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Written Question
Freehold: Service Charges
Tuesday 30th May 2023

Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)

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 tackle concerns of freeholders subject to high estate charges.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

We want to make estate management companies more accountable to their freeholders for how their money is spent


When Parliamentary time allows, the Government intends to legislate to ensure that freehold homeowners who pay estate rentcharges have the right to challenge their reasonableness and to go to the tribunal to appoint a manager to manage the provision of services.

In addition, we will remove the statutory right for owners of rentcharges to take possession or grant a lease of the property in the event of non-payment by the homeowner.


Written Question
Religious Buildings: Coronavirus
Thursday 22nd April 2021

Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ease the covid-19 restrictions on singing inside places of worship.

Answered by Eddie Hughes

We understand the importance of singing to all of our faith communities but, due to the transmission of COVID-19 through droplets and airborne particles, it has been essential to limit this to control the spread of the virus. We have been working closely with the Places of Worship Taskforce and faith communities to facilitate this and are grateful for their support.

Currently singing can take place outdoors on the grounds of a place of worship and this can include the congregation taking part. Indoors it is currently only possible for small groups of singers to perform, and the congregation cannot join in. It is important that we take a cautious approach in easing restrictions, so that we can see the impact of the steps we are taking before moving to the next step. For that reason, we will continue to keep guidance and restrictions under review, in line with the changing situation. As soon as we are able, we will update our advice further. We do not wish to keep restrictions in place for any longer than we have to. This is in line with wider guidance for performing arts across all sectors.


Written Question
Holocaust Memorial Day
Tuesday 19th January 2021

Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2021.

Answered by Eddie Hughes

Due to the Covid19 pandemic, this year's national Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration will take place on-line on the 27 January at 7pm. The event will include a national candle-lighting moment at 8pm. Several national buildings will be lit in remembrance of the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust, all victims of Nazi persecution and victims of subsequent genocides.

MHCLG and a number of other Government departments will be hosting Holocaust Memorial Day events in the run up to Holocaust memorial Day. Local authorities, churches, schools and a number of civic society organisations across the country will also be marking the day with online ceremonies.


Written Question
Sleeping Rough: West Midlands
Friday 15th January 2021

Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle rough sleeping in (a) Worcestershire and (b) the West Midlands.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

This Government is committed to ending rough sleeping. This is why we are spending over £700 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping this year alone.

As part of this, we have allocated significant funding to Worcestershire and the West Midlands. Worcestershire is receiving over £672,000 from the Rough Sleeping Initiative, which supports the establishment or enhancement of coordinated local services for rough sleepers or those at risk of sleeping rough. Local authorities across the West Midlands have been allocated £6.49 million in total from the Rough Sleeping Initiative this year.

Building on the success of the ongoing Everyone In programme, the Next Steps Accommodation programme makes available the financial resources needed to support local authorities and their partners to prevent as many of those as possible accommodated during the pandemic from returning to the streets. In total, local authorities across the West Midlands will receive £4.78 million to pay for immediate support to help prevent people from returning to the streets in 2020/21. Worcester and Wychavon have been allocated over £445,000 as part of this funding. We are also providing £5.95 million in capital funding and £2.65 million in revenue funding, to deliver longer term move-on accommodation and support for rough sleepers across the West Midlands.

Our expert rough sleeping and homelessness advisers continue to work closely with all local authorities in the West Midlands, to support and monitor their work to tackle rough sleeping.


Written Question
Social Media: Antisemitism
Tuesday 8th September 2020

Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-Semitic hate online.

Answered by Simon Clarke

Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our society, which is why we’re taking a strong lead in tackling it in all its forms. In the refreshed Hate Crime Action Plan, we have reaffirmed our commitment to combating all forms of hatred and our total support for Jewish communities.

We have recognised that incidents of online hate crime are becoming more prevalent and we have committed to take action to reduce this in the Hate Crime Action Plan. In September the Communities Secretary confirmed £100,000 of funding for the Antisemitism Policy Trust to support the organisation’s ongoing work to tackle the spread of racist tropes online.

We have recently published a White Paper on Online Harms, which contains a range of legislative and non-legislative measures, setting out definitive plans to tackle a wide range of harms online, and opens a consultation on options for regulation.

The Online Harms White Paper sets out the government's plans for world leading legislation to make the UK the safest place to be online. We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users which will be overseen by an independent regulator. This regulator will set clear safety standards, backed up by mandatory reporting requirements and strong enforcement powers to deal with non-compliance.

We are also ensuring that the criminal law is fit for purpose to deal with online harms. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Ministry of Justice have engaged the Law Commission on a second phase of their review of abusive and offensive online communications. The Law Commission will review existing communications offences and make specific recommendations about options for reform, to ensure that criminal law provides consistent and effective protection against such behaviours.


Written Question
Markets and Shops: Coronavirus
Wednesday 10th June 2020

Asked by: Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken to encourage communities to support local businesses as shops and outdoor markets begin to re-open as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.

Answered by Simon Clarke

This Government is fully committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and retail markets successful as the nation responds to the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak. Now more than ever, it is vital that we continue to help our local economies by supporting town centres and markets to recover, adapt and evolve.

On 25 May government announced a new £50 million fund, Reopening High Streets Safely Fund, to support councils across England to aid the safe reopening of high streets and other commercial areas.

This makes use of recent EU flexibilities to respond quickly and flexibly to the impacts of Covid-19 to help local businesses to reopen safely and ensures existing jobs are safeguarded and High Street business closures, in particular on the High Street, are minimised.

Helping towns and cities develop safe trading environments, particularly in high streets, will be key to kick starting the economy, getting people back to work, businesses trading and helping to reinvigorate communities.

The Fund provides support to local businesses on high streets across England helping them to put in place a number of extra social distancing measures that will allow them to reopen safely and confidently.

Government has also established the High Streets Task Force who will now more than ever play a vital role in supporting the recovery of our local economies. The Task Force will support local leaders in their work revitalising their high streets and town centres by providing proactive support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local areas to relevant experts.

Government appreciates how much people cherish their high streets and retail markets, they are the centres of their community and we will continue to work with them and key stakeholders to monitor the impacts of the current situation and ensure that reopening of local economies can be managed successfully and safely.