Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library the specification of the test that is being applied to the cladding samples provided by local authorities to his Department.
Answered by Lord Sharma
A note explaining the government building safety programme, including an explanation of the methodology being used by the Building Research Establishment to test samples of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels, has been published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-note-on-safety-checks-and-testing
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to encourage local authorities to incorporate loneliness reduction strategies into their strategic planning.
Answered by Marcus Jones
It has not proved possible to respond to the Rt. hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if the Government will encourage local authorities to make use of Age UK's loneliness heat map to identify needs in local areas.
Answered by Marcus Jones
It has not proved possible to respond to the Rt hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many social houses have been sold under the Right to Buy scheme in each of the last three years; and how many of those houses sold have been replaced with new social housing.
Answered by Lord Barwell
In 2012, the Coalition Government reinvigorated the Right to Buy scheme, increasing maximum discounts to realistic levels and for the first time ever, introduced a requirement to replace every additional sale nationally with a replacement property.
Councils have three years to replace the additional homes sold. In the first eighteen months following the reinvigoration of Right to Buy, there were 6,389 additional homes sold. By the end of Q2 2016/17 there were 9,460 new starts and acquisitions.
Right to Buy sales by Local Authority (Table 691) and Local Authority starts and acquisitions (Table 693) can be accessed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps (a) he and (b) the Government has taken to make public its policy against Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism since May 2015.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government has a clear policy of tackling anti-Semitism and condemns any organisation or individual that attempts to deny the Holocaust. In December 2016, the Prime Minister announced that the UK is the first European Union country formally to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of anti-Semitism. We believe that the definition, although legally non-binding, is an important tool for criminal justice agencies, and other public bodies to understand how anti-Semitism manifests itself in the 21st century. In addition we recently published a progress report on our efforts to tackle anti-Semitism which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-semitism-update
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many civil servants in each unit of his Department are in the redeployment pool.
Answered by Marcus Jones
None of the Department's staff are currently surplus and held in the redeployment pool.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to set new carbon standards for the new-build housing sector.
Answered by Lord Barwell
The Government has a duty under section 165 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 to carry out a review of the minimum energy performance requirements for new homes in the Building Regulations. Work on the review is under way.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of which policy areas within his Department's remit will be affected by the outcome of the EU referendum.
Answered by Mark Francois - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The Prime Minister has been clear that the negotiation for the UK’s future relationship with Europe will need to begin under a new Prime Minister, and we have now got to look at all the detailed arrangements for this. In the meantime, my department continues working to deliver the government’s agenda, and take forward the legislation that we set before Parliament in the Queen’s Speech.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the outcome of the EU referendum on house prices.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
It is too early to tell. We are keeping markets under review and are actively engaged with house builders. DCLG Ministers met with industry leaders last week to listen to their views in light of the EU referendum result.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to bring forward regulations on the testing of electrical installations in rental properties.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Government is committed to protecting tenants and, as part of this, introduced an enabling power into the Housing and Planning Act 2016, allowing regulations to protect private sector tenants from electrical hazards in the home to be set. We are currently conducting further research and working with the sector to understand what, if any, legislative requirements are needed and envisage this work being completed this year. This will ensure any introductions are beneficial and strike the right balance by protecting tenants while not over burdening the sector.