Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
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 reduce the number of non-decent homes in the (a) private rented and (b) social rented sector.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Everyone deserves to live in a safe and decent home. This is why we are introducing a Decent Homes Standard in the private rented sector for the first time through the Renters (Reform) Bill.
We are also reviewing the Decent Homes Standard, which sets out the minimum requirements for all social housing.
Data on housing decency is published regularly via the English Housing Survey at local authority level.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to support owner-occupiers to fix safety issues in their homes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government has made multiple statements and policy announcements on this issue. The Building Safety Act 2022 can be found here: Building Safety Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).
We continue to update the House on our progress including in Written Ministerial Statements in November 2023 and April 2024.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many visits were made by (a) the Secretary of State and (b) each Minister in his Department to a (i) Government Hub and (ii) ministerial office outside of London in (A) 2022 and (B) 2023.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The information requested is not centrally collated and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding in the English Housing Survey 2020 to 2021 that private renters spend a higher proportion of their household income on rent than owner-occupiers spend on mortgages.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
In 2020-21, on average, those buying their home with a mortgage spent 18% of their household income on mortgage payments, whereas rent payments were 31% of household income for private renters. Since 2010-11, the percentage of household income spent by private renters has reduced from 35%, compared with owner occupiers who spend a similar percentage of their household income on mortgage payments.
Whilst three quarters of private renters find no difficulties in keeping up with their rent, we understand that affordability may be an issue for some. The Government has taken action to reduce the financial barriers that prevent tenants from accessing and moving within the PRS.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to reform rent charges and prevent the exploitation of rent charge payers by rent charge holders.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Rentcharges Act 1977 already prevents new income supporting rentcharges being created after 22 August 1977 and provides a route for freehold homeowners to redeem income supporting rentcharges where the current rentowner is known. Any new Rentcharges created after August 1977 are classified as Estate Rentcharges and are not redeemable under the 1977 Act.
The Government previously committed to ensure that where a freeholder pays the rentcharge owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge remains unpaid for a short period of time. This will be pursued when Parliamentary time allows.
The Government also 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 new management company if necessary.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
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 ensure an equal balance of power between rent charge payers and rent charge holders.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Rentcharges Act 1977 already prevents new income supporting rentcharges being created after 22 August 1977 and provides a route for freehold homeowners to redeem income supporting rentcharges where the current rentowner is known. Any new Rentcharges created after August 1977 are classified as Estate Rentcharges and are not redeemable under the 1977 Act.
The Government previously committed to ensure that where a freeholder pays the rentcharge owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge remains unpaid for a short period of time. This will be pursued when Parliamentary time allows.
The Government also 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 new management company if necessary.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of defragmenting local government funding on the delivery of the levelling up agenda.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Local authorities are important partners in delivering our levelling up ambitions, and many have already been successful in securing funding for their areas from the Levelling Up Fund, Towns Fund and Community Renewal Fund. The Local Government Finance settlement and the vast majority of local government’s Core Spending Power are un-ringfenced, giving local authorities flexibility over their spending decisions.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
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 the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the potential merits of recording the number of street homeless veterans moved to temporary accommodation during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
During the COVID-19 pandemic MHCLG asked all local authorities to provide information on their rough sleeping cohort in order to support local authorities to make offers of accommodation to people who were sleeping rough, in shared sleeping sites, such as night shelters, or considered to be at risk of rough sleeping, to reduce the risk faced by some of the most vulnerable in society. This collection of data does not record information on whether someone is a veteran or not.
H-CLIC (Homelessness Case Level Information Collection) is still the main vehicle to capture more detailed data on those offered assistance under a Housing Act duty. Any rough sleeper helped under a Housing Act duty should have their data recorded on the H-CLIC system, including those that are ex-armed forces personnel. We anticipate publishing H-CLIC data for the April 2020 to June 2020 period in autumn 2020.
In May 2020, we published the latest H-CLIC data for the October to December 2019 period. In this dataset, there were 470 households that required additional support because they contained ex armed forces personnel. This represents less than 1 per cent, of the 67,280 households that were owed a homelessness duty.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to record the number of street homeless veterans.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
In April 2018, my Department introduced Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (H-CLIC). H-CLIC captures information on all those who engage with local authority homelessness services, including support need resulting from being in the armed forces.
In addition, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) is a multi-agency database which records information, including former armed forces service, about people seen rough sleeping by outreach teams in London across the year.
There are?a number of?existing support services available to?veterans who are experiencing, or are at risk of, homelessness. This includes the?Veterans Gateway, an online web and telephone resource for?veterans, providing access to a housing specialist who has up-to-date information regarding vacancies.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to record the (a) gender, (b) age, (c) ethnicity and (d) nationality of people who are street homeless.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
My Department’s annual Rough Sleeping?Snapshot?Statistics provide information about the estimated number of people sleeping rough across local authorities in England on a single night. This data includes demographic information such as age, gender and nationality. These statistics do not currently include ethnicity of people sleeping rough.
The most recent national figures, from the Official 2019 Rough Sleeping Snapshot, showed that the?number of people sleeping on our streets on a single night fell for the second year?in a row. These statistics are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019.