Public Health (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (England) (No. 2) (Amendment) Regulations 2021
(3 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Chalk)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the Public Health (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (England) (No. 2) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. 2021, No. 362).
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Efford. The statutory instrument before us today prevents enforcement agents or, in plain English, bailiffs from attending residential premises in England to execute a writ or warrant of possession, except in the most serious of circumstances. The Committee will be familiar with the structure and content of this statutory instrument in light of previous iterations.
The instrument applies to enforcement action in England and amends the Public Health (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (England) (No. 2) Regulations 2021 in only one respect by amending the expiry date from the end of March to the end of May. The Government continue to balance the need for clarity on how long the restrictions will be enforced against the ongoing developments in the pandemic. Retaining the restrictions in this instrument until 31 May, while covid-19 restrictions remain in place, will align with the broader strategy for protecting public health and will continue to help reduce pressure on essential public services as we move out of lockdown.
The extension to 31 May is broadly in line with the road map out of lockdown. Step 3 of the road map will be taken no earlier than 17 May, following a review of the data on the impact of the earlier steps. Step 3 will see a number of restrictions being lifted, including the restrictions on domestic overnight stays. Step 4 is scheduled for no earlier than 21 June. In considering the date of 31 May, in most cases bailiffs are required to give 14 days’ notice of eviction so, in practice, protection from the enforcement of evictions will endure in most cases until mid-June. The choice of this date and, indeed, the regulations overall strike the appropriate balance in the prevailing circumstances.
The SI before us today extends the end date in the one that we debated on 9 March. As I set out then, since the start of the pandemic the Government have put in place support to protect renters directly. That includes measures such as these regulations, extending notice periods to end a tenancy, increasing the local housing allowance to the 30th percentile of local market rents in each area, and making £140 million available to local authorities in discretionary housing payments in 2021-22 to help renters with housing costs. We have also acted indirectly through furlough, support for the self-employed, bounce back loans and so on, all of which contribute to supporting and sustaining the income tenants need to meet their obligations.
We have continued to provide for limited exemptions from the ban in cases where the competing public interest in ensuring access to justice, preventing harm to third parties or taking action against egregious behaviour and upholding the integrity of the rental market must be upheld. Those exemptions are as follows: where there are claims against trespassers who are persons unknown; where the order for possession was made wholly or partly on the grounds of antisocial behaviour, false statements, domestic abuse and social tenancies or substantial rent arrears equivalent to six months’ rent; or where the order for possession was made wholly or partly on the grounds of the death of the tenant and the enforcement agent attending the property is satisfied that the property is unoccupied.
The SI contains a requirement for the court to be satisfied that an exemption applies on a case-by-case basis. That ensures that a clear, uniform, transparent process for establishing whether an exemption to the ban applies. In cases where a court has decided that an exemption to the ban does indeed apply, bailiffs need to give tenants at least 14 days’ notice of an eviction in most circumstances and have been asked not to enforce evictions where a tenant has symptoms of covid-19 or is self-isolating.
In addition to these regulations, the Government have also introduced a requirement in the Coronavirus Act 2020 that landlords, in all but the most serious circumstances, must provide tenants with six months’ notice before beginning formal possession proceedings in the courts. Prior to the pandemic, in section 21 cases, landlords needed to give two months’ notice, and other grounds required as little as two weeks, so this requirement for longer notice is significant. It has also been extended to 31 May via an SI is laid by the Housing Minister on 10 March, and that requirement to provide six months’ notice in the majority of cases means that most renters served notice now can stay in their homes until October 2021, with time to find alternative support or accommodation. That emergency protection will remain in place until at least 31 May. The Government will consider the best approach after that date, taking into account public health advice and the wider road map.
The Government are continuing to take action to prevent people getting into financial hardship through the furlough scheme, as I have mentioned, and the self-employment income support scheme, both of which will remain in place until September. In addition, the £20 a week universal credit top-up will continue for a further six months, and we will provide a one-off payment of £500 to eligible working tax credit claimants. At the Budget, we also launched a new recovery loan scheme to ensure that businesses, notably the small and medium-sized enterprises that are the backbone of the British economy, will continue to be well supported in their ability to access the finance they need throughout 2021.
Under the existing business loan schemes, over 1.5 million British businesses have benefited from Government-backed support, receiving over £70 billion in total. We have also provided an extra £1 billion to increase local housing allowance rates so that they cover the lowest 30% of market rents, as I have indicated, and in 2021-22 local housing allowance rates will be maintained at their increased level, meaning that claimants renting in the private sector will continue to benefit from significant increase in the rates applied in April last year. In 2021-22, the Government will also make £140 million available to provide additional financial support. Local authorities can use this discretionary funding to help renters with their housing costs.
