Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the (a) mean, (b) median, (c) 10th percentile and (d) 25th percentile period between the date of a purchase of a social housing unit under Right to Buy and the date that that property has been let within the private rental sector, using a representative sample of housing units meeting these conditions, for each of the last 10 years for each region in England.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 13 February to question UIN 217033.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a statutory waiting time between the date when a social housing unit is purchased under Right to Buy and when that unit may be lawfully offered for private let.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government does not impose restrictions on the letting of homes purchased under the Right to Buy. It believes that tenants who have bought their homes under the Right to Buy should have the same freedoms as any other homeowner. Imposing restrictions on the letting of their homes could limit their ability to move for work or family reasons and we do not think this would be reasonable or fair.
The Department regularly publishes information on the number of Right to Buy sales, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales.
However, the Department does not monitor what individuals do with their homes after they have bought them. To provide figures for this would be burdensome on central government, local authorities and buyers. It would place a burden on buyers of Right to Buy homes (including second-hand buyers further down the line) to register their purchase of such a home – and whether it was to be their main home – with their local authority, and require enforcement by the local authority in order to be reliable. Such a burden would be contrary to the policy intention of Right to Buy, which is to provide a way for council tenants to access all the benefits of home ownership enjoyed by other homeowners.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the resources required for local authority children's services, care services and care leaver services effectively to implement the national protocol on reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The national protocol on reducing criminalisation of looked after children and care leavers sets out best practice. Implementing the protocol is voluntary; it does not place any new statutory burdens on local authorities.
The protocol has been developed with leaders from across the children’s social care, health and criminal justice sectors and endorsed as a positive step forward for children and young people and the relevant professionals working with them.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much money from the public purse his Department has spent over the last five years on grants to (a) One Housing Group and (b) grants to consortia of which One Housing Group was a member.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
From 2012-2017, One Housing Group have received a total of £29,427,707 from the Affordable Homes Programme, allocated to them by the Greater London Authority (GLA) for delivery in London.
The Mayor has overall responsibility for affordable housing policy and programme delivery in London. Government has agreed a £4.8 billion deal with the GLA, including £1.67 billion announced at the Spring Statement, to deliver at least 116,000 affordable housing starts by March 2022.
Homes England is responsible for the delivery of the Affordable Homes Programme for the rest of England. One Housing Group have not received any grant funding from the Homes England programme in the last 5 years.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what representations his department has received over the past five years on the (a) property maintenance, (b) management, and (c) customer service record of One Housing Group.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
MHCLG has not received any representations over the past five years on property maintenance, management, and customer service record of One Housing Group.
However, tenants approach the Housing Ombudsman to resolve individual complaints. More information on the Ombudsman can be found here: https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/
Furthermore, the independent regulator of social housing is responsible for regulating registered providers of social housing. It considers information about any breaches of the standards it sets for housing associations, including maintenance, management and customer service. Where there is a breach, it publishes a regulatory notice or reports this in its regulatory judgements, details of which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-judgement-one-housing-group-limited--3
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on the review on selective licensing of the private rented sector.
Answered by Dominic Raab
As previously stated, we delayed the start of the selective licensing review to enable the work to be informed by applications for a number of large scale schemes that were submitted during the second half of 2017. We are now in a position to begin the review and will do so shortly.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the number of social and affordable housing units created by the redevelopment of local authority housing estates in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Government's Estate Regeneration National Strategy, published in December 2016, emphasises the key leadership role of local authorities in assessing and delivering the amount of social and affordable housing appropriate to meet the needs of their area. The National Strategy also sets out Government's expectations for how authorities should engage with residents throughout an estate regeneration scheme, and how residents should be protected. The Government's expectation is that all existing council and housing association tenants, whether on a lifetime or fixed tenancy, should have the option to return to the estate.
More than twice as much council housing has been built since 2010 than in the previous 13 years. 10,460 local authority dwellings were built between 2010-11 and 2016-17, up from 2,920 delivered over the previous 13 years (1997-98 to 2009-10). The Government recently announced plans to deliver more affordable homes, including at a social rent, by investing £2 billion in additional funding for housing associations and local councils in England. This will increase the Government’s 2016-21 Affordable Homes Programme in England to more than £9 billion.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to page 18 of the Social Mobility Commission Report, Time for Change: an assessment of government policies on social mobility 1997-2017, what assessment he has made of the effect of poor housing conditions on social mobility.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Tackling social mobility is at the heart of the Government’s ambition to make Britain a country that works for everyone. All homes should be of a reasonable standard and everyone should have a safe place to live. In rented housing, the Government is committed to ensuring tenants enjoy decent standards and receive a service which represents value for money for their rent. Local authorities have strong and effective powers to deal with poor quality, unsafe accommodation.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the availability of the range of (a) starter and (b) other homes for families in (i) Stratford and (ii) other London boroughs.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
As our Housing White Paper Fixing Our Broken Housing Market emphasised, the Government is committed to ensuring there is a range of affordable homes to support people into home ownership. This includes starter homes exclusively for first-time buyers over the age of 23 and under 40 at a minimum 20 per cent discount on their market value.
We have already consulted on amending the National Planning Policy Framework to introduce a clear policy expectation that suitable housing sites should deliver a minimum of 10 per cent affordable home ownership units. It will be for local planning authorities to work with developers to agree an appropriate level of delivery of starter homes, alongside other affordable home ownership and rented tenures, on these sites reflecting their local circumstances.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the range of starter homes available in (a) Stratford and (b) other London boroughs for families of varying age profile, financial security and current and planned future size.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
As our Housing White Paper Fixing Our Broken Housing Market emphasised, the Government is committed to ensuring there is a range of affordable homes to support people into home ownership. This includes starter homes exclusively for first-time buyers over the age of 23 and under 40 at a minimum 20 per cent discount on their market value.
We have already consulted on amending the National Planning Policy Framework to introduce a clear policy expectation that suitable housing sites should deliver a minimum of 10 per cent affordable home ownership units. It will be for local planning authorities to work with developers to agree an appropriate level of delivery of starter homes, alongside other affordable home ownership and rented tenures, on these sites reflecting their local circumstances.