Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
What estimate he has made of the total cost of remedial work required to replace dangerous material and rectify poor quality construction identified by EWS1 form inspections.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
EWS1 is not a Government form or regulatory requirement, and it is not a safety certificate. It was designed by industry to aid valuation of high-rise residential properties with cladding, but we know it has been used far more broadly.
In relation to high rise buildings, the Government has already made £1.6 billion available to remediate dangerous ACM and non-ACM cladding on residential buildings 18m and over.
The Government is determined to further identify suitable financing solutions for high rise residential buildings and remove barriers to remediation where these exist.
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, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on (a) leasehold property and (b) the right to manage.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. We are taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market. This includes measures to ban the sale of new leasehold houses, restrict ground rents to zero for future leases, give freehold homeowners equivalent rights to challenge unfair charges, and close loopholes to prevent unfair evictions.
We are working with the Law Commission to simplify the process of leaseholders exercising their Right to Manage, so that it is easier for leaseholders to come together to take on responsibilities for the ownership of their property. They will be publishing their report on this shortly, alongside reports on enfranchisement and commonhold, and we will consider these and set out our proposed way forward in due course.
Given the impact of Covid-19 on the legislative agenda, we will bring forward legislation on leasehold reform as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
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, with reference to the final report of the Regulation of Property Agents Working Group, published July 2019, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to establish an independent regulator.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government remains committed to raising professionalism and standards amongst property agents and is grateful for the final report of the independent Regulation of Property Agents working group, chaired by Lord Best. We welcome the recent appointment of Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town as the Chair of a new independent steering group on codes of practice for property agents as an important development towards ensuring all customers are treated fairly and all agents work to the same high standards. Though our collective efforts are currently focussed on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will respond to the report of Lord Best’s working group, setting out next steps, following careful consideration of its 53 recommendations, and we will consider any code produced by Baroness Hayter’s steering group in due course.
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 recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on financial support for local authorities (a) that have lost income due to covid-19 and (b) for extra costs incurred as part of the covid-19 recovery.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Secretary of State and I both speak to our counterparts at the Treasury regularly and discuss a range of issues affecting local government.
Government has now made an unprecedented £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an un-ringfenced grant so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The package recognises the additional costs and pressures on finances councils are facing as a result of the current crisis. It demonstrates the Government’s commitment to making sure councils have the resources they need to support their communities through this challenging time.
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 implications for his policies of the estimate by the Local Government Association that the cost to local authorities of tackling the covid-19 outbreak is £13 billion; and whether he has plans to allocate additional funding from the public purse to local authorities to meet that cost.
Answered by Simon Clarke
MHCLG continues to work closely with local authorities to manage the impacts of Covid-19 on our society.
The Government has made £3.2 billion available to local authorities in England through unringfenced grant so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have also announced measures worth over £5 billion to ease immediate cashflow concerns. These measures recognise the additional costs and financial pressures councils are facing as a result of the current crisis. ?They demonstrate the Government’s commitment to making sure all councils have the resources they need to support their communities through this challenging time.
These measures are part of a comprehensive package of support for local areas from across Government, including £13 billion to support small businesses, £10.2 billion in business rates support for businesses, £600 million for infection control in care homes and £500 million of council tax support for vulnerable families.
Estimates of full-year costs are necessarily unreliable at this stage since the progress of the pandemic is unknown. We will continue to work with councils over the coming weeks, including though new monthly financial monitoring, to ensure we have a collective understanding of the issues they are facing.