Temporary court arrangements and rules have been put in place by the Master of the Rolls working group, and they remain in place to ensure appropriate support to all parties until the end of July. The arrangements include the introduction of a new review stage at least 28 days before the substantive hearing, so that tenants can access legal advice, a requirement for any cases that were started prior to August 2020 to be reactivated by their landlords until 30 April, and a requirement for landlords to provide the courts and judges with information on how tenants have been affected by the pandemic. In addition, the Government are piloting a new free mediation service as part of the possession action process to support landlords and tenants to resolve disputes before a formal court hearing takes place.
In short, this SI provides tenants with protection from eviction up to 31 May in a way that ensures vulnerable tenants are not forced from their homes during the current covid-19 restrictions. In doing so, it protects public health and helps to avoid placing additional burdens on the NHS and local authorities. I commend the regulations to the Committee.
Peter Kyle (Hove) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford, and it is also nice to see the Minister opposite me. That does not happen very often these days following his dizzy elevation, so it is good to see him today.
Nobody in this Room would want to be evicted from their home. It is not just the worry of where to spend the night that would keep most of us up; it is the fear of what comes next. Where do I sleep the night after? How do I arrange another rental if my landlord refuses to give me a reference? What do I tell my family? How do I help my kids? Some of us might be able to arrange a safe place to stay at short notice through a quick text to a friend or a phone call to nearby family, but not everybody has that luxury. For many people evicted from their homes, what looms is not a few nights on a sofa, but a genuine fear of homelessness and the prospect of having to sleep rough with no end in sight.
Homelessness is a political failing for which the Government should be held to account. That fact makes the Government’s consistent failure to identify a long-term solution to evictions during the pandemic all the more galling. Why is it that we are brought back here every couple of weeks to extend a ban that fails to tackle the underlying challenges of the housing sector? Why do the Government prefer continually to extend the short-term ban, rather than offer a long-term solution running to the end of the coronavirus restrictions that would offer renters and landlords certainty? Why do the Government continue to allow evictions for arrears built up since the start of the pandemic, despite the dire economic situation?
The Government’s disastrous handling of the economy has made the situation even worse. What is more, the failure to support households that are building up arrears has real consequences for those in more vulnerable financial situations. According to research from the National Housing Federation, 60% of households claiming universal credit are in rent arrears, with an average debt of nearly £610. The Government promised an end to no-fault evictions in their 2019 manifesto. Where is it? As with their victims Bill, the Government seem to prefer promises to real action.
Rather than offering sticking-plaster extensions to a ban already too limited in scope, Labour has ambitious plans for renters and homeowners everywhere. We would strengthen and extend the ban on evictions and repossessions until restrictions are over, extend mortgage holidays, raise local housing allowance to cover median market rents, reform housing law to end automatic evictions through the courts, reduce the waiting period to receive support for mortgage interest payments, retain the £20 universal credit uplift beyond six months, end the five-week wait, and suspend the benefits cap. Labour is on the side of renters and homeowners. Through their policy and practice, it is clear that the Tories are not. After this extension is ratified, it is up to the Government to transform the housing sector once and for all. The next time we are called back to a Committee like this I hope that such a transformative offer is on the table.
Alex Chalk
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind words of introduction. I am slightly less grateful for what followed, but I will take a few moments to respond.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for how he expressed his points, and I certainly agree that any homelessness is a stain on a decent society, but this Government have done more to address it than any Government in recent history. When he talks about what the Opposition would do, I am drawn to recall that, in 13 years of government, did the Labour party introduced a homelessness reduction Act? No. Did the Labour Government do anything to address the housing shortage? No. It has fallen to this Government to build more homes, to introduce the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and, in the course of this pandemic, to roll out what I can fairly be called an unprecedented package of support running to some £400 billion that is there to support people from all parts of society including, of course, renters.
The hon. Gentleman says with great criticism that these measures do not go far enough, but is he seriously suggesting that people who have been found to have perpetrated domestic abuse should somehow be protected from eviction? Surely he cannot be saying that, because if he wants to stand up for victims—I know he believes this—he should not give a free pass to people who perpetrate that kind of crime. This Government are striking a balance between protecting the needs of renters with a package of financial and statutory support, while also ensuring that those who perpetrate egregious behaviour should not be able to hide behind the pandemic to perpetrate their criminality. We take pride in these regulations, we think they strike that right balance, and I commend them to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.
Draft Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Kyoto Protocol Registry) Regulations 2021
(3 years ago)
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The Chair
Before we begin, I remind Members to observe social distancing and to sit only in the spaces that are clearly marked. I also remind Members that Mr Speaker has stated that masks should be worn in Committee unless, of course, you are speaking. Hansard colleagues will always be most grateful if Members send their speaking notes to them on the email address.
The Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Kyoto Protocol Registry) Regulations 2021.
The draft regulations were laid before the House on 25 February this year. This statutory instrument was laid under the power in section 8(1) of, and paragraph 21 of schedule 7 to, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to address deficiencies of retained EU law that arose from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The purpose of the statutory instrument is to amend retained EU law relating to the UK’s Kyoto protocol registry to ensure that it will be operable in the UK.
