Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to help improve the (a) suitability and (b) affordability of private rental housing stock.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Government is committed to fundamentally improving the private rented sector and providing a better deal for renters, including by halving levels of non-decency in all rented homes by 2030.
Disabled people in the private rented sector can also apply to their local authority for a Disabled Facilities Grant, that can contribute towards the cost of adapting an eligible person's home to make it more suitable. Since 2010 Government has invested £4.8bn billion into the Disabled Facilities Grant (2010-11 to 2022-23), delivering an estimated 490,000 home adaptations.
All renters deserve to feel secure in their homes. We will deliver our manifesto commitment to abolish section 21 no fault evictions.
Where tenants in social housing are struggling with cost of living or rent payments, the Pre-Action Protocol for Possession Claims by Social Landlords, sets out the actions social landlords should take before they consider taking legal action.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with mortgage lenders on relaxing restrictions on lending on buildings under 18 metres with fire safety defects.
Answered by Lee Rowley
On 20 December, the six largest mortgage lenders, supported by UK Finance and the Building Societies Association, confirmed, subject to their normal policy requirements, that from Monday 9 January 2023 they will lend on buildings in England of 11 metres and above in height with building safety issues. This is subject to the building being part of a developer or government remediation scheme, or the property being protected by the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act, as evidenced by a leaseholder deed of certificate.
I have met executives from each of those lenders to impress this upon them and to review their progress. It is important that lenders honour this commitment, and my officials and I are monitoring its implementation carefully.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress his Department has made on increasing the number of new homes built; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that these homes are affordable for young people to rent or buy.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
We are committed to helping to make the dream of homeownership a reality, and operate a range of schemes which aim to make home ownership more affordable. Since spring 2010, over 822,000 households have been helped to purchase a home through Government-backed schemes including Help to Buy and Right to Buy.
We are committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing which is why, through our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, we will deliver tens of thousands of affordable homes for both sale and rent, right across the country.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to protect leaseholders from remediation costs related to structural building defects that are not considered a "relevant defect" under the Building Safety Act, but which are discovered during cladding remediation works.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Building Safety Act 2022 sets out the broad range of defects to which the leaseholder protections apply. The core principle is that the historical defect puts people's safety at risk from the spread of fire, or structural collapse.
The Building Safety Act 2022 also provides a toolkit of measures to enable those responsible for defective work to be pursued. These include retrospectively extending the limitation period under section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 from six to 30 years where claims can be made for defective work relating to the construction of dwellings where the work rendered the dwelling unfit for habitation at the time of completion
Additionally, civil claims can now be brought against manufacturers of, or those who have supplied, defective or mis-sold construction products, or those who have supplied or marketed in breach of regulations, where these products have been incorporated in a dwelling and that has caused or contributed to a dwelling being unfit for habitation.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of Mount Anvil Group Ltd’s performance in remediating life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they (a) developed and (b) refurbished in the last 30 years in Putney constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The building safety pledge has been signed by 49 of the largest developers and the Government will shortly publish a contract that makes the commitments in the pledge legally binding, and includes requirements to provide information about the progress of building safety work. Mount Anvil Group Limited is not a signatory to the building safety pledge.
The Government expects all developers to do the right thing, irrespective of whether they signed the pledge. The Building Safety Act 2022 put in place legal protections for leaseholders from historical building safety costs and created new avenues to seek redress through the courts. In August, we made commencement regulations under the Act that pave the way for giving Ministers powers to stop developers that fail to do the right thing from commencing developments for which they have planning permission, and from being granted building control sign-off for their projects.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the signing of the building safety repairs pledge by Bellway plc, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of that company's performance in remediating life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they (a) developed and (b) refurbished in the last 30 years in Putney constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley
49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over in height that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. Signatories include Taylor Wimpey, Crest Nicholson, Barratt, Bellway, Persimmon and Berkeley.
We will shortly publish a contract that will make the pledge commitments legally binding, and which we will expect developers to sign as soon as possible. The contract will contain provisions enabling us to monitor and audit the progress being made by developers to meet their remediation commitments.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the signing of the building safety repairs pledge by Berkeley Group Holdings plc, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of that company's performance in remediating life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they (a) developed and (b) refurbished in the last 30 years in Putney constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley
49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over in height that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. Signatories include Taylor Wimpey, Crest Nicholson, Barratt, Bellway, Persimmon and Berkeley.
We will shortly publish a contract that will make the pledge commitments legally binding, and which we will expect developers to sign as soon as possible. The contract will contain provisions enabling us to monitor and audit the progress being made by developers to meet their remediation commitments.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the signing of the building safety repairs pledge by Taylor Wimpey, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of that company's performance in remediating life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they (a) developed and (b) refurbished in the last 30 years in Putney constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley
49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over in height that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. Signatories include Taylor Wimpey, Crest Nicholson, Barratt, Bellway, Persimmon and Berkeley.
We will shortly publish a contract that will make the pledge commitments legally binding, and which we will expect developers to sign as soon as possible. The contract will contain provisions enabling us to monitor and audit the progress being made by developers to meet their remediation commitments.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the signing of the building safety repairs pledge by Persimmon, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of that company's performance in remediating life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they (a) developed and (b) refurbished in the last 30 years in Putney constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley
49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over in height that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. Signatories include Taylor Wimpey, Crest Nicholson, Barratt, Bellway, Persimmon and Berkeley.
We will shortly publish a contract that will make the pledge commitments legally binding, and which we will expect developers to sign as soon as possible. The contract will contain provisions enabling us to monitor and audit the progress being made by developers to meet their remediation commitments.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the signing of the building safety repairs pledge by Barratt Developments plc, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of that company's performance in remediating life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they (a) developed and (b) refurbished in the last 30 years in Putney constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley
49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over in height that they had a role in developing or refurbishing. Signatories include Taylor Wimpey, Crest Nicholson, Barratt, Bellway, Persimmon and Berkeley.
We will shortly publish a contract that will make the pledge commitments legally binding, and which we will expect developers to sign as soon as possible. The contract will contain provisions enabling us to monitor and audit the progress being made by developers to meet their remediation commitments.