Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on eviction for private rental tenants in (a) Tier 1, (b) Tier 2 and (c) Tier 3 local covid-19 alert areas.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Bailiffs have been asked not to enforce evictions across England whilst the new, toughened national restrictions apply from 5th November. The only exceptions to this will be the most egregious cases, including cases of illegal occupation, fraud, where tenants have demonstrated anti-social behaviour or are the perpetrator of domestic abuse in social housing and where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant. We also intend to introduce an exemption for extreme pre-Covid rent arrears and will provide more detail in due course.
Together with the pause on evictions starting in December, this means that evictions will not be enforced in England until the 11 January at the earliest, except in the most serious circumstances. We believe this strikes the right balance between prioritising public health and supporting the most vulnerable renters, whilst ensuring landlords can access and exercise their right to justice for the most serious cases.
To further protect renters over winter, we legislated in August to increase notice periods to 6 months in all but the most serious circumstances. This means that most tenants served notice now would not be asked to leave until at least May 2021.
We have worked closely with the judiciary on new court arrangements to ensure appropriate support to all parties as the courts restart possession proceedings. These arrangements include new court rules which require landlords to set out any information they are aware of in relation to how their tenant, or any dependent of their tenant, has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic when bringing a possession claim to court. Landlords are also required to notify the court and their tenant where they wish to continue pursuing a possession claim that was already in the system before 3 August. These new arrangements apply in all courts across all tiers.
The listing of the cases is a matter for the judiciary, but they will be prioritising the most serious cases, including anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse, and extreme rent arrears. Again, this will apply across all tiers of local COVID alert areas.
Prior to the introduction of national restrictions, the Government had announced additional surge funding to support areas moving into the second alert level as well as the third. Areas moving into the Tier 2 (alert level ‘high’) will receive £3 per person, with a further £5 per person (totalling £8 per person) provided for areas moving into Tier 3 (alert level ‘very high’).
In addition to this, on Thursday 22 October the Government announced details of the further £1 billion of financial support for local authorities to support their communities through this pandemic. This further support reaffirms the Government’s continued support to councils during this unprecedented time. Over £900 million will be provided in an un-ringfenced grant in line with previous tranches of funding, recognising local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major COVID-19 service pressures in their local area – including supporting renters.
This brings the total funding given directly to councils during the pandemic, so far, to £6.4 billion. This includes £4.6 billion in un-ringfenced funding, £1.1 billion from the Infection Control Fund, and £300 million to support Test and Trace, as well as funding allocated to councils from the new Local Alert Level system and a number of grants to support communities and vulnerable people.
These measures build on the Government’s major economic package of support to help renters continue to meet their housing costs. This includes the Chancellor’s recent announcement to extend the Job Retention Scheme to March 2021 and over £9 billion boost to the welfare system, including an extra £1 billion to increase Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates so that they cover the lowest 30 per cent of market rents.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring landlords to register eviction notices at the point of delivery, so that his Department would obtain accurate records of all evictions including those which do not proceed to court.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
There are no plans to require landlords to record eviction notices at the point of delivery; this information is not collected centrally by the government and we have made no assessment of the merits of increasing data collection in this way.
To further protect renters, the measures in the Coronavirus Act 2020 mean that landlords must now give 6 months’ notice except in the most serious cases.
To gather data, we work closely with the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunal Service to monitor possession proceedings. The Ministry of Justice publishes national statistics on possession actions in county courts by private and social landlords. This includes statistics on claims, orders, warrants and possessions.
The Department also conducts regular surveys such as the annual English Housing Survey and the English Private Landlord Survey to gather data. These include questions regarding ending a tenancy and the reasons for it, and both the English Housing Survey and English Private Landlord survey will be published next year.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with leaseholders who are unable to (a) sell or (b) re-mortgage their properties as a result of not having an EWS1 certificate.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Ministers and officials had recent meetings with leaseholder groups and Housing Associations to explore these challenges.
