Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many applications to the Waking Watch Relief Fund (a) have been approved, (b) have been rejected and (c) are yet to be reviewed.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Data on the Waking Watch Relief Fund, including the number of applications received, successful and rejected and the amount of funding approved, has been published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waking-watch-relief-fund
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many applications have been received to the Waking Watch Relief Fund in each month since that Fund opened.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Data on the Waking Watch Relief Fund, including the number of applications received, successful and rejected and the amount of funding approved, has been published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waking-watch-relief-fund
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding from the Affordable Homes Programme is planned to support First Homes by the end of 2021.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government will shortly be launching a First Homes pilot using Affordable Homes Programme funding, which will deliver 1,500 First Homes by March 2023. The quantity of grant to be allocated within calendar year 2021 will be established once we have received bids for the pilot, and awarded contracts.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to increase the number of qualified fire assessors that are qualified to carry out the EWS1 assessment for buildings over 18m.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has provided the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with a grant for nearly £700,000 to develop and deliver training for up to 2,000 assessors who will be able to carry out EWS1 assessments.
This training enables these assessors to undertake external wall system assessments for low to medium rise residential buildings of up to 18 metres. The newly qualified assessors will help increase the number of professionals qualified to carry out such assessments, and free up the specialist engineers who are able to assess buildings over 18 metres and those which are high risk and require specialist testing.
Training commenced in January and course enrolments are currently around 870. If fewer than 2,000 individuals enrol on the course, then RICS will repay part of the grant to the Department.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release, Government steps in to help homeowners caught up in EWS1 process, published on 21 November 2020, how much of the £700,000 to train more assessors has been allocated to date.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has provided the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with a grant for nearly £700,000 to develop and deliver training for up to 2,000 assessors who will be able to carry out EWS1 assessments.
This training enables these assessors to undertake external wall system assessments for low to medium rise residential buildings of up to 18 metres. The newly qualified assessors will help increase the number of professionals qualified to carry out such assessments, and free up the specialist engineers who are able to assess buildings over 18 metres and those which are high risk and require specialist testing.
Training commenced in January and course enrolments are currently around 870. If fewer than 2,000 individuals enrol on the course, then RICS will repay part of the grant to the Department.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release, Government steps in to help homeowners caught up in EWS1 process, published on 21 November 2020, how many of the 6,000 building assessors are qualified to carry out the EWS1 assessment.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has provided the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with a grant for nearly £700,000 to develop and deliver training for up to 2,000 assessors who will be able to carry out EWS1 assessments.
This training enables these assessors to undertake external wall system assessments for low to medium rise residential buildings of up to 18 metres. The newly qualified assessors will help increase the number of professionals qualified to carry out such assessments, and free up the specialist engineers who are able to assess buildings over 18 metres and those which are high risk and require specialist testing.
Training commenced in January and course enrolments are currently around 870. If fewer than 2,000 individuals enrol on the course, then RICS will repay part of the grant to the Department.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether any departmental business has been conducted on private email addresses; and what mechanisms are in place to ensure that full records are kept of that business.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
I refer the Hon. Member to the Cabinet Office guidance to departments on use of private emails .
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether a risk assessment has been carried out on the secure holding of CCTV footage within his Department.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
As has been the case under successive Administrations, it is not government policy to comment on security procedures in government buildings.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on Monday 14 June, Official Report, col 4, that over nine out of 10 people are not in rent arrears at all; what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of people in rent arrears.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The latest published data from the English Housing Survey Household Resilience Study from November – December 2020, suggests that the vast majority (91%) of private renters are up to date with their rent. Of the 9% (353,000 households) in arrears, two thirds are in arrears of less than 2 months.
The UK Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support which is available to tenants.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and £20 per week uplift in Universal Credit are in place until the end of September helping renters to continue paying their rent. Local housing allowance rates have been maintained at their increased level in cash terms in 2021/22, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector continue to benefit from the significant increase in the local housing allowance rates applied in April 2020. For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. For 2021-22 the Government has made £140 million available in DHP funding, building on the £180 million provided last year.
Renters will continue to benefit from longer notice periods, giving them more time to make alternative arrangements. As of 1 June, until at least 30 September, notice periods will be at least 4 months except in the most egregious cases.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester 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 16 June to Question 14162 on Building Safety Fund, for how many applications to the Building Safety Fund management and administrative fees have accounted for 10 per cent or more of the total application.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
As set out in the answer to Questions UIN 11562 and UIN 11563, the Department has not analysed management fees or administrative fees across the Building Safety Fund given the cost benchmarking safeguards that are in place for each individual project.