Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that recommended fire safety standards are met in private sector housing.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
All homes should be of a reasonable standard and all tenants should have a safe place to live. Under the Landlord and Tennant Act 1985, landlords have a general obligation to ensure that they keep in repair the structure and exterior of any property they rent out. Local authorities have strong and effective powers to deal with poor quality unsafe accommodation and we expect them to use those powers. Under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, local authorities can issue an Improvement Notice or a Hazard Awareness Notice if they find a defect in the property. In extreme circumstances, the local authority may decide to make repairs themselves, or to prohibit that property from being rented out.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places a duty on housing providers to undertake a fire risk assessment of the common parts of their properties and to put in place and maintain adequate fire precautions to manage the risk that lives could be lost in a fire. The Order is enforced by fire and rescue authorities.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether shared workspaces for the self-employed and small businesses will be eligible for the proposed business rate relief discretionary support.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
My Department is currently consulting on the £300 million discretionary relief scheme. The scheme will enable local authorities to help those individual businesses that are facing increased rates bills. Local authorities will be responsible for the design of local schemes which will include setting the eligibility criteria that will apply. The consultation is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/discretionary-business-rates-relief-scheme
Additionally, the £110 million Supporting Small Business Relief Scheme will also be available to assist those ratepayers losing small business rates relief or rural rate relief as a result of revaluation.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with local enterprise partnerships in Yorkshire about the creation of new enterprise zones.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
In 2015 we ran a competitive bidding round that provided an opportunity for Local Enterprise Partnerships to submit bids for a new round of Enterprise Zones.
All Local Enterprise Partnerships within Yorkshire successfully submitted bids for new Zones or extensions to existing ones. We announced two new Enterprise Zones in November, in Leeds and York, and at Budget we announced an extension to the existing Sheffield Enterprise Zone that is subject to local approval.