Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
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 Answer of 15 February 2022 to Question 120801 on Housing: Regional Planning and Development, whether the planned legally binding Decent Home Standard will include a requirement for all homes to be free of unsafe electrics.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We are committed to driving up standards in private rented accommodation and we will be consulting on introducing a legally binding Decent Homes Standard (DHS) in the Private Rented Sector.
Rented homes must already be free of the most serious ‘category 1’ hazards, which include but are not limited to issues such as electrical and fire safety, dampness and cold assessed using the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS). We are reviewing the HHSRS to ensure the system is more accessible and easier to understand for landlords and tenants, and facilitates the effective enforcement of housing standards by local authorities.
We will publish a White Paper in spring this year that will set out our proposals for reform of the private rented sector.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2022 to Question 120801 on Housing: Regional Planning and Development, whether the planned legally binding Decent Home Standard will include a requirement for all homes to be free of gas safety risks.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We are committed to driving up standards in private rented accommodation and we will be consulting on introducing a legally binding Decent Homes Standard (DHS) in the Private Rented Sector.
Rented homes must already be free of the most serious ‘category 1’ hazards, which include but are not limited to issues such as electrical and fire safety, dampness and cold assessed using the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS). We are reviewing the HHSRS to ensure the system is more accessible and easier to understand for landlords and tenants, and facilitates the effective enforcement of housing standards by local authorities.
We will publish a White Paper in spring this year that will set out our proposals for reform of the private rented sector.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, by what date his Department plans to publish its white paper on proposals for reform of the private rented sector.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government remains committed to building back fairer and delivering a better deal for renters. We will publish a White Paper that will set out a package of reforms to create a fairer private rented sector this spring.
We are undertaking robust and structured engagement with stakeholders to inform our plans, while also learning from the pandemic’s impact on the sector.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2022 to Question 120801 on Housing: Regional Planning and Development, how many tenancy unions (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have met with in the last six months.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We know that understanding tenants’ experiences of the private rented sector is vital to making sure reforms work in the long term. Therefore, we have undertaken extensive engagement with a number of key stakeholders representing tenants.
I have chaired six Roundtables, with the most recent one held on the 9 February 2022. At all the roundtables, groups representing tenants have been in attendance. Additionally, many of the groups attending the roundtable are members of the Renters Reform Coalition which includes tenancy unions.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2022 to Question 120801 on Housing: Regional Planning and Development, what plans he has to engage with tenancy unions.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We know that understanding tenants’ experiences of the private rented sector is vital to making sure reforms work in the long term. We have undertaken extensive engagement with a range of key stakeholders representing tenants and will continue to do so.
We are currently developing our engagement plans to inform the implementation of a Decent Homes Standard and will engage with tenancy unions as part of our work.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reason there is not a target to raise the performance of secondary school children in the Levelling Up White Paper alongside the target for primary school children.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper are medium term and will be used to galvanise action across government, business and civil society. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities will work with the Department for Education and other government departments to ensure that the right policies are in place to contribute to achieving the missions.
The UK Government has continued to drive secondary school improvement, including by encouraging all schools in England to become part of a strong family of schools by joining a multi-academy trust. The 2021 Spending Review confirmed the Government’s commitment to level up education with an additional £4.7 billion by 2024-25 for the core schools budget in England, over and above the Spending Round 2019 (SR19) settlement for schools in 2022-23; and a new package of £1.8 billion over the SR21 period to support education recovery from the pandemic, which will nearly double the support per pupil in secondary schools.
The forthcoming Schools White Paper will set out a clear vision for further improvements to the schools system, to help raise the attainment of students including those attending secondary schools.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
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 Levelling Up White Paper, whether he plans to work with and strengthen tenancy unions to help meet the target of reducing the number of non-decent homes by 50 per cent by 2030.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We are committed to drive up standards in private rented accommodation and we will be consulting on introducing a legally binding Decent Homes Standard in the Private Rented Sector. We will publish a White Paper in Spring this year that will set out our proposals for reform of the private rented sector and are very happy to engage with tenancy unions.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
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 Levelling Up White Paper, whether he plans to increase funding for the provision of services by local government to help meet the target of improving wellbeing across all regions.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
In total, the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23 – published on 7 February – makes available an additional £3.7 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022/23 of over 4.5% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services.
Local authorities know their own local priorities best and have a discretion to spend their income according to local need, including on issues relating to wellbeing.
Levelling up is at the heart of the Government's agenda to build back better after the pandemic and was at the centre of the Manifesto on which the Government promised to deliver for the people of the UK. The Government is committed to ensuring that funding allocations for councils are based on an up-to-date assessment of their needs and resources. We will work closely with local partners and take stock of the challenges and opportunities they face, before consulting on any potential funding reform.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
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 Levelling Up White Paper, if his Department will reverse the real term reductions in local government funding to help meet the target of every community feeling pride in their town centre and local community.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
In total, the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23 – published on 7 February – makes available an additional £3.7 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022/23 of over 4.5% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services.
Local authorities know their own local priorities best and have a discretion to spend their income according to local need, including on issues relating to pride of place.
Levelling up is at the heart of the Government's agenda to build back better after the pandemic and was at the centre of the Manifesto on which the Government promised to deliver for the people of the UK. The Government is committed to ensuring that funding allocations for councils are based on an up-to-date assessment of their needs and resources. We will work closely with local partners and take stock of the challenges and opportunities they face, before consulting on any potential funding reform.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the evidential basis is that the policy proposals set out in the Levelling Up White Paper on reducing the regional inequality in healthy life expectancy will be sufficient to achieve the target.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper are medium term and will be used to galvanise action across government, business and civil society. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities will work with the Department of Health & Social Care and other government departments to ensure that the right policies are in place to contribute to achieving the missions.
The Levelling Up mission for health is underpinned by the government’s manifesto commitment to increase the number of years spent in good health by at least five years nationally. To achieve our mission, we need to increase healthy life expectancy at a faster rate than the current UK average. Based on past learnings, we will need to increase collaboration and innovation, target investment, and ensure interventions are wide-reaching to tackle the biggest disparities in health.
This is why we will set out our strategy to tackle the core drivers of disparities in health in the new Health Disparities White Paper, which we expect to publish later this year. This will set out a series of impactful measures, including legislation, to address health disparities at each stage at which they arise.
The Levelling Up White Paper also sets out a broad range of policies, which will improve the nation’s health and tackle disparities through action on prevention as well as health service provision. This includes commitments on smoking, obesity, substance misuse, early years and Community Diagnostic Centres.