Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made on the financial effect on Council and Housing Associations of the costs of (a) removing cladding and (b) other fire safety building safety work not funded by the Government.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Section 11 of the Building Safety Bill: Impact Assessment provides estimates of the average costs per building for addressing safety remediation in high rise (18 metres and above) buildings. These estimates consider all necessary remediation, which goes beyond façade remediation. Social sector building owners have been able to access the £400m Social Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund, which supports the removal and replacement of non-compliant ACM cladding on buildings over 18 metres. We have also launched a fund of £1 billion to cover the costs of remediating unsafe non-ACM cladding on residential buildings over 18 metres tall - and whilst this is focused on private sector leaseholders, it is available to social landlords facing affordability issues, and will also cover the costs of leaseholders in social housing. On 10 February we announced a multi-billion pound investment to protect hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes. We are also establishing a generous scheme to ensure, where required, cladding removal can take place on buildings between 11 and 18 metres. As part of this financing scheme, leaseholder payments towards remediation costs will be capped at a maximum £50per month.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Government's proposed loan scheme for the removal of unsafe cladding on buildings 18 meters or over, which (a) public bodies or (b) limited companies will be responsible for any matters relating to debt accrued under that scheme.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We have announced a multi-billion investment to protect hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes. We will be publishing more details on how these schemes will work.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the local authority spending power in the Spending Review 2020, whether (a) payment of the living wage and (b) the £250 minimum pay rise for lower paid staff employed (i) by the council and (ii) on council contracts including social care workers are accounted for in that figure.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Local government has the flexibility to agree its own wages for staff and therefore ultimately decisions on wages will be for local authorities to make. Councils and their contractors must, of course, pay the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage. The package announced at Spending Review 2020 – including an estimated 4.5 per cent cash increase in core spending power – includes sufficient resources for them to do this.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what powers local authorities have to tackle tenants who breach their tenancy agreement as a result of anti social behaviour.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Landlords have the power to seek the repossession of a tenant’s home for serious breaches of their tenancy agreement on the grounds of anti social behaviour.
Landlords may still serve a notice of intention of seeking possession during this period which must be for a minimum of 3 months. No court proceedings can be commenced until the 3 month notice period has expired.
Landlords may also, where appropriate, work with their local authority to use the powers available via the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 which offers a wide range of flexible non-possession approaches to tackling anti-social behaviour. The remedies include the use of injunctions, closure orders and community protection notices.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Government's announcement that the ban on evictions during the covid-19 outbreak will be extended until the 23 August 2020, whether (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations that are seeking evictions as a result of of anti-social behaviour will be exempt from that ban.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The current stay on possession proceedings in the courts applies to all proceedings, regardless of who the landlord is. There are no exemptions available for local authority or housing association landlords.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what is the Government's policy on local authorities furloughing their employees.
Answered by Simon Clarke
It is a decision for local authorities whether or not to furlough staff, in compliance with Government guidance. However, local authorities are continuing to provide essential public services and contribute to the response to the coronavirus outbreak, and as such the government expects that local authorities will continue to pay their staff as usual.
Where staff are not able to carry out their usual work, Government expects local authorities make every effort to redeploy employees to assist with the coronavirus response. This could include redeployment within the existing organisation, or to support another part of the public sector.
However, as the guidance sets out there may be a small number of cases where the scheme may be appropriate. In these cases, local authorities are expected to use their best judgement in applying the Government guidance.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the net addition of social rented housing in England since 2010 taking into account (a) demolitions, (b) sales and (c) conversions.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department does not produce estimates of net additions to the social housing sector, as not all the information on losses is collected to create such estimate. Information is not collected on losses to stock owned by non-registered providers; losses through conversions for smaller private registered providers or local authority stock held outside a Housing Revenue Account; and data on any other losses are not collected except for larger private registered providers (e.g. change of use).
