Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people awaiting a council property in England.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The number of households in local authorities' waiting lists by local authority and region in each year since 1997 is reported in live table 600 which is published here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies. The latest available figures relate to 31 March 2020.
The number of households on the waiting list is not the same as the number of households waiting. Households may apply to multiple authorities and authorities only periodically review their lists to remove households who no longer require housing, so the total number of households on waiting lists is likely to overstate the number of households who still require housing. The frequency of reviews varies considerably and waiting list size may also be affected by other factors.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of homes needed to be built per year to meet demand.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government is committed to building one million homes over the course of the Parliament, and in 2019/20 net additions to the housing stock totalled 243,770 – the highest total for over thirty years. The Government recently published a revised standard method for calculating local housing need which is used by Local Planning Authorities in planning for the housing needs in their area.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
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 publish data on the number of social housing properties bought under the Right-to-Buy scheme in Bolton since 2010.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The number of properties sold to tenants under the Right to Buy scheme by local authorities since 2006-07 can be found in Live Table 691 here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales .
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many affordable homes were built in Bolton in each year since 2010.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The number of affordable homes delivered by local authority, broken down by new build and acquisitions can be found in Live Table 1011, which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
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 has taken to support households with rent arrears since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has put in place unprecedented measures to protect and support renters during the Covid-19 pandemic, which includes support for households with rent arrears.
Under the Coronavirus Act 2020, landlords are required to give tenants 6 months’ notice except in the most serious circumstances such as anti-social behaviour, fraud and arrears of more than 6 months. Housing possession cases were suspended in the courts from 27 March until 20 September. Landlords are now once again able to progress their claims, and the most serious cases are being prioritised by the courts. To further protect tenants, the Government has changed the law to ensure bailiffs do not enforce evictions in England until 11 January 2021, except in the most serious circumstances such as illegal occupation, anti-social behaviour or rent arrears of more than 9 months accrued before 23 March.
The Government has also put in place an unprecedented financial package, which is supporting renters and ensuring that they can continue to afford their housing costs. This includes support for businesses to pay staff salaries through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has now been extended until March 2021. We have also boosted the welfare system, including increasing Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by up to £1,040 for the year and increasing Local Housing Allowance rates so that they cover the lowest 30 per cent of market rents. For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments are available. As announced at the spending round for 2020/21 there is already £180 million for local authorities to distribute in Discretionary Housing Payments for supporting renters with housing costs in the private and social rented sectors.
The Government believes this strikes the right balance between prioritising public health and supporting the most vulnerable renters, while allowing landlords to obtain possession of their property in the most egregious cases.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
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 support rough sleepers and other people experiencing homelessness in winter 2020-21.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
As we move into the winter months, we recognise the upcoming challenges that local authorities are facing as a result of the pandemic.
The ‘Protect Programme’, the next step in the ongoing targeted support to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our communities from COVID-19, was announced by the Prime Minister on Thursday 5 November.
This scheme will provide a further £15 million to support the ongoing efforts to provide accommodation for rough sleepers during the pandemic. This programme will help areas that need additional support most during the restrictions and throughout winter and is on top of the previously announced £10 million Cold Weather Fund for all councils, giving local areas the tools they need to protect people from life-threatening cold weather and the risks posed by COVID-19.
This builds on the success of the still ongoing ‘Everyone In’ campaign, which is helping to protect thousands of lives during the pandemic - by September it had supported over 29,000 vulnerable people, with over 10,000 in emergency accommodation and nearly 19,000 provided with settled accommodation or move on support.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
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 protect (a) renters from eviction and (b) homeowners from repossession during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The stay on housing possessions ended on 20 September and possession claims can now be actioned through the courts, but evictions will not be enforced apart from in the most serious cases. The Government has now changed the law to ensure that bailiffs do not enforce evictions in England over the period of national restrictions or over the Christmas period. No eviction notices are to be served until 11 January 2021 at the earliest and, given the 14-day notice period required, no evictions are expected to be enforced until 25 January 2021 at the earliest. The only exceptions to this are the most serious circumstances: illegal occupation, false statement, anti-social behaviour, perpetrators of domestic abuse in social housing, where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant and extreme rent arrears equivalent to 9 months’ rent with any arrears accrued since 23 March discounted.
To protect homeowners from repossession, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced a moratorium on the enforcement of lender repossession until 31 January 2021, except for in exceptional cases such as a borrower requesting proceedings to continue. For homeowners, mortgage holidays have been extended with applications open to 31 March 2021. Additionally, borrowers that have been affected by Coronavirus and have not yet had a mortgage payment holiday, will be entitled to a six-month holiday. Those that have already started a mortgage payment holiday will be able to top up to six months without this being recorded on their credit file.