Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the impact of leaseholders who do not qualify for support for the remediation of cladding and fire safety defects and who cannot meet their share of the cost of those works on the progress of the remediation of those buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department are undertaking legal action against Grey GR, a subsidiary of Railpen.
The Department wrote to Grey GR regarding Cardinal Lofts and Timblebeck in November 2022 and February 2023, and again regarding Cardinal Lofts in March 2023, concerning the safety of residents. Departmental officials last met with Railpen officials today.
A copy of the Secretary of State’s correspondence will be placed in the Library of the House.
Building owners are legally responsible for making sure their buildings are safe. Should the residents of an unsafe building need to be evacuated, the Government expects building owners to provide suitable alternative accommodation until residents can return home, at the building owner's expense, and for the building to be remediated.
Regarding non-qualifying leaseholders we continue to monitor closely the remediation of all buildings in receipt of public funding, such as from the Building Safety Fund. For those buildings where the developer or freeholder have agreed to remediate, no costs should be attributable to leaseholders, whether qualifying or non-qualifying for other costs. Parliament determined a way forward on this matter in 2022 which we continue to monitor.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had recent discussions with RailPen on fixing the cladding issues at (a) Cardinal Lofts in Ipswich and (b) Timblebeck in Leeds.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department are undertaking legal action against Grey GR, a subsidiary of Railpen.
The Department wrote to Grey GR regarding Cardinal Lofts and Timblebeck in November 2022 and February 2023, and again regarding Cardinal Lofts in March 2023, concerning the safety of residents. Departmental officials last met with Railpen officials today.
A copy of the Secretary of State’s correspondence will be placed in the Library of the House.
Building owners are legally responsible for making sure their buildings are safe. Should the residents of an unsafe building need to be evacuated, the Government expects building owners to provide suitable alternative accommodation until residents can return home, at the building owner's expense, and for the building to be remediated.
Regarding non-qualifying leaseholders we continue to monitor closely the remediation of all buildings in receipt of public funding, such as from the Building Safety Fund. For those buildings where the developer or freeholder have agreed to remediate, no costs should be attributable to leaseholders, whether qualifying or non-qualifying for other costs. Parliament determined a way forward on this matter in 2022 which we continue to monitor.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his oral contribution of 30 January 2023, Official Report, column 54, on Cartier House, the Gateway and the Drive, Saxton Gardens, what progress he has made investigating the position of those buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Cartier House
As set out in our answer to Question UIN 117474 on 11 January 2023, the department has issued a short form funding agreement on 31 October 2022 for £581,274 from the Building Safety Fund to the applicant for Cartier House for 'pre-tender support'. Pre-tender support is advance funding to enable the applicant to develop their project. The applicant has yet to sign and return the short form funding agreement which would allow the project to progress.
Saxton Gardens
This building did not meet the eligibility criteria for the first tranche of the Building Safety Fund but has reapplied for the reopened Fund. This application was submitted to the Department on 17 February 2023 and is undergoing technical assessment.
The Gateway
Three of the four blocks in the Gateway development met the eligibility criteria for the Building Safety Fund and have been approved £18,637,639 funding. The applicant has subsequently applied through the reopened Fund for works that will cover the whole of the development. The application is currently being considered.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which body (a) oversees the work of housing co-operatives in England and (b) deals with complaints on housing co-operatives.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Where co-operatives provide social housing, they may register with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and then they must comply with the regulatory standards set by the RSH.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has held discussions with (a) Scotfield and (b) Shephard Construction on signing the developers pledge on unsafe cladding.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Last year, 49 of the largest developers signed a public pledge committing to fix life-critical fire-safety defects in residential buildings 11 metres and over in height which they developed or refurbished in England over the last 30 years. Scotfield and Shephard Construction are not signatories to the pledge
On 30 January 2023, the Government published the developer remediation contract, which sets out the detail of the commitments in the pledge and will be legally binding once signed, and a letter to developers asking them to sign the contract by 13 March. The letter was sent to developers who had signed the pledge and to several who have not signed it and stated that recipients who did not sign the contract by 13 March should expect this fact to be made public
In his statement of 30 January, the Secretary of State made clear that we intend to extend the Scheme in due course to an even larger group of developers who are associated with unsafe buildings 11 metres and over in height and who should be paying to fix them.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to review legislation on the rights and protections of lodgers in private houses.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Where parties have entered into a contract in relation to lodging arrangements, the parties are legally bound to comply with the terms of the contract, including any terms related to the giving and receiving of notice. If the Rt Hon member has further suggestions he is welcome to write to me with them.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is having discussions with the owners of Cartier House in Leeds Dock on remediating unsafe cladding and other fire safety risks; and whether his Department has agreed to provide funding from The Building Safety Fund to help support the cost of addressing related fire-safety risks at Cartier House.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department issued a funding agreement on 31 October 2022 for £581,274 from the Building Safety Fund to the applicant for Cartier House in Leeds Dock for 'pre-tender support'. Pre-tender support is advance funding to enable the applicant to get to the point at which they have a contract in place to remediate the cladding on Cartier House, including funding for scoping the project, appointing a professional team, and developing a works specification. Homes England, the Department's Delivery Partner for the Building Safety Fund, wrote to the applicant on 12 December 2022 asking them to sign urgently and return the funding agreement.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of introducing rent caps of (a) 3 per cent, (b) 5 per cent and (c) seven per cent on the ability of housing associations to (i) build new homes and (ii) decarbonise existing homes.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
We announced on 17 November 2022 that the rent cap on social housing rents from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 will be 7%. To ensure its financial viability and critical role in supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our society, supported housing will be excepted from this new cap. We urge landlords to consider setting lower increases where possible.
We published an impact assessment as part of our consultation here. A final version of our impact assessment will be published in due course.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the proposed location of fast food establishments near to schools constitutes reasonable grounds for refusing planning permission.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has made clear in the National Planning Policy Framework that planning policies and decisions should enable and support healthy lifestyles. As part of this the Planning Practice Guidance sets out that local authorities through their development plan can include policies which seek to limit certain uses, that require planning permission, in proximity to locations where children and young people congregate such as schools.
Any planning applications will be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he will publish the second round of successful bids from local authorities to the Levelling-up Fund.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Levelling up and driving growth across the UK is a key priority of this Government.
All bids submitted in the second round of the Levelling Up Fund are currently being assessed in line with our published guidance. I expect the Government to announce the outcome of the second round of the Fund before the end of the year.