Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to revise the agreement reached with the National Housing Federation on right to buy to clarify that it does not cover almshouse residents.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Almshouses are exempt from the Right to Buy for council housing. This long-standing exemption will also apply to the extended Right to Buy for housing associations.
Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to prevent price-fixing in service charges by providers of retirement homes.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The law provides a framework of rights and protections for residential leaseholders where service charges and the management of their property are concerned.
These rights allow leaseholders to hold their freeholder and managing agent to account. They include the right to be consulted about proposed major works and long term agreements, to challenge the reasonableness of service charge demands at an independent tribunal, to seek the appointment of a new manager and, in some cases. to take over the management of the block of flats where they live.
Price-fixing is a serious matter and any evidence of this should be reported to the Competition and Markets Authority for consideration.
Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will consider issuing guidance restricting the taking of photos and videos following the Shoreham air show crash.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
This is not a matter for the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to encourage local authorities to implement new planning provisions on redevelopment of brownfield sites.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We are committed to ensuring that brownfield land is used as much as possible for new development. We will require local authorities to have a register of what is available, and ensure that 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites have planning permission for housing by 2020. We will provide further support by creating a Fund to unlock homes on brownfield land for additional housing. We will continue to support the regeneration of brownfield land through a range of measures, including £200 million to help create Housing Zones outside London, and in addition releasing enough public sector land for over 150,000 homes by 2020.
Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to encourage councils to implement the zero-carbon home standard from 2016.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The Government considers that energy performance standards for new homes are best set through the national building regulations which were strengthened in 2013. Councils play an important role in checking compliance with these standards.
Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to ensure neighbourhoods with a concentration of social housing do not suffer from educational underperformance and high accident and obesity rates; and what plans he has to foster a sense of community in such neighbourhoods.
Answered by Marcus Jones
We are continuing to roll out the Our Place approach – a neighbourhood level, partnership-based approach to service transformation with the community at its heart – across England, with a £1 million grant fund to support up to another 115 areas during 2015/16. This builds on the successes and lessons learned from the 12 pioneer areas and 117 areas previously supported to improve local services. Some of these areas developed new approaches to tackle poor educational attainment and high obesity rates and many of them operate in neighbourhoods with a high index of multiple deprivation.
We are extending this work in 2015/16 through a new First Steps programme which will support 115 areas that are not yet ready for the Our Place approach to produce a Community Action Plan setting out the priorities for their area and how they might go about tackling them.
Additionally my Department’s tenant involvement strategy enables social housing tenants to influence, challenge and take control of their housing services, putting communities in control and delivering localism to some of the most challenging areas.