Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 need for additional guidance to ensure that post-war low-rise council blocks, not covered by the Building Safety Act, are proactively inspected and maintained.
Answered by Samantha Dixon
Building owners are responsible for managing building safety and performance issues in their buildings in a proportionate, risk-based and evidence-based manner, and for taking action where necessary.
Existing legislation and guidance already require building owners and responsible persons to identify, assess and manage safety risks in residential buildings, including low-rise council blocks. This includes requirements under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The Government keeps building safety requirements under review. Updated HHSRS regulations and guidance came into force in June 2026.
Current HHSRS guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/housing-health-and-safety-rating-system-hhsrs-guidance.
Current FSO guidance can be found here: ‘A guide to making your small block of flats safe from fire’ and ‘Fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats’.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to improve the standards and tackle delays in the Housing Ombudsman Service.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent and impartial body responsible for investigating complaints about social landlords.
The Ombudsman is taking steps to improve timeliness and performance, including increasing capacity, strengthening its processes, and introducing more proportionate approaches to investigations.
Through its Business Plan 2026/27, which can be found here, the Ombudsman has set out a programme of work to reduce the number of older cases and improve the speed of case resolution. This includes increasing its workforce and introducing a multi‑year caseload reduction strategy focused on delivering faster outcomes for residents.
The Ombudsman has also increased its membership fees, paid by landlords, to support these improvements and ensure it has the resources needed to respond to rising demand.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help protect social tenants not in receipt of housing benefit from increases in service charges.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Registered Providers of social housing are expected to set reasonable and transparent service charges for tenants that reflect the service being provided. Tenants should be supplied with clear information about how service charges are set.
The government’s policy statement on rents for social housing makes clear out that Registered Providers should endeavour to keep increases for service charges within the limit on rent increases, which is CPI (as at September in the previous year) +1 percentage point, to help keep charges affordable.
On 4 July, the government published a consultation on strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services. The proposals will apply to tenants of local authorities and private registered providers who pay both fixed and variable service charges.It can be found on gov.uk here.
For an overview of the proposals set out in the consultation, I refer the hon. Member to the associated Written Ministerial Statement made on 4 July 2025 (HCWS780). This consultation closed on 26 September and we are analysing responses.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-Semitism.
Answered by Lee Rowley
Anti-Semitism is abhorrent and has no place in our society. No one should ever be a victim of hatred because of their religion or belief and the Government continues to work with police and community partners to monitor and combat it.
That is why on 28 February 2024, the Prime Minister announced that the Community Security Trust will receive further funding of £54 million for 2025-2028, as part of the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant. This is in addition to the commitment made as part of the Autumn Statement for £18 million in 2024/25.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of rent-to-rent schemes.
Answered by Jacob Young
We have worked with stakeholders representing both tenants and landlords to ensure our reforms deliver a fairer and more secure private rented sector, which includes the necessary provisions for the rent-to-rent sector.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether measures introduced under the Leasehold and Freehold Bill will apply to leaseholders where the freeholder is a local authority.
Answered by Lee Rowley
An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been published at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.
Most of the measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill will apply to local authority freeholders and we are currently undertaking a New Burdens Assessment to consider the effect of the Bill on local authorities.
All freeholders, and the wider public, are encouraged to respond to the consultation on ground rents, which is available here Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Bill on local authorities.
Answered by Lee Rowley
An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been published at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.
Most of the measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill will apply to local authority freeholders and we are currently undertaking a New Burdens Assessment to consider the effect of the Bill on local authorities.
All freeholders, and the wider public, are encouraged to respond to the consultation on ground rents, which is available here Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the average clearance time is for HM Land Registry to complete registrations for new leases and lease extensions as of 1 September 2023; and what steps his Department is taking to to reduce the time taken to complete those registrations.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
HM Land Registry (HMLR) publishes information about its average processing times on GOV.UK here.
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 187953 on 14 June 2023 for information about the steps HMLR is taking to improve its speed of service.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of registrations for new leases or lease extensions take (a) less than 18 months and (b) over 24 months to be processed by HM Land Registry.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
HM Land Registry (HMLR) publishes information about its average processing times on GOV.UK here.
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 187953 on 14 June 2023 for information about the steps HMLR is taking to improve its speed of service.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the area of residential garden (a) built on and (b) covered with hard surface in the last 10 years.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Data on the area of residential gardens as at April 2022 expressed as a percentage of the total land area in hectares is already publicly available here. Separate figures are given for England as a whole, each region and each local authority.
And information on the amounts of land changing use from residential gardens to other uses is also available here.