The EWS1 process is not a Government policy or regulatory requirement and the Government does not support a blanket approach in EWS1 use for lower risk properties. Some lenders do not require an EWS1 form, and others seek them for a greater range of buildings than the process was designed for. We are encouraging lenders to accept a broader range of evidence to assure themselves of a building’s safety. This could include a fire risk assessment that includes external walls, a recent building control certificate, or other assurances of the building’s safety the building owner can provide.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of buildings that will require a new ESW1 certification assessment every 5 years.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The EWS1 process is not a Government policy or regulatory requirement and the Government does not support a blanket approach in EWS1 use for lower risk properties. Some lenders do not require an EWS1 form, and others seek them for a greater range of buildings than the process was designed for. EWS1 assessments are commissioned by individual building owners, the department does not hold data on their use.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of properties given zero valuations as a result of being unable to prove EWS1 certification.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Some lenders do not require an EWS1 form, and others seek them for a greater range of buildings than the process was designed for. It is not a Government policy or regulatory requirement and the department does not hold data on its use.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to (a) narrow the scope of the EWS1 process and (b) review his Department's policies and advice to lenders on that process.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The External Wall System (EWS1) and process is designed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with mortgage lenders to assist with valuation of high-rise residential buildings. Some lenders do not require an EWS1 form, and others seek them for a greater range of buildings than the process was designed for. It is not a Government policy or regulatory requirement. The Government does not support the blanket use of EWS1, especially for lower rise blocks. We are encouraging lenders to accept a broader range of evidence to assure themselves of a building’s safety. This could include a fire risk assessment that includes external walls, a recent building control certificate, or other assurances of the building’s safety the building owner can provide.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of EWS1 on the ability of leaseholders to (a) sell or (b) re-mortgage properties.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Some lenders do not require an EWS1 form, and others seek them for a greater range of buildings than the process was designed for. It is not a Government policy or regulatory requirement and the department does not hold data on its use.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of Section 21 eviction notices served since the Government consultation on removing Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 on 12 October 2019.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department does not routinely collect data on the number of Section 21 notices served by landlords. The service of a Section 21 notice precedes the court process for possession and does not necessarily lead to any action in court.
The Ministry of Justice publishes national statistics on possession actions in county courts by private and social landlords at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics-april-to-june-2020. This includes statistics on claims, orders, warrants and possessions.
We have changed the requirements on notice periods in response to the Coronavirus pandemic so that Section 21 notices issued on or after the 29th August must provide tenants with six months’ notice before a landlord can lodge a claim for possession in court.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of section 21 eviction notices served from 12 October 2019 to 12 October 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department does not routinely collect data on the number of Section 21 notices served by landlords. The service of a Section 21 notice precedes the court process for possession and does not necessarily lead to any action in court.
The Ministry of Justice publishes national statistics on possession actions in county courts by private and social landlords at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics-april-to-june-2020. This includes statistics on claims, orders, warrants and possessions.
We have changed the requirements on notice periods in response to the Coronavirus pandemic so that Section 21 notices issued on or after the 29th August must provide tenants with six months’ notice before a landlord can lodge a claim for possession in court.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the availability of winter night shelter provision during the covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The current advice remains that night shelters should remain closed for now – and providers should continue to explore alternative options for self-contained accommodation.
However, we recognise that the sector needs clarity on provision as winter approaches. We are working with the sector and health experts to consider operating principles shelters would need to follow so that they can be reopened as safely as possible, when self-contained accommodation cannot be made available. We will be setting out further advice on this as soon as possible.
On 17 September we announced local authority allocations for the short-term funding aspect of Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP). £91.5 million was allocated to 274 councils in England to help vulnerable people housed during the pandemic. The remaining £13.5 million of funding will be used to support local authorities to tackle new and emerging challenges over the winter.
We are also funding significant longer-term accommodation for rough sleepers via the NSAP – 3,300 homes this year alone – and tailored support so as few people as possible housed in emergency accommodation return to life on the streets.