Asked by: Louise Ellman (Independent - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps has taken to support leaseholders at Heysmoor Heights, Liverpool to meet the costs for fire safety following the Grenfell Tower tragedy; and will he make a statement.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Secretary of State has made clear that building owners should do all they can to protect leaseholders from costs relating to interim measures and cladding remediation – either funding it themselves or looking at alternative routes such as insurance claims, warranties or legal action.
It is important that leaseholders are able to access specialist advice to understand their rights. The Secretary of State announced on 4 December that the department is providing additional funding to the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), an arm’s length-body which provides free initial legal advice to leaseholders, to advise on fire safety issues.
The department is keeping the situation under review.
Asked by: Louise Ellman (Independent - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make a financial contribution towards the costs levied on leaseholders who are required to remove cladding on grounds of safety as a consequence of the Grenfell Tower disaster; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Those local authorities and Housing Associations with which we are in discussion have indicated that they are choosing not to pass on the costs of interim measures or the remediation of cladding systems to individual flat owners within their buildings. I am clear that this is the right approach.
For the private sector, it is for the responsible person to take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of residents. In some cases these costs will naturally fall to the freeholder, landlord, or those acting on their behalf. Where they do not, I would urge those with responsibility to follow the lead of the social sector, and some private companies and not to pass on costs to leaseholders.
I also want to make sure leaseholders can access specialist advice to understand their rights. My Department is providing additional funding to the Leaseholder Advisory Service to provide a dedicated advice and dispute resolution service to those leaseholders affected. This will complement the excellent work being done by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Leasehold and Common hold reform and other organisations.
Asked by: Louise Ellman (Independent - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will make funding available towards the costs levied on leaseholders who are required to remove cladding on grounds of safety as a consequence of the Grenfell Tower disaster; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Sharma
I refer the Hon Member to my answer today to Question UIN 114728.
Asked by: Louise Ellman (Independent - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory homeless people there are in (i) England and (ii) Liverpool.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The figures are published in (i) Live Table 770 and (ii) Detailed local authority level homelessness figures: July to September 2014, both of which are available to download from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness as well as Table 1 available to download from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2014
This Government is committed to preventing and tackling homelessness. We have increased homelessness prevention spending, making over £500 million available since 2010 to local authorities and the voluntary sector to help the most vulnerable in society.
Homelessness remains lower than in 27 of the last 30 years. It is around half the average level it was under the last Labour Government.