Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of private rented accommodation to the unwaged.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department continues to monitor private rent levels using the Office for National Statistics' Index of Private Rents and biannual publications on absolute rent levels by local authority and number of bedrooms. The Department also tracks the stock of private rented properties using the English Housing Survey and other market data to assess the availability of private rented accommodation and financial resilience of unwaged renters. People who need help to make their rent payments may be eligible for a range of financial support through the welfare system. The government has maintained the Local Housing Allowance at its increased rate for 2021/22 and 2022/23, and for those most in need Discretionary Housing Payments are available to help meet a shortfall in housing costs and the Household Support Fund has been extended to help with the cost of essentials.
The Government's commitment to abolish Section 21 evictions will mean tenants enjoy greater security and feel empowered to challenge poor practice and unreasonable rent rises. We want as many tenants as possible to benefit from these reforms, including students living in the private rented sector. We expect most students will continue to move in-line with the academic year. We will continue to consider the impact of our reforms as we move towards legislation and will publish an impact assessment in due course. The Government's 'A Fairer Private Rented Sector' White Paper set out our intention to bolster national oversight of local councils' enforcement, including by exploring requirements for councils to report on their housing enforcement activity and sharing of best practice.
The 2021 National Audit Office report into regulation of the private rented sector (PRS), and the subsequent Public Accounts Committee report set out several recommendations to improve the PRS, including a number concerning landlords, to which the department has responded. We are also currently assessing the recommendations from the 2019 Independent Review into the effectiveness of selective licensing and will respond in due course. We will work with local authorities to gather more information about their selective licensing schemes to ensure they are continuing to deliver the intended outcomes and to help share best practice. There are additional regulatory standards for HMOs than other privately rented accommodation. Duties for the landlords of HMOs are set out in HMO management regulations. We reformed HMO licensing in 2018, requiring that HMOs with five or more tenants must be licensed.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the disabilities facilities grant and the speed of disbursement of the grants to their recipients.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 requires local authorities to make decisions on Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) applications within six months of receipt, and adaptations must be completed within 12 months of the DFG approval date.
On 28 March this year the Government published new guidance for local authorities in England on effective delivery of the grant. This includes information on how local authorities can speed up DFG delivery. A link to the guidance is available on GOV.UK here.
Additionally, Government provides funding to Foundations, the national body for DFGs and home improvement agencies, to promote best practice in the delivery of home adaptations. Foundations analyse annual voluntary data returns from local authorities in England on their DFG delivery, including unaudited data on DFG approval and completion times. Their most recent report for 2020-21 can be found here. This indicates an average DFG delivery time of 89 days from approval to completion.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the number of homeless ex-service personnel in (a) England and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Data on households who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, for England show levels of veteran homelessness are low but there is no room for complacency and Government is committed to doing more. Annual Statutory Homelessness Data 2021-22, published in September 2022, shows that 1,850 households in England owed a homelessness duty had a member of the household with a support need due to service in the Armed Forces. This represents less than 1% of all households owed a homelessness duty.
Data for all local housing authorities within Staffordshire can be found within the annual data publication available here (Table A3). This shows 13 households across 5 local authorities included a member with a support need to service in the Armed Forces with 4 local authorities with zero households.
The Government is committed to reducing veteran homelessness. In September 2022, we published our 'Ending Rough Sleeping for Good' strategy. This ensures local areas can provide tailored support, including for veterans, where required.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the effect of Investment Zones on those local authorities neighbouring Investment Zones; and what steps he will take to ensure that those neighbouring local authorities are not adversely affected economically by those Zones.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We want to empower places to deliver proposals that are right for their area. Places were required to set out the local economic impact of their plans and how they would avoid displacement, in the EOI.
While DLUHC is currently assessing those proposals received, the precise number of Zones will depend on factors, such as their overall geographic spread and the fiscal cost of the programme.
Further information will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he will take in the development of Investment Zones across an Upper Tier Local Authority to ensure that individual lower tier authorities are properly consulted.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
This Government recognises that local consent is critical to the success of Investment Zones and will not be imposing a Zone on any area of the country.
Authorities submitting an Investment Zone proposal are required to demonstrate and provide evidence that the Local Planning Authority is supportive of the proposal, and that they have consulted local stakeholders. Any proposal that does not demonstrate consent from the lower tier authority will not be taken forward from the Expression of Interest process.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to ensure that levelling up funding, such as the Future High Street Fund, helps to ensure adequate provision of electric charging infrastructure for (a) cars and (b) mobility scooters in towns.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
This department is committed to the net zero strategy that was published in 2021. The ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution includes the commitment of accelerating a shift to zero emission vehicles. Our levelling up funds support this commitment.
As part of our £3.6 billion Towns Fund, we have encouraged towns to develop interventions to increase resilience and prosperity and contribute to the United Kingdom's overarching goal to be zero carbon by 2050. This includes funding electric charging infrastructure like the £400,000 investment into providing 20 additional charging spaces in Newcastle under Lyme.
In addition, through our £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund we are investing in transport projects to reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality, cut congestion, support economic growth, and improve the safety, security and overall experience of transport users. Bids for the second round of funding closed on 2 August 2022 and we welcome the wide range of bids we have received which will help improve and support communities across the United Kingdom. These are currently being assessed and we expect an announcement on successful bids later this year.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress has been made on establishing a taskforce on older people's housing.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In February the Levelling Up White Paper announced a new taskforce on older people’s housing to explore how we can improve the choice of and access to housing options for older people.
We continue to work with in partnership with DHSC, colleagues across government and with housing, health and social care stakeholders to look at how we can further support the growth of a thriving older people’s housing sector.
Asked by: Christopher Pincher (Independent - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support local authorities to tackle unauthorised encampments established by travellers.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Local authorities and the police have a wide range of powers that enable them to work in partnership and take action against unauthorised encampments. Additional police powers to tackle trespassers who set up camp illegally on other people’s land or in local communities came into force on 28 June 2022.