Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 number of mortgages for residential properties that have been (a) offered and (b) declined by mortgage providers as a result of the completion of an EWS1 form for external wall fire reviews.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) produced the EWS1 form for use by industry. Government does not hold data on the number of EWS1 forms which have been completed and expects industry to monitor its use.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the correlation between his Department's issuing of cladding guidance and trends in the level of properties being given a zero-value for mortgage purposes by valuation surveyors.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Building safety advice for building owners, including fire doors, published in January 2020, provides the latest advice for building owners concerned about the fire safety of their building/s. It is not a compliance document for mortgage lenders. Government is continuing to engage with industry representatives, including UK Finance, to understand approaches to risk.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with UK Finance on the correlation between his Department’s issuing of cladding guidance and properties being given a zero-value for mortgage purposes by valuation surveyors.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Building safety advice for building owners, including fire doors, published in January 2020, provides the latest advice for building owners concerned about the fire safety of their building/s. It is not a compliance document for mortgage lenders. Government is continuing to engage with industry representatives, including UK Finance, to understand approaches to risk.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
What recent progress has been made on the introduction of mandatory electrical safety checks in the private rented sector.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
We have worked with industry to design proportionate legislation that delivers real benefits to tenants and we’ll be ready to lay the Statutory Instrument introducing mandatory checks as soon as parliamentary time allows. This will make rented properties safer, so we’re encouraging landlords to comply early and get familiar with the changes.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 2018-19 Main Estimates, published in April 2018, how much funding his Department has allocated to prepare for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Jake Berry
HM Treasury has already allocated over £2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13 March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/). This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when and how he plans to publish the work programme of the ministerial group on homelessness; and how voluntary and community organisations are represented on that group.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
We are driving action right across government to tackle the root causes of homelessness in England through the Ministerial Working Group on homelessness. We do not currently have any plans to publish a work programme for the Working Group, but are working across departments to make sure tackling homelessness is an integral part of every department’s planning. This is an ongoing process.
The Minister also chairs a regular roundtable meeting with voluntary sector organisations to make sure their views and expertise are fed into homelessness policy and to ensure that the future response to homelessness:
The government publishes a list of all ministerial meetings with external bodies on departmental business on a quarterly basis. This is available at www.gov.uk.
Homelessness is a devolved issue in the rest of the UK.