Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department issues to the regulated housing sector on consultation with tenants.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Our charter for social housing residents is clear that every resident can expect to have their voice heard by their landlord. Empowering residents at the local level to hold their landlords to account is at the heart of our new regulatory framework.
The Regulator of Social Housing has recently consulted on its revised draft consumer standards, one of which is the proposed Transparency, Influence & Accountability standard. This standard will set an expectation that registered providers must take tenants’ views into account in their decision making about how landlord services are delivered. The revised consumer standards will be introduced from 1 April this year.
We are committed to listening to social housing residents. Both my department - through our Resident Panel which enables residents from across the country to directly share their views with government - and the Regulator have forums to ensure that residents’ voices help guide and inform our work. We also have an Expert Challenge Panel, which consults key experts in the sector, including tenant groups. We will continue working to strengthen resident voice and are extending the Resident Panel into 2024/25.
We are currently inviting views from social housing tenants on the proposals for ‘Awaab’s Law’ through the live government consultation and will continue to consult tenants on developments in the social housing sector.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many Afghan refugees are (a) registered as homeless and (b) accommodated in temporary local authority accommodation.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 6726 on 20 December 2023.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the independent governance review of Birmingham City Council undertaken by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny in 2023.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This review provides further evidence in support of the decision taken in October to intervene in Birmingham City Council, appointing Commissioners with powers over certain Council functions and issuing Directions that require the Council to take specific actions to the satisfaction of Commissioners. Commissioners will ensure the improvement actions recommended by the review are appropriately incorporated into the Council’s Improvement and Recovery Plan. The review findings are broadly consistent with the lessons about local authority culture and governance we have learned from statutory and non-statutory interventions, and which informed the draft Best Value Statutory Guidance we consulted on last summer and will issue in due course.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many veterans are rough sleepers; how data on veteran rough sleeping is collected; and when that data was last collected.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 6766 on 18 December 2023.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 help support leaseholders affected by dangerous cladding.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
This government has delivered the most substantive reforms to building safety in nearly 40 years and leaseholders have been given significant legal protections from unfair remediation bills. All residential buildings above 11 metres in England now have a pathway to fix unsafe cladding, either through a taxpayer-funded scheme or through a developer-funded scheme. Following intensive talks with the home-building sector, we have a solution that is seeing industry take responsibility for fixing fire safety defects. Where developers or building owners are not currently funding cladding remediation, the Government has committed £5.1 billion of taxpayer money to ensure that people are safe in their homes.
The Building Safety Act 2022 created extensive new financial protections for leaseholders in buildings above 11 metres or five storeys with historical safety defects. Responsibility for undertaking remedial works and paying for the works in the majority of cases will rest with the building owner. In turn they can seek to secure funding for required works from those responsible for the defects. Where this is not possible, we expect the freeholders to meet the costs. I refer the Hon Member to my statement of 16 November entitled Building Safety Update (Official Report HC, Volume 740, Column 56WS) for further information on the progress made to fix residential buildings over 11 metres with unsafe cladding in England.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 ensure that retrospective planning applications are not overused.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Retrospective applications must be determined in the same way as any other planning application and there is no guarantee that permission will be granted just because the development has already taken place. We have given local planning authorities the power to decline to determine a retrospective planning application if an enforcement notice has already been issued in relation to any part of the development. We have recently consulted on doubling the fee for retrospective planning applications and an announcement on the outcome will be made in due course.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 plans to take to tackle homelessness in Birmingham.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 167159 on 23 March 2023.
Night shelters in Birmingham have also been allocated £301,000.00 from the Night Shelter Transformation Fund 2022-25. This multiyear fund provides faith and community groups with resource to provide self-contained emergency accommodation for rough sleepers.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to increase funding for homeless shelters in Birmingham.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 167159 on 23 March 2023.
Night shelters in Birmingham have also been allocated £301,000.00 from the Night Shelter Transformation Fund 2022-25. This multiyear fund provides faith and community groups with resource to provide self-contained emergency accommodation for rough sleepers.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to protect the rights of leaseholders.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Secretary of State set out, in the House, his intention to bring the 'outdated and feudal' tenure of leasehold to an end. The Government wishes to extend the benefits of freehold ownership to more homeowners.
That is why we have committed to end the sale of new leasehold houses, and to reinvigorate commonhold so it can finally be a genuine alternative to leasehold; it is why we have banned the charging of ground rent in new leases which takes away that incentive to build leasehold; and it is why we will make it easier for leaseholders to purchase the freehold of their building, and take control of their building management, by enhancing enfranchisement and the Right to Manage.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to abolish the system of lease holding.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Secretary of State set out, in the House, his intention to bring the 'outdated and feudal' tenure of leasehold to an end. The Government wishes to extend the benefits of freehold ownership to more homeowners.
That is why we have committed to end the sale of new leasehold houses, and to reinvigorate commonhold so it can finally be a genuine alternative to leasehold; it is why we have banned the charging of ground rent in new leases which takes away that incentive to build leasehold; and it is why we will make it easier for leaseholders to purchase the freehold of their building, and take control of their building management, by enhancing enfranchisement and the Right to Manage.