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Written Question
Estate Agents: Fees and Charges
Monday 16th November 2020

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress his Department has made on regulating estate agents' fees since his Department's consultation on the home buying and selling process closed in December 2017.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Government is clear that estate agent fees should be set by the market. However, where agents receive a referral fee these must be disclosed to consumers before they make any decision to purchase.

In February 2019, National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agents Team (NTSELAT) published guidance for estate agents which makes it clear they must disclose referral fees. We have asked NSTELAT to monitor this, and in February 2020 they reported that the majority of agents do disclose that they will receive a referral fee. NTSELAT will to continue to monitor and report back any concerns.


Written Question
Grenfell Tower: Fires
Wednesday 18th March 2020

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of displaced Grenfell Tower residents are now in permanent accommodation.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

According to the latest data from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC), as of 12 March 2020, of the 201 households from Grenfell Tower and Walk that require rehousing, 194 households have moved into permanent accommodation. This equates to over 95 per cent of Grenfell households that require rehousing now living in permanent accommodation.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing: Social Security Benefits
Monday 7th October 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2019 to Question 274566 on Private Rented Housing, what steps his Department is taking to discourage landlords from refusing tenants on (a) housing benefit and (b) universal credit.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

As the single largest payer of rents in the country, the government wants to ensure that prospective tenants who receive housing support are not dismissed out of hand. That is why the government has committed to tackling the issue of private letting advertisements that specify ‘No DSS’ tenants.

In June, the government met industry representatives at No.10 Downing Street, including mortgage providers, insurance representatives, landlord associations, tenant groups, and property websites to determine what action could be taken.

I’m pleased to say that at the meeting, Metro Bank pledged to remove ‘No DSS’ conditions from their mortgage products. In August, The Mortgage Lender also announced that they were lifting ‘No DSS’ restrictions. These changes build on commitments from NatWest and Nationwide and evidence now suggests that nearly all new buy-to-let mortgages have no restrictions on letting tenants in receipt of benefits.

Since the ministerial roundtable at No. 10 Downing Street in June, the government has continued to work with landlords’, letting agencies’, lenders’, insurance providers’, and tenants’ representatives to explore the scope for joint communications to discourage the practice of preventing benefit claimants from applying for private rental sector lettings.


Written Question
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Serco
Thursday 11th July 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many contracts his Department has awarded to Serco since July 2013; and what the value is of those contracts.

Answered by Jake Berry

Since July 2013, the Department has awarded 2 contracts to Serco, with a total contract value of £2.2 million.

These covered the procurement of a service provider to run the Right to Buy Contact Centre Service and of cyber training and exercising support for the National Cyber Security Programme.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing: Social Security Benefits
Thursday 11th July 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of private landlords who refuse to rent accommodation to people who receive social security payments.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

According to the English Private Landlord Survey 2018:

52 per cent of landlords and 37 per cent of agents reported that they would be unwilling to let to tenants in receipt of Housing Benefit.

47 per cent of landlords and 33 per cent of agents reported that they would be unwilling to let to anyone on Universal Credit.


Written Question
Homelessness
Monday 24th June 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment his Department has made of the proportion of homeless people in England who (a) are veterans of the armed services, (b) have recently been released from prison and (c) have previously been in receipt of universal credit.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.

In March we allocated an additional £1 million of bespoke funding to support ex- members of the armed forces who are or are at risk of becoming homeless. The funding has been allocated between the Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, and will be used to develop new services and support them in engaging with existing service provision.

Accommodation data for Armed force veterans is limited as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not collect statistics on whether or not people sleeping rough have served in the armed forces.

However, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network stats suggest that 3 per cent of the rough sleeping population in London have served in the armed Forces.

We do not collect data on how many people, owed a statutory homeless duty, are veterans. However, in April 2018 my Department introduced a data capturing tool, the Homelessness Case Level Information Collection referred to as H-CLIC which captures the support needs of a household, including if someone has a support need as a result of being in the armed forces. The latest H-CLIC data for October to December 2018 shows that of the 61,410 households in England who were owed a homelessness duty in England, 0.72 per cent had support needs because they had previously served in the armed forces. This does not include households that did not approach their local authority for help or those who do not require additional support because they previously served.

In terms of prisoners released, during October to December 2018, 1.8 per cent of the 61,410 households owed a homeless duty in England were homeless on departure from prison.

Information is not held on people previously in receipt of universal credit who are owed a homeless duty.


Written Question
Business Premises: Change of Use
Wednesday 5th June 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 May 2019 to Question 254216 on Business Premises: Change of Use, how many breaches of building regulations resulted in enforcement actions for houses converted under permitted development rights.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The Department does not collect information about enforcement activity. Compliance with Building Regulations’ requirements will be checked by the relevant building control body. They may require changes to the building work to be made by the person responsible for the work, to ensure compliance without the need for formal enforcement action.


Written Question
Business Premises: Change of Use
Monday 20th May 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has estimated the (a) number and (b) proportion of homes created under permitted development rights enabling change of use from offices to housing which do not meet national standards on floor space; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

New homes in England, whether granted permission on an application or through a permitted development right, are required to meet Building Regulations.

We announced in Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1408 on 13 March 2019, our intention to review permitted development rights for conversion of buildings to residential use in respect of the quality standard of homes delivered.


Written Question
Religious Hatred
Monday 29th April 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the 415 per cent increase in religious hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales since 2011-12.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

Police recorded religiously motivated hate crime has increased in recent years despite a backdrop of a longer-term downward trend in the experience of hate crime overall according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales. We know that there have been trigger events for increases in hate crime, such as the EU Referendum and the terror attacks in 2017, though data shows that these have been temporary. A considerable driver for this overall increase is general improvements in police recording, and through our work with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and third party services such as the Community Security Trust and Tell MAMA, police are better at identifying whether a crime is a hate crime and victims may be more willing to come forward.

The Government has a comprehensive plan to tackle hate crime in all its forms, as set out in the refreshed Hate Crime Action Plan published in October 2018, which sets out a programme of work across Government and by the police.


Written Question
Religious Hatred: Islam
Wednesday 24th April 2019

Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the increase in Islamophobic hate crimes after the 2016 EU referendum.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

Police recorded hate crime across all strands, including those targeting Muslims, has increased despite a backdrop of a longer-term downward trend in the experience of hate crime overall according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales. We know that there have been trigger events for increases in hate crime, such as the EU Referendum and the terror attacks in 2017, though data shows that these have been temporary. A significant driver of this overall increase is general improvements in police recording, and through our work with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and third party services such as Tell MAMA, police are better at identifying whether a crime is a hate crime and victims may be more willing to come forward.

The Government has a comprehensive plan to tackle hate crime in all its forms, as set out in the refreshed Hate Crime Action Plan published in October 2018, which sets out a programme of work across Government and by the police. We are clear that Britain leaving the EU cannot be a reason to target groups or individuals because of their faith or background. We will not tolerate efforts to create division in our communities, against EU citizens or people of any other race, faith or background.