Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
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 press release, Right to Regenerate to turn derelict buildings into homes and community assets, published 16 January 2021, whether council-owned land designated as a nature reserve will be exempted from the right to regenerate.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Right to Regenerate is about making sure that people and communities can hold public bodies to account, and make sure that public land is put to the best use possible. Designated nature reserves exist to protect the natural environment: the land would clearly be in use, and is highly unlikely to be suitable for disposal. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation, and will publish a formal response in due course.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect of the number of people choosing to migrate to the UK from Hong Kong on the availability of affordable housing; and what steps he is taking to ensure that an increase in demand for that housing does not lead to a lack of affordable housing stock for people who need it.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We are proud to welcome those arriving from Hong Kong who have strong cultural and historical ties to the UK. The Government’s new visa route is a generous offer to Hong Kong BN(O) status holders and their family members, who in turn will be expected to be self-sufficient and contribute to UK society.
Approximately 27,000 BN(O) status holders and their family members have applied for a visa since January – this number reflects applications rather than visa holders. The evidence from the Home Office’s Impact Assessment published in October 2020 suggests this visa will have a net positive impact on the UK of between £2.4 and £2.9 billion over 5 years.
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and are investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, which will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow.
Further to this, the Secretary of State announced a new £43.1 million UK wide welcome programme to support Hong Kong BN(O) status holders. This will provide support for BN(O) status holders and reduce impacts on resident communities
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on the First Homes scheme and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
First Homes, the Government’s new home ownership initiative, will provide a sustained and ongoing supply of homes sold to first-time buyers and key workers with a discount of at least 30% below market value. In some areas, the discount could be as high as 50%. Crucially, the discount will be passed on each time the property is sold, ensuring local areas continue to benefit for generation to come.
The Government has published two consultations regarding the implementation of First Homes. The first of these was published on 7 February 2020 and closed on 1 May that year, we responded to that consultation on 6 August 2020.
On that same day we published the second consultation, as part of the wider document ‘Changes to the current planning system’. This consultation was technical in nature, exploring specific planning system changes required to implement First Homes. This consultation closed on 1 October and we have been analysing responses. We hope to be able to publish our response and outline next steps very soon.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many officials in (a) his private office and (b) the wider Department have been allocated to the production and promotion of online content for use on social media in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
MHCLG has a creative team which supports the Department's digital channels. Their responsibilities include, but are not limited to, content creation for social media. This team’s headcount in the format requested is as follows:
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many officials in their Department were dedicated to their Department's responsibilities associated with the delivery of the Industrial Strategy in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020 and (e) 2021.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Department does not hold the information requested. The Industrial Strategy is a cross-government policy which comprises and drives a significant number of initiatives. These span a wide array of policy areas across 20 government departments and arm’s-length bodies.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will (a) bring forward legislative proposals to provide financial support to assist private leaseholders in complying with their legal obligations to remove and replace unsafe external cladding and (b) review the adequacy of free legal advice available to leaseholders in understanding their rights and obligations in relation to fire safety.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is the responsibility of the building owner, whether freeholder or commonholder, to ensure their building is safe. This includes ensuring that there is an up-to-date fire risk assessment. The Department has made £1.6 billion available to support the remediation of unsafe cladding, and a large proportion of this will protect leaseholders from these costs and will deal with some of the highest risk and highest cost safety defects on high-rise buildings. The Department continues to work with, and has provided additional funding to, the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) to ensure that leaseholders are aware of their rights and are supported to understand the terms of their leases.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of a shortage of surveyors competent to undertake EWS1 assessments on the ability of mortgage providers to make timely lending decisions.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) designed the EWS1 process in conjunction with mortgage lenders to assist with valuation of high-rise residential buildings. Some lenders are asking for information that they do not need, and are requesting EWS1 forms for a greater range of buildings than the process was designed for. The EWS1 process is not a Government regulatory requirement and the Government does not support the blanket use of EWS1, especially for lower rise blocks.
The Department is aware that there are capacity challenges with the availability of professionals to undertake fire safety assessments of external wall systems. We are working with professional bodies to increase the number of skilled professionals who can undertake external wall assessments where one is required.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to support leaseholders in replacing cladding on their properties when they are unable to secure financing from their mortgage providers.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department has made £1.6 billion available to support the remediation of unsafe cladding, and a large proportion of this will protect leaseholders from these costs and will deal with some of the highest risk and highest cost safety defects on high-rise buildings.
To support the valuation process for high-rise residential buildings with cladding, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors designed the EWS1 process. The EWS1 process is not a regulatory requirement and the Department does not support a blanket approach to EWS1. The Department is working with mortgage lenders to support a more pragmatic approach in their valuation of homes within multi occupancy, multi storey residential buildings. We are encouraging lenders to accept a broader range of evidence to assure themselves of a building’s safety.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
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 Planning for the Future consultation and forthcoming proposals for reform to planning regulation, what assessment he has made of the need to preserve existing (a) requirements for archaeological investigation and (b) safeguards for heritage and the historic environment as part of the planning process.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to the protection of the historic environment and we have put in place a strong legislative and policy framework to achieve this. In bringing forward any reforms to the planning system, we will ensure that heritage considerations, including the need for archaeological surveys, are taken into account.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
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 Answer of 9 July 2020 to Question 68414 on Letting Agents: Fees and Charges, what assessment he has made of (a) the potential inefficacy of the provisions in the Tenant Fees Act 2019 in relation to preventing office and administrative costs being (i) improperly, (ii) excessively and (iii) arbitrarily passed to tenants by lettings agents; and if he will bring forward legislative proposals to (b) stop the charging of those costs.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 bans unfair fees paid by tenants in the private rented sector in England. This includes most office or administration costs such as referencing, administration, inventory, renewal and check-out fees. Such fees are prohibited payments, and charging them to the tenant is a breach of the Tenant Fees Act.
Letting agents or landlords that are found to have committed a breach of the Act will be liable for a £5,000 fine in the first instance, and if a further breach is committed within five years they will be liable for up to a £30,000 fine, as an alternative to prosecution. The Act is enforced by local enforcement authorities, normally trading standards, who are supported with advice and information by a lead enforcement authority.
The Act created this new Lead Enforcement Authority to support action against rogue agents. The Secretary of State has appointed the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team to this role, and has provided them over £1,000,000 per annum in funding since the Act came into force.
The Government has no current plans to bring forward further legislation at this time.