Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the impact of the potentially misleading marketing of homes on holiday parks as residential properties on consumers.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We expect that the marketing of all properties accords with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which prohibits misleading omissions of key information about the property.
Estate agents’ compliance with the law is overseen by the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agent Team, who can issue warning or banning orders to agents who fail to comply.
Consumers should make sure they are clear about any restrictions on the property before purchasing, informed by checks on the property title carried out by their conveyancing solicitor before contracts are exchanged.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the number of people living permanently in holiday park homes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The data requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether broadband access is classed as an essential utility.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
There is no standard definition of what constitutes a utility, with gas, water, electricity, and telecoms all regulated differently. The UK telecoms market features strong competition both at wholesale and retail levels which sets it apart from gas, water and electricity, which are regulated in such a way as to address competition concerns. However, the Government recognises that access to the internet is increasingly essential for full participation in society.
The Government has taken action to ensure as many people as possible are able to access the internet. Since 2021, we have worked closely with telecoms operators to ensure social tariffs are available across 99% of the UK. Available to nearly 5 million households on Universal Credit as well as other means tested benefits, social tariffs are available from 28 individual providers (including BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone) and start at £10 per month.
Over 80% of the UK can now access gigabit-capable broadband from at least one provider, and the Government is investing £5 billion via Project Gigabit to bring fast, secure and resilient connections to those parts of the country unlikely to be reached by commercial roll-out.
In March 2020, The Broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) came into effect, giving consumers the right to request a decent broadband connection of at least 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload. The USO is applicable in situations where access to decent broadband will cost more than £54 per month, the property isn’t due to be connected by an existing government scheme within 12 months and the cost of connection does not exceed a reasonable threshold of £3,400.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to increase the take up of social tariff broadband packages.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government continues to work closely with Ofcom on the issue of affordability of telecoms services, including social tariffs.
In December 2023, Ofcom’s Pricing Trends report showed that 380,000 UK households now take up a social tariff, an almost 160% increase from September 2022.
Social tariffs are low-cost, commercial products, but it is important to recognise that they may not represent the best value for money in every circumstance and should be considered alongside other commercial offers and bundled services.
The Government and Ofcom continue to press operators to do more to raise awareness of social tariffs so that eligible households make use of them. Ofcom’s report also showed that just 45% of eligible households were aware of low-cost broadband offers. In July 2023, Ofcom’s Chief Executive wrote to the sector to set out the regulator’s expectation that they should do more to promote awareness, such as by highlighting tariffs on bills and end-of-contract notifications.