently consulted on a long-term rent settlement that would allow social housing rents to increase by up to CPI + 1% each year for five years from 2026. As part of that consultation, we invited views on whether this proposal or alternative options would strike the right balance between the need for increased investment in new and existing homes and the interests of those whose disposable income would be affected by rent increases, as well as the consequences for welfare spending.
The consultation closed on 23 December 2024 and my officials and I are giving careful consideration to the responses received.
The government has no plans to freeze rents or cap service charges for tenants and leaseholders.