Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to work with the insurance sector to prevent rising costs for leaseholders affected by remedial fire safety works.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is working with the insurance industry to address the challenges experienced by leaseholders facing increasing building insurance costs. On the 28 January, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities called on the Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Market Authority to review buildings insurance premiums for people living in medium and high-rise blocks of flats. The FCA has met with Chief Executives of key insurers and insurance brokers to explain their expectations for engagement in the review and affirm their regulatory expectations. The FCA is currently collecting data on market conditions to inform their review
In Minister Gove’s statement to parliament on 10th January, he noted Lord Greenhalgh's intention to work with insurers on new industry-led approaches that bring down the premiums facing leaseholders. On 4 January, Lord Greenhalgh wrote to the Association of British Insurers, encouraging them to investigate the possibility of an industry-led risk pool with their members. My officials are actively working with the Association of British Insurers to develop policy solutions, and Lord Greenhalgh met with the Association of British Insurers on 1 March to discuss progress.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to ensure that Capital Letters, a not-for-profit organisation that procures accommodation for homeless households on behalf of London boroughs, will continue to receive Government funding to enable it to continue playing a key role in the Government’s homelessness reduction strategy.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Capital Letters was set up in 2018 with the support of £37.8 million of Government funding. As announced at the Spending Review the Government will be spending over £2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the next 3 years. Allocations of funding for individual programmes will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the £2 billion funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping announced in the Autumn 2021 Spending Review, what steps he is taking to ensure that grant funding for Capital Letters, a not-for-profit organisation that procures accommodation for homeless households on behalf of London boroughs, will be extended beyond March 2022.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Capital Letters was set up in 2018 with the support of £37.8 million of Government funding. As announced at the Spending Review the Government will be spending over £2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the next 3 years. Allocations of funding for individual programmes will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how his Department plans to help protect homeless people from contracting the omicron covid-19 variant; and whether his Department plans to make extra resources available to (a) local authorities and (b) other organisations for the provision of safe accommodation.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We are monitoring the situation extremely closely and continue to prioritise the health of people sleeping rough and the homelessness workforce.
Currently, we are working to ensure people experiencing rough sleeping are encouraged to access vaccination and regular testing.
We are supporting local authorities through the £202 million Rough Sleeping Initiative this year, in addition to a £10 million Winter Pressures Fund for local authorities with the highest numbers of rough sleepers. We are in close contact with a range of stakeholders to monitor the situation.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress he has made on establishing a Housing Complaints Resolution Service.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
In summer 2019, the Department established the Redress Reform Working Group to help improve redress across the housing market and consider the options for a Housing Complaints Resolution Service. We are currently considering next steps and are taking forward a range of measures designed to improve redress across housing the housing market including provision for the New Homes Ombudsman scheme in the Building Safety Bill and measures to speed up access to the Housing Ombudsman by removing the need for residents to go to a designated person or wait eight weeks before approaching them (the Democratic Filter).
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the homelessness funding announced in the Autumn Budget 2021 and Comprehensive Spending Review will be a three annual funding settlements or a three-year funding settlement.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Spending Review 2021 set departmental budgets for the next three years. The settlement earmarked over £2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over this period. This includes resource funding rising to £639 million by 2024-25, an increase of 85% in case terms compared to pre-pandemic levels.
This additional funding will enable us to continue to support frontline services through the Rough Sleeping Initiative, support local authorities to fund their statutory duties to prevent homelessness and complete delivery of the 6,000 longer-term homes for rough sleepers under the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme.
The settlement demonstrates the Government’s continued commitment to build on recent progress in ending rough sleeping. Multi-year funding will enable local partners to plan services more effectively and efficiently.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many buildings of five storeys or more that have been completed in each of the last four years are known to have combustible cladding and other materials in or on the building.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Information on the number of high-rise (over 18 metres) residential and publicly-owned buildings with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations is available in the Building Safety Programme data release.
For high-rise residential buildings with unsafe non-ACM cladding, the Department is continuing to work with building owners to progress applications for the Building Safety Fund at pace so more remedial works can begin as swiftly as possible. Information on the Building Safety Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-registration-statistics
We have begun a pilot data collection project for 11-18 metre residential buildings to identify materials in use and to inform the design of a wider national 11-18 metre data collection exercise. We will publish further details as soon as possible.
In January 2020, we consulted on the proposal to extend the ban of the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of buildings. We continue to review and analyse the numerous and detailed responses we have received and develop our proposal. We will publish a response to the consultation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the extent of the continued use of combustible materials in building materials.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Information on the number of high-rise (over 18 metres) residential and publicly-owned buildings with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations is available in the Building Safety Programme data release.
For high-rise residential buildings with unsafe non-ACM cladding, the Department is continuing to work with building owners to progress applications for the Building Safety Fund at pace so more remedial works can begin as swiftly as possible. Information on the Building Safety Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-registration-statistics
We have begun a pilot data collection project for 11-18 metre residential buildings to identify materials in use and to inform the design of a wider national 11-18 metre data collection exercise. We will publish further details as soon as possible.
In January 2020, we consulted on the proposal to extend the ban of the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of buildings. We continue to review and analyse the numerous and detailed responses we have received and develop our proposal. We will publish a response to the consultation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the Government plans to finalise and publish the full details of the loan scheme for leaseholders affected by cladding related issues.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Secretary of State is looking closely at this issue to make sure everything is being done to support leaseholders. We will continue to examine what more can be done to protect and support leaseholders and further detail on the support offer for leaseholders will be released when all options have been fully considered.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department's Consolidated Advice Note, Building safety advice for building owners, including fire doors, published in January 2020 will be updated to ensure that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) can update its own guidance on challenging defective building works for the purpose of fire safety rectifications post-Grenfell; and when the updated RICS position will be implemented.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government made clear in its 21 July statement (HCWS 228), its intention to retire the Consolidated Advice Note. RICS have committed to consider the impact of the Government's statement on their guidance for valuers and we are encouraging them to complete that process as soon as possible.