Data on gross additions to the social housing sector are available on live tables 1000 or 1000C which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
The available data on sales and demolitions are available in tables 678 and 684 which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales
The total size of the social housing stock rented from local authorities or private registered providers in England is published in live table 104 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the (a) projected annual net costs of Help to Buy from its inception until 2021-22 as set out in the original business case, (b) actual annual net costs from inception until 2018-2019 and (c) current projected net costs until 2021-22.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The following answer sets out Capital Departmental Expenditure Limits (CDEL)?forecast expenditure of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, as set out in published Budget reports.? It includes CDEL financial transactions only, as the primary cost associated with the scheme.? It does not include running costs.?
?
Help to Buy: Equity Loan is a demand-led scheme: the uptake is driven by the market.? Budget forecasts are therefore revised?regularly in light of?the most recent market information and estimated demand for the scheme.
It would not be appropriate to set out annualised net forecast expenditure or costs because they are not reflective of the actual cost and return to government for the scheme. In particular, the annual net cost amount does not fully account for the equity element of the homes which is held as an asset.
For the reasons set out above, the Department does not set out annual net costs for Help to Buy: Equity Loan. Annual cost and income figures in relation to the scheme are set out in the Annual Report and Accounts of Homes England (formerly Homes and Communities Agency) for the financial years 2013-14 to 2018-19.
The figures published in the Budget reports are:
2013 Spring Budget Report
This contains announcement of scheme from 2013 to 2016.
page 65, page 71 Table 2.6 (£ million)
Help to Buy: Equity Loan | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | total |
| £1,150m | £1,430m | £1,550m | £4,130m |
2014 Spring Budget Report
This contains the announcement of extending the scheme to 2020?(paragraphs 1.140, 2.15). ?
page 62, Table 2.5 (£ million)
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | total |
Help to Buy: Equity Loan | 0 | 0 | £1,700m | £1,750m | £1,800m | £5,250m |
2015 Spending Review Autumn Statement
page 42, paragraph 1.146 part 4? This contains the announcement of extending the scheme to 2021, along with the new London Help to Buy scheme.
2016 Spring Budget Report? https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508193/HMT_Budget_2016_Web_Accessible.pdf
page 42, paragraph 1.105 This contains an update on scheme performance.
2017 Autumn Budget Report
This contains the announcement of the additional £10 billion.
page 25, Table 1.9 ?(£ million)
Help to Buy: Equity Loan | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | total |
| £1,895m | £2,870m | £3,325m | £3,780m | £11,870m |
2018 Autumn Budget Report
Contains the announcement of the new scheme from 2021 to 2023.
page 27, Table 1.8 ?(£ million)
Help to Buy: Equity Loan | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | total |
| £170m | £4,065m | £4,605m | £8,840m |
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release of 24 October 2019, entitled £38 million Homes England funding to speed up development of over 2,000 homes, what assessment criteria were used to determine the distribution of that funding to support modular construction; whether the assessment criteria and associated weighting were determined before applications were invited for that funding; on what date those criteria were determined; whether Ministers had a role in the selection process; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
On 24 October 2019 an announcement was made by Homes England that funding worth £38.2 million was approved for six local authorities to speed up the construction of at least 2,072 homes across the country. This was made under the £450 million Local Authority Accelerated Construction programme which aims to unlock up to 33,500 additional homes on surplus public sector land.
In January 2017 initial expressions of interest were sought from local authorities content to see sites developed which: could deliver starts within the expected parliamentary term as part of the local authorities' wider housing ambitions; had capacity for 50 sites or more; could demonstrate additionality; could support market diversification; had accelerated build out; were not held in a Local Authority's Housing Revenue Account and could make use of a range of modern methods of construction.
Subsequently, Homes England worked with engaged Local authorities on projects which appeared viable, sharing details of due diligence requirements.
Ministers did not select the sites on the programme. Selection was done by Homes England who, as the Government’s housing agency, have been commissioned to deliver the programme. Funding decisions are taken in accordance with Homes England’s internal processes and in line with set parameters.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to make an announcement on the uplift in planning fees; for what reason that announcement has not yet been made; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We announced a Planning White Paper which will look into the resourcing and capacity of local planning authorities and how planning application fees can support this. We will be making an announcement in due course.