Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made on the relative speed of deposit returns and alternative dispute resolution rates between insured and custodial tenancy deposit schemes.

My Department receives data from Tenancy Deposit Protection (TDP) providers regarding the speed of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in respect of both custodial and insured schemes.

My Department also receives information about how quickly a deposit is returned to a tenant upon conclusion of ADR, and for the custodial scheme it receives data on how quickly a deposit is returned if there is no dispute.

Due to the nature of the insured scheme, where the landlord or agents keeps possession of deposit monies, if no dispute is raised there is no official record of how long it takes for the deposit monies to be returned to tenants. Based on recent Key Performance Indicator (KPI) figures for the custodial schemes, over 95% of disputed or undisputed deposits are returned to tenants within two days of notification of the conclusion of a dispute or agreement of any deductions.

However, a recent report from Citizens Advice states that 55% of tenants surveyed reported waiting longer than two weeks to have all or some of their deposit returned. Given the most recent KPI data shows custodial deposit returns are shorter than this, we have concluded that the insured scheme can create unnecessary delays to the detriment of tenants.