Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to ensure that carers who temporarily live with the person they care for and are on a low income are entitled to the Council tax rebate.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The council tax rebate was targeted at occupied properties, where energy bills are likely to be higher. There is an exemption from council tax for properties that are unoccupied because someone is living elsewhere to provide care, and these properties are not eligible for the main rebate. As part of the rebate scheme, we have however provided councils with £144 million to provide discretionary support. While it is for councils to decide how to use this funding, our guidance suggests that payments might be made to households where the energy bill payer is not liable for council tax.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
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 17 January 2022 to Question 99347, on Community Ownership Fund, when he plans to publish an updated timetable for applications to the Community Ownership Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We will be relaunching the Community Ownership Fund in Spring 2022.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish an updated timetable for applications to the Community Ownership Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
In order to fully examine, learn and implement the lessons of the first pilot bidding round of the Community Ownership Fund, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has pushed back the start date for the second round to spring 2022. This will enable us to ensure that the Community Ownership Fund is able to effectively invest in communities across the United Kingdom and that communities have more time to submit successful applications to the Fund.
We are currently working on our plans for round two and will be making an announcement in advance of the opening of the second round in the spring.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his timescale is for publishing the (a) eligibility for and (b) timetable for implementation of the scheme of Government backed loans to leaseholders for fire safety works in buildings under 18 metres in height announced in February 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Public safety is our first priority and we are working to ensure unsafe cladding is remediated as swiftly as possible. We will publish further details of the finance scheme as soon as we are in a position to do so.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on improving consumer protection in the residential building industry.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to improving consumer protection for residents across the housing market, including the residential building industry. This includes ensuring that the New Homes Ombudsman is established and developers are required to belong to it. Last year we published the draft Building Safety Bill which included provision for the New Homes Ombudsman. This will require developers to belong to the New Homes Ombudsman and provide better protection for new build homebuyers.
We will bring forward legislation when Parliamentary time allows. Alongside introducing legislation, we continue to stay in touch with the industry-led New Homes Quality Board to consider the appointment of a voluntary New Homes Ombudsman scheme and produce a developers code of practice.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the provision of public health grants in 2021-2022.
Answered by Luke Hall
Ministers and officials in my department regularly engage with counterparts in DHSC, Treasury and local authorities on matters relating to local authorities’ finances.
Government has released further details of the £3 billion in additional COVID support for 2021-22. This is additional to the £8 billion already allocated to councils since the start of the pandemic.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the capacity of local councils to provide payments to successful claimants of the disabled facilities grant within legal time limit.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 requires local authorities to make decisions on Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) applications within six months of receipt.
When someone applies for a grant, the local council carries out an assessment of need and affordability. If these assessments are passed the council instructs a trusted contractor to install the home adaptations that the applicant requires.
Local authorities provide MHCLG with annual data returns on DFG delivery, including information on the average number of days between a DFG application being received by the council and completion of the works.
For 2018-19 and 2019-20 the average number of days between DFG applications and completion of the works was 115 days, or between 3 and 4 months.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data his Department has collected to assess the effectiveness of the voluntary Code of Practice for commercial property relationships introduced in June 2020 as a response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Government has announced an unprecedented package of support and measures for businesses in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
As well as extensive financial support, we have introduced a range of legislative measures to protect businesses from eviction and insolvency measures.
The voluntary Code of Practice for commercial landlords and tenants sit alongside these measures, and is designed to encourage constructive dialogue between tenants and landlords to help reach agreement on outstanding rent arrears. It is clear that those tenants who can pay in full should do so, those who cannot pay should pay what they can, and those landlords who can grant concessions should do so.
The Code was designed with the support of a steering group including representatives of both landlords and tenants, and was endorsed by this group and many more stakeholder bodies. While the outcomes of commercial negotiations are clearly sensitive, Government continues to meet with these groups on a regular basis to gather feedback on the impact of the Code as well as closely monitoring published data on rent payment rates. As a result, we will publish further guidance to support negotiations between landlords and tenants.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2021 to Question 910674 on Buildings: Insulation, when his Department plans to respond to the proposal by the all-party parliamentary group on Leasehold Reform for a bond scheme to pay for remedial works.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is unacceptable for leaseholders to have to worry about the cost of fixing historic safety defects in their buildings that they did not cause. The Government is determined to remove barriers to fixing historic defects and identify financing solutions that help to protect leaseholders, whilst also helping to protect the taxpayer.
The Government is accelerating this work and is continuing to engage with stakeholders including the all-party parliamentary group on Leasehold Reform. We will provide an update as soon as we are in a position to do so.