Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to assist owners of commonhold properties in accessing flammability assessments and EWS1 certificates.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is the responsibility of the building owner, whether freeholder or common holder, to ensure their building is safe. This includes ensuring that there is an up-to-date fire risk assessment. To support the valuation process for high-rise residential blocks, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors designed the EWS1 process. This is not a regulatory requirement and not all lenders require it. My department is urging a more pragmatic approach, especially for lower rise blocks.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new homes were built in Dartford constituency in 2014.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Statistics on house building starts and completions in England and in each local authority district, including Dartford, are published in the Department's live tables 253 (annual) and 253a (quarterly), which are available at the following link:
http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
These statistics are not available by parliamentary constituency.
The house building statistics exclude other sources of housing supply such as conversions.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will review the 10 per cent commission payable on the sale of a mobile or park home to the site owner under the Mobile Homes Act 1983.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Through the Mobile Homes Act 2013, the Government has marked its commitment to providing protection to park home owners and to enable them to sell their homes at the full market value without undue interference from site operators. The commission that the site owner is entitled to receive on the sale of a home is up to 10 per cent, and represents a legitimate income strand in running a park home business. It enables park home sites to be adequately managed and maintained. Where sites are not being properly managed local authorities have new enforcement powers to require compliance with licence conditions. In that context, there are no current plans to review the amount of commission payable on the sale of a park home, to the site owner.