Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to prevent leasehold management companies from imposing five year ground rent review periods which limits the owner's ability to secure a mortgage.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. We are therefore taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market.
We know that high or increasing ground rents are a cause of considerable concern to affected leaseholders. We introduced the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rents) Bill into Parliament last month, which will prevent landlords from including a financial ground rent in new leases.
We also asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms (such as high and increasing ground rents) in the leasehold sector. On 19 March 2021, the CMA announced that it is requiring the removal of ground rent terms which it thinks are unfair from all existing Countryside and Taylor Wimpey contracts. The companies must also agree not to use the terms again in any future leasehold contracts. The Government strongly welcomes the CMA's efforts to bring justice to homeowners affected by unfair practices and continues to keep a close eye on the CMA investigation. We will consider any next steps once the CMA have progressed their enforcement action.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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.