Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Criminal record checks are made prior to appointment and we require individuals to inform the department of criminal convictions after appointment as set out in the staff handbook. The information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's consultation entitled Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases, which closed on 17 January 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential cost to the public purse of providing compensation to freeholders under those proposals.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Government has consulted on a range of options to restrict ground rent in existing leases and asked questions about the effects of these proposals. We received a significant number of responses from a variety of sources. A consultation impact assessment has been published and can be found at: Consultation impact assessment - modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases.
That consultation closed on 17 January, and Government is currently analysing the responses before taking a decision on how to restrict ground rents through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.
In line with the practice of successive administrations details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to assess the risk of legal challenge to proposed policies in the consultation entitled Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Government has consulted on a range of options to restrict ground rent in existing leases and asked questions about the effects of these proposals. We received a significant number of responses from a variety of sources. A consultation impact assessment has been published and can be found at: Consultation impact assessment - modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases.
That consultation closed on 17 January, and Government is currently analysing the responses before taking a decision on how to restrict ground rents through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.
In line with the practice of successive administrations details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to para 1.12 of his Department's consultation entitled Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases, which closed on 17 January 2024, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of capping ground rents at a peppercorn on the pensions industry.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Government has consulted on a range of options to restrict ground rent in existing leases and asked questions about the effects of these proposals. We received a significant number of responses from a variety of sources. A consultation impact assessment has been published and can be found at: Consultation impact assessment - modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases.
That consultation closed on 17 January, and Government is currently analysing the responses before taking a decision on how to restrict ground rents through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.
In line with the practice of successive administrations details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's consultation entitled Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases, which closed on 17 January 2024, whether he has has had discussions with colleagues on the compliance of those proposals with human rights law.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Government has consulted on a range of options to restrict ground rent in existing leases and asked questions about the effects of these proposals. We received a significant number of responses from a variety of sources. A consultation impact assessment has been published and can be found at: Consultation impact assessment - modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases.
That consultation closed on 17 January, and Government is currently analysing the responses before taking a decision on how to restrict ground rents through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.
In line with the practice of successive administrations details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposals in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill on pensioners whose income comes partly from ground rent.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Government has consulted on a range of options to restrict ground rent in existing leases and asked questions about the effects of these proposals. We received a significant number of responses from a variety of sources. A consultation impact assessment has been published and can be found at: Consultation impact assessment - modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases.
That consultation closed on 17 January, and Government is currently analysing the responses before taking a decision on how to restrict ground rents through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.
In line with the practice of successive administrations details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the (a) application process will begin and (b) criteria will be announced for the Levelling-Up Fund Round 3.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
As the Secretary of State announced during his speech at the LGA conference, the department is moving to a new approach for the third round of the Levelling Up Fund. Further details of our approach will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of (a) board members and (b) employees of the Regulator of Social Housing have previous experience in the sector that they regulate.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Regulator of Social Housing has clear objectives set out in legislation, which include ensuring registered providers are financially viable, well-governed and supporting the provision of well-managed, good quality homes to their tenants. The Regulator is operationally independent and responsible for ensuring it is able to deliver against those objectives. Information on members of the Regulators board can be found here.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 19 May 2023 to Question 184606 on Leasehold, what estimate his Department has made of the potential additional legal and valuation costs to leaseholders who are currently in the process of extending or varying a lease.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As I outlined in response to my Hon. Friend, in Question 184606, we are looking to legislate to resolve this issue as soon as parliamentary time allows.
We do not hold data on the number of people who are not protected due to an extension or variation of a lease since 14 February 2022, however, we believe the number to be relatively small.
We have not made an assessment as to the estimate of the potential legal and valuation costs for leaseholders who are in the process of extending or varying a lease. However, it should be noted that, in the normal course of events, all leaseholders typically require legal support in the course of seeking a lease extension or variation, so we do not anticipate that there will be significant 'additional' costs to those which they ordinarily would have incurred.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 19 May 2023 to Question 184606 on Leasehold, what data his Department holds on the number of people who are not protected due to an extension or variation of a lease since 14 February 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As I outlined in response to my Hon. Friend, in Question 184606, we are looking to legislate to resolve this issue as soon as parliamentary time allows.
We do not hold data on the number of people who are not protected due to an extension or variation of a lease since 14 February 2022, however, we believe the number to be relatively small.
We have not made an assessment as to the estimate of the potential legal and valuation costs for leaseholders who are in the process of extending or varying a lease. However, it should be noted that, in the normal course of events, all leaseholders typically require legal support in the course of seeking a lease extension or variation, so we do not anticipate that there will be significant 'additional' costs to those which they ordinarily would have incurred.