Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2017, to Question 9297, on Grenfell Tower: fire, how many families have been rehoused; how many families have received an offer of housing which they have not accepted; by when the Government aims for all families to have been re-housed; what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the re-housing process does not take longer than necessary; and what mechanisms are in place for people affected by the fire to make their needs clear.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Our priority is to ensure that all households from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk are provided with a permanent home within a year. The Government is working closely with the Council to deliver this as swiftly as possible, but it's important to get this right and ensure residents have choice over their housing options and are given the time they need.
Housing allocations officers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have carried out housing needs assessments for those being rehoused. Family Liaison Officers and keyworkers are also in place to ensure the bereaved and survivors are able to access support to meet their wider needs.
The latest figures I have from the Council, as of 9 October, show that 111 households have accepted an offer of either temporary or permanent accommodation. 54 have now moved in; of which 44 households have already moved in to temporary accommodation, and 10 households have moved into permanent accommodation.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what targets the Government has for improving the energy efficiency of (a) new build homes and (b) existing properties.
Answered by Lord Sharma
As set out in the Housing White Paper - Fixing our broken housing market – we have started work on a review of the cost effectiveness of current minimum energy efficiency standards in the Building Regulations for new homes. We will consult on improving the requirements on new homes if evidence suggests that there are opportunities to do so without making homes less affordable for those who want to buy their own home. The review will also consider the energy efficiency requirements for works to existing properties covered by the Building Regulations, such as home extensions.
The forthcoming Clean Growth Plan will also set out our ambitions for improving the energy efficiency of existing properties more widely.
All of this work will be in context of the Independent Review on Building Regulations and Fire Safety, the findings of the Public Inquiry and on going building safety work.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent progress has been made on rehousing survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Our priority is to get everyone from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk whose homes were lost in the fire permanently rehoused as soon as possible. But it's important to get this right and ensure residents have choice over their housing options.
My Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State, reported on recent progress in his statement to the House on 5 September.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the merits of ensuring that legislation on letting agent fees will include provisions to prevent landlords from passing on any increases in their costs to tenants via higher rents.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Government recently announced in the Queen’s Speech its intention to publish a draft bill to ban letting fees paid by tenants in England. A ban will mean that tenants are better able to search around for properties that suit their budget with no hidden costs. This is preferable to tenants being hit with upfront charges that can be difficult for them to afford. The approach taken in the draft bill will be informed by the recent public consultation, which closed on 2 June and received over 4,700 responses. These responses are being analysed. The Government will publish its response to the consultation in due course and further information on the draft bill will follow.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government intends to reintroduce the Homelessness Reduction Bill.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The previous government supported the Homelessness Reduction Act which progressed through Parliament with cross-party support and received Royal Assent on Thursday 27 April 2017.
The Act is designed to significantly reform England's homelessness legislation by placing duties on local authorities to intervene at earlier stages to prevent homelessness in their areas. It also requires local authorities to provide new homelessness services to all those affected not just those who are protected under existing legislation.
The Homelessness Reduction Act will be implemented once commencement regulations have been laid in Parliament.
A copy of the Act is available at the following link: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/13/contents/enacted
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to update paragraph 118 of the National Planning Policy Framework to improve protection for woods and trees.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Paragraph 118 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides strong protection for irreplaceable habitats such as ancient woodland and veteran trees.
We are consulting on placing our policy on ancient woodland and veteran trees alongside other national policies, for example Green Belt, which the government regards as providing a strong reason to restrict development when preparing plans, or which indicate that development should be restricted when making decisions on planning applications.
The consultation closes on 2 May, and is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fixing-our-broken-housing-market-consultation.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2017 to Question 64623, on rented housing, how much funding for help to rent projects the Government has provided to Birmingham City Council in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Government is committed to preventing homelessness. It is essential that vulnerable people have access to good quality private rented sector accommodation.
As part of the almost £14 million investment from 2010 to 2016 for the Crisis access to private rented sector accommodation programme, projects in Birmingham received £194, 000 across two projects from 2011-2014. These worked to help young people access the private rented sector and secure sustainable move-on accommodation.
In addition, through our £50 million Homelessness Prevention Programme, Birmingham will receive £1,700,000 in Trailblazer funding to focus on early interventions. We are also investing £400,000 in Solihull and Birmingham to identify those at risk of rough sleeping, and support them into sustainable accommodation.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the criteria are for the Government's decisions on how much funding for help to rent projects to allocate to local authorities; and whether the Government plans to increase such funding.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Government gave nearly £14 million from 2010 to 2016 to develop a programme to help single homeless people access private rented sector accommodation, as part of its work to prevent and tackle homelessness. Our £50 million Homelessness Prevention Programme is now funding 84 projects in 225 local authorities, following an open competition last autumn, details of which can be found here:
Some of these projects will help single homeless people access and sustain housing in the private rental sector. For example, Bristol City Council are setting up a team to do early intervention work with households in the private rented sector who are at risk of homelessness to prevent a crisis.
We are also going further and supporting the honourable member for Harrow East’s Homelessness Reduction Bill, which will significantly reform the support people receive to prevent homelessness. The Government has committed to provide £61 million to local authorities to meet the costs of the Bill.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding for help to rent projects the Government has provided to local authorities in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Government is committed to preventing homelessness. Access to the private rented sector plays a part in both preventing and supporting the recovery from homelessness, helping people rebuild their lives.
We made a significant investment of nearly £14 million from 2010 to 2016 for Crisis to develop a programme to help single homeless people access private rented sector accommodation. Over 9,000 people were helped, with over 90 per cent maintaining tenancies for at least 6 months.
In addition, our £50 million Homelessness Prevention Programme is funding 84 projects in 225 local authorities. It provides an end-to-end approach to preventing and tackling homelessness and rough sleeping, and will support a wide range of initiatives in local areas to prevent homelessness and enable people to recover quickly from a crisis.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will examine the effect of the revaluation of business rates for self-owned rooftop solar power on the solar industry taking account of the draft list of rateable values, published by the Valuation Office Agency.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Business rates are based on valuations from the Valuation Office Agency and we do not intervene in their independent assessments. We have proposed a £3.4 billion transitional relief scheme to ensure that no ratepayer is unfairly penalised by the 2017 revaluation.