Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government funds the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to deliver the annual Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz –Birkenau on behalf of the nation. This year the ceremony will take place on 25 January 2018.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, published in February 2015 by the All-Party Group on Anti-Semitism, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to tackle the use of social media for anti-Semitic abuse.
Answered by Stephen Williams
We are currently carefully considering the recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-semitism.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals giving local authorities powers to implement rent controls.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
No.
The latest Office for National Statistics figures show that private sector rents have actually fallen in real terms across England since 2010 (rents up 10.6 per cent from May 2010 to December 2014, compared to CPI inflation of 12.1 per cent). Indeed, regulated social rents have risen faster in recent years; average weekly rents rose by 25.4 per cent from 2008-09 to 2012-13 in the social rented sector, compared to 6.5 per cent in the private rented sector (DCLG, English Housing Survey: Headline Report, February 2014, p.19).
The historical evidence is clear that rent controls resulted in the size of the private rented sector shrinking from 55 per cent of households in 1939 to just 8 per cent in the late 1980s. State-imposed price ceilings meant that many landlords could not afford to improve or maintain their homes, leading to worst conditions for tenants. Ultimately, the reduction in supply from such controls would push up rents and reduce choice for tenants.
Indeed, this point was confirmed in policy documents published under the last Labour Government: “A key factor behind the decline in the private rented sector was the introduction of rent controls during the First World War, and these became more extensive over time. Artificially low rents reduced investment in the sector, contributing to a tenure shift to owner-occupation and lower maintenance standards in the stock that remained. A turning point was the 1988 Housing Act – which removed rent controls and introduced short hold tenancies” (HM Treasury, Investment in the UK private rented sector, February 2010, p.11). The same analysis also observed that property conditions (proportion of Decent Homes) have improved faster in the private rented sector than in the owner occupied sector, without rent controls.
I appreciate the HM Opposition have now swung to the left, and are calling for a form of state rent controls, as part of their business-bashing agenda. Yet rent controls would decimate the action that this Government is taking to increase private and institutional investment in new rented accommodation, as well as leading to worse property conditions for tenants by discouraging investment in existing accommodation.
As Swedish economist, Professor Assar Lindbeck, famously remarked: “rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing” (Lindbeck, The Political Economy of the New Left, 1972).
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to eradicate the commercial and aesthetic effects of derelict and abandoned buildings in town centres.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Local authorities have a range of powers to tackle derelict and abandoned land and buildings including:
- section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 –which enables local authorities to serve a notice requiring owners to clean up land and buildings where their condition adversely affects the amenity of the area. Local authorities can also take direct action and recover the costs.
- section 1 of the Localism Act 2011 – we encourage local councils, including eligible parish councils, to consider the general power of competence in the Localism Act 2011. This removes the need to establish new narrow powers in response to particular issues. Local authorities have the power to act innovatively for their local communities and they can use the power without constantly looking back to Whitehall for permission.
- compulsory purchase powers – as a last resort, local authorities have a range of powers to acquire land for different purposes provided there is a compelling case in the public interest.
In February we amended the Community Infrastructure Levy to make it fairer and more flexible, including specific measures to encourage brownfield development. We also consulted on removing section 106 affordable housing contributions for small sites, as well as applying a similar exemption to vacant buildings brought back into use. The Government will publish a response to the consultation shortly.
We have exempted empty new builds from empty property rates for up to 18 months up to state aid limits. Also, our £1 billion package of business rates measures for 2014-15 included a £1,000 discount for shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000 for 2 years and a new re-occupation relief which cuts business rates by half for 18 months for businesses taking on a long-term empty retail property.
The Department has also made a number of deregulatory reforms to the planning system that encourage the re-use of existing, under-utilised buildings and building space. For example, there are permitted development rights that allow redundant space above shops to change to residential use as well as rights that allow offices to change to residential use. These, along with other change of use permitted development rights are making more productive use of our building stock and bringing forward much needed new homes.