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Written Question
Leasehold
Tuesday 13th February 2024

Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps he has taken to support residents’ groups in addressing barriers to their exercise of the right to manage; and what steps he is taking to improve transparency to help residents’ groups understand barriers to their exercise of the right to manage.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill, currently before the Commons, includes measures relating to the right to manage amongst other things.

The Leasehold Advisory Service offers free expert advice to leaseholders, and can support consumers in understanding the steps they need to take in exercising their right to manage.


Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 25 Oct 2022
Section 21 Evictions

Speech Link

View all Lyn Brown (Lab - West Ham) contributions to the debate on: Section 21 Evictions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 09 Feb 2022
Local Government Finance (England)

Speech Link

View all Lyn Brown (Lab - West Ham) contributions to the debate on: Local Government Finance (England)

Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 09 Feb 2022
Local Government Finance (England)

Speech Link

View all Lyn Brown (Lab - West Ham) contributions to the debate on: Local Government Finance (England)

Written Question
Building Safety Fund: West Ham
Friday 28th January 2022

Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2022 to Question 103515 on Building Safety Fund: Newham, for the 43 Building Safety Fund registrations submitted in relation to buildings in the West Ham constituency that remain under review, for how many days the earliest submitted such application has been under review.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Registration window for the Building Safety Fund closed in July 2020. There are 45 registrations from the West Ham constituency where eligibility for the fund has yet to be verified. 14 registrations have provided no information so we have been unable to assess their eligibility, further information is required for 10 registrations, and 21 are currently being reviewed. The Department does not hold the information for how long registrations have been at each stage.


Written Question
Building Safety Fund: West Ham
Friday 28th January 2022

Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2022 to Question 103515 on Building Safety Fund: Newham, for what reason each of the 22 Building Safety Fund registrations submitted in relation to buildings in the West Ham constituency that have been found ineligible were found ineligible.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

Each of the 22 Building Safety Fund registrations were found ineligible as the wall systems and cladding materials on these buildings did not meet the definition of an unsafe cladding system defined in the technical eligibility criteria for the Building Safety Fund.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 27 Jan 2022
Holocaust Memorial Day

Speech Link

View all Lyn Brown (Lab - West Ham) contributions to the debate on: Holocaust Memorial Day

Written Question
Probation
Wednesday 10th November 2021

Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate she has made of the resource impact for local authorities of increases in the population under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements supervision.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

Local authorities are under a statutory duty to co-operate with the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) responsible authority in each of the 42 MAPPA areas in England and Wales. Councils should also review the Ministry of Justice’s reoffending statistics, which are published quarterly and consider the potential impact for them and their budgets


Councils will receive around £1.6 billion additional funding for each year of the Spending Review, including funding for the expansion of the Supporting Families programme and to improve cyber resilience


Core Spending Power – the main measure used for the income of councils – is forecast to increase by an average of 3% in real terms each year over the next three years, including investment in Adult Social Care reform. This funding will empower councils to make decisions tailored to their own local needs and priorities


Further details on how this money will be allocated to councils will be announced in Parliament in the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement later this year.


Written Question
Buildings: Fire Prevention
Tuesday 13th July 2021

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, with reference to his comments of the 4 July 2021, in cases where a building with fire safety problems was marketed by developers that are no longer solvent (a) what support he plans to make available to leaseholders to prevent them bearing the costs of remediation work and (b) what options in law building owners have to pursue former Directors or other parties responsible for the conduct of the developer at the time the defective building was marketed by them.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Government's proposed changes to the Defective Premises Act 1972 as part of the Building Safety Bill will more than double the time available to seek compensation for substandard building work from six to 15 years. These new measures will provide a legal route to redress that previously would not have been possible for hundreds of buildings, benefitting thousands of leaseholders.

There are various limitation periods set in the Limitation Act 1980 for different types of civil claim. These range from 12 months (for defamation or the late payment of insurance claims) to six years (for claims relating to some types of contracts) to a long stop of 15 years for cases involving negligence. A 15-year limitation period has been chosen to bring the Defective Premises Act in line with other types of serious civil claim.

The Government has been clear that those responsible must pay towards the cost of remediating defective buildings. It is fundamental that the industry that caused this issue contributes to setting things right. Some parts of the industry have done the right thing, funding remediation of serious historic defects, but this is not happening in all cases. In many cases, those who caused the problems are evading responsibility. That is why we are taking action, providing a route to redress so that those who caused these problems can be held accountable.

Along with retrospectively extending the limitation period under the Defective Premises Act, going forward we are also expanding the Defective Premises Act to include refurbishments, and we will be commencing section 38 of the Building Act 1984. These measures will also be subject to a 15-year limitation period. Together, these increased rights to redress will enhance accountability, with stronger incentives against shoddy workmanship, further reinforcing the culture change in the construction industry that the Building Safety Bill will drive.

These reforms are supported by more than £5 billion in direct grant funding for the remediation of dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings, where the risk to multiple households is greater when fire does spread; a significant proportion of this is funding the delivery of construction works now, or has funded work which has finished.


Written Question
Buildings: Fire Prevention
Tuesday 13th July 2021

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, with reference to his comments of the 4 July 2021, in cases where a building with fire safety problems was marketed by developers (a) more than 15 years ago and (b) that are no longer solvent, what support he plans to make available to leaseholders to prevent them bearing the costs of remediation work.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The Government's proposed changes to the Defective Premises Act 1972 as part of the Building Safety Bill will more than double the time available to seek compensation for substandard building work from six to 15 years. These new measures will provide a legal route to redress that previously would not have been possible for hundreds of buildings, benefitting thousands of leaseholders.

There are various limitation periods set in the Limitation Act 1980 for different types of civil claim. These range from 12 months (for defamation or the late payment of insurance claims) to six years (for claims relating to some types of contracts) to a long stop of 15 years for cases involving negligence. A 15-year limitation period has been chosen to bring the Defective Premises Act in line with other types of serious civil claim.

The Government has been clear that those responsible must pay towards the cost of remediating defective buildings. It is fundamental that the industry that caused this issue contributes to setting things right. Some parts of the industry have done the right thing, funding remediation of serious historic defects, but this is not happening in all cases. In many cases, those who caused the problems are evading responsibility. That is why we are taking action, providing a route to redress so that those who caused these problems can be held accountable.

Along with retrospectively extending the limitation period under the Defective Premises Act, going forward we are also expanding the Defective Premises Act to include refurbishments, and we will be commencing section 38 of the Building Act 1984. These measures will also be subject to a 15-year limitation period. Together, these increased rights to redress will enhance accountability, with stronger incentives against shoddy workmanship, further reinforcing the culture change in the construction industry that the Building Safety Bill will drive.

These reforms are supported by more than £5 billion in direct grant funding for the remediation of dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings, where the risk to multiple households is greater when fire does spread; a significant proportion of this is funding the delivery of construction works now, or has funded work which has finished.