Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to support London fringe local authorities by introducing a cap to incentive payments to landlords in those authority areas in line with the pan-London Local Authority Agreement as agreed by the London Boroughs.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping.
The London Collaboration Project initiated the creation of a local authority owned, not for profit, company named Capital Letters that will both procure and manage properties in the private rented sector across London.
It was set up with the support of £37.8 million of Government funding. It aims to become the main source of private rented sector accommodation to prevent and relieve homelessness in London.
It aims to increase efficiency, reduce competition between boroughs, increase market reach and market power, and allow many more homeless households to be accommodated in, or close to, their home borough.
Capital Letters will improve the supply of homes, reduce the costs to local authorities, and achieve better outcomes for homeless families. It will do this through centralised procurement and be assisted by £37.8 million Government funding to procure around 21,000 additional tenancies.
As part of the Rough Sleeping Strategy 2018, we announced an additional £20 million to fund existing or new local authority schemes that support both families and individuals in accessing or sustaining PRS tenancies.
The schemes range from an innovative transitional insurance policy to providing incentives to landlords to offer longer term tenancies.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) efficiency of affordable housing schemes in Wycombe; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Esther McVey
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of social housing and has made £9 billion available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022 to deliver approximately 250,000 new affordable homes in a wide range of tenures, including Social Rent.
Wycombe has a total housing stock of over 73,000 homes (2018) and almost 10,000 of these are affordable homes. Over 100 new affordable homes were built in the area in 2018-19
To enable councils and housing associations to build more we have increased the size of the Affordable Homes Programme, re-introduced social rent, removed the HRA borrowing cap for local authorities, and have set out a long-term rent deal for councils and housing associations in England from 2020.
Breakdowns of delivery by borough are available in live table 1011 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the level of compliance of local authorities with the (a) affordability and (b) suitability criteria under the Homeless Reduction Act 2017 when placing homeless households out-of-borough.
Answered by Luke Hall
As the legislation and guidance sets out, the Government is clear that local authorities should, as far as possible, avoid placing households out of their borough. However, in some areas where there is a limited supply of suitable accommodation, we are aware that, on occasion, it is necessary to place households in temporary accommodation outside of the local area. This should be as a last resort.
If a local authority places a household into accommodation in another local area, they are required by law to notify the receiving local authority of any placement, to ensure there is no disruption to schooling, employment and other vital services.
In order to support local authorities,?the Government has put in place bespoke support in the form of the Homelessness Advice and Support Team, a group of specialist advisors drawn from authorities and charities with expertise in the homelessness sector. The team has contact with all 326 local authorities to provide?challenge, advice, and support on?issues such as?out of?borough?placements.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to establish a working definition of Islamophobia; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Government agrees that there needs to be a formal definition of Islamophobia to give the issue a stronger focus. We have committed to appointing independent advisers to provide expert advice on a definition. The first of these advisers, Imam Qari Asim MBE, was appointed in July 2019. We are taking steps to appoint individuals with the right combination of skills and experience to drive the work. We endeavour to move at pace on these appointments; good progress is balanced by the necessity for careful consideration of due process.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will meet Wycombe social housing providers to discuss the effect of abolishing section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 on innovative housing providers in the Wycombe constituency.
Answered by Esther McVey
Earlier this year, the government announced its commitment to improve security for renters, and intends to introduce a new, fairer deal for both tenants and landlords.
As part of this new deal, the government has agreed to consult on repealing Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. This would provide tenants with greater security in their homes because landlords would not be able to end a tenancy without a specified reason.
Our consultation, ‘A New Deal for Renting: Resetting the balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants’ sought views from across the private and social rented sectors on how the new system should operate, including whether the reforms proposed (including the use of section 21 notices) should extend to all users of the Housing Act 1988, including social housing providers. As part of the consultation process my officials met with a number of housing associations, including some who operate in the Wycombe area, and discussed how a more effective system can be developed that works for everybody.
The consultation has now closed and we are carefully considering the more than 20,000 responses received. We will publish our response in due course, setting out how the new system will work and our next steps.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with parish council representatives on the Local Government Finance Settlement Technical Consultation; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones
During the consultation period, both I and officials at the department met a variety of representatives from the parishes sector to discuss the Local Government Finance Settlement 2017-18 Technical Consultation. This included a meeting between the minister and representatives from the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), as well as several official-level meetings with representatives of the NALC, the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC) and a variety of larger parishes. The minister also spoke at the NALC’s annual conference via video link on 19 October, and an official spoke at the SLCC’s annual conference on 14 October.