This draft statutory instrument does not introduce any new policy. It will simply ensure the continuity of the UK’s Kyoto protocol registry independently of the EU’s registry system.
As a party to the Kyoto protocol, an international climate change treaty, the UK has a legal obligation to maintain a Kyoto protocol registry. That registry enables the UK and UK-based account holders to hold and trade Kyoto units. Kyoto units are each equal to 1 tonne of carbon dioxide and may be traded on the international carbon market.
Kyoto units held by the UK Government are used to demonstrate compliance with our emission reduction targets under the Kyoto protocol. Emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto protocol cover the period from 2008 to December 2020 but, due to the time lag in collecting emissions inventory data, final accounting cannot be completed until several years after December 2020, hence the continued need for a registry. Future registry requirements under the Paris agreement as the successor to the Kyoto protocol are due to be decided at COP26 this November.
While the UK was an EU member state, the UK’s Kyoto protocol registry was housed in the EU’s consolidated system for EU registries. The UK has now established its own domestic platform to house the UK’s Kyoto protocol registry independently of the EU system. That platform is due to be operational in May of this year.
The UK Kyoto protocol registry enables the holding and trading of Kyoto units, just as a bank account does with money. As an industrialised country with emission reduction targets under the Kyoto protocol, the UK is allocated a number of units known as assigned amount units. Those units are held in the UK Kyoto protocol registry.
When finalising accounting for the Kyoto protocol commitment period, countries have the option to trade or cancel any surplus units, if they have met their emission reduction targets through domestic action. The registry enables that activity.
Private entities may also open accounts in the registry to hold and trade Kyoto units generated through the clean development mechanism under the Kyoto protocol. The mechanism allows a country with an emission reduction commitment under the protocol to implement an emission reduction project in developing countries. Such projects can earn certified emission reduction credits, each equivalent to 1 tonne of carbon dioxide, which may be counted towards meeting Kyoto targets. The mechanism can enable more cost-effective emission reductions, and the emissions credit generated may be traded, thereby creating a carbon market.
This draft statutory instrument is about continuity and compliance, rather than substantive changes to policy. By amending the retained EU legislation relating to the Kyoto protocol, the statutory instrument will provide a clear legal basis to operate and administer the UK registry domestically. It will not have any significant impact on businesses, charities, voluntary bodies or the public sector.
The Environment Agency will continue its role as the administrator of the UK Kyoto protocol registry, as before our departure from the EU. There are 112 businesses with accounts in the UK Kyoto protocol registry. The units and transaction history relating to the accounts are being transferred from the EU system to the new UK system hosting the UK Kyoto protocol registry.
As I said, the new UK system is due to be operational in May 2021, which is when account holders will be able to register on the UK system to access their migrated accounts. Trading Kyoto units via the UK Kyoto protocol registry should be possible from June 2021.
Businesses with accounts in the UK Kyoto protocol registry were given advance notice about changes to the registry while the transfer from the EU to the UK system takes place. The Environment Agency, in its capacity as administrator of the registry, continues to provide updates to account holders. We are not aware of any concerns from any of those account holders.
All four Governments of the UK nations have agreed with the purpose and content of this statutory instrument. The measures in the draft regulations are important as they will ensure the UK’s ability to uphold its international commitments under the Kyoto protocol following our departure from the EU, and I hope that hon. Members will support them.
Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)
The Minister hopes that the SI will have the support of the hon. Members present. It certainly has the support of the Opposition Members present, small in number though we are, so there will be no Division or opposition to the proposal.
However, we need to be clear, among ourselves at least, about what the measure does. It is not the commencement of trading under the new UK ETS arrangement. It is not in any way a measure relating to alignment of the new UK ETS arrangement. It is instead essentially a preparatory measure to enable the UK ETS to operate properly. It clears up a lot of issues about the KP—Kyoto protocol—registry, brings the registry arrangements under the control of the Environment Agency, and regularises the arrangements for membership of that registry for UK companies trading in that protocol area.
The measure is not the UK ETS itself; it is breaking the ground for it, four months after we have formally left the EU ETS, and were supposed to be setting up our own ETS and trading independently. The Minister has indicated that the UK ETS will be better, if anything, than the EU ETS, and has warmly heralded its arrival, but of course it has not actually arrived. However, we have an announcement by the body that has been commissioned to undertake trading at auctions for the new ETS that the first auction will take place on 19 May, subject to regulatory approval.
I am not sure whether this afternoon’s proceedings are part of the regulatory approval that will allow those auctions to take place. I suspect that they are not, but interestingly I see that there is, as the Minister mentioned, an aim for the IT platform for the UK KP registry to be ready in spring 2021. I think that she and I will agree that we have anything but spring-like weather at the moment in the UK. Nevertheless, it is spring, so that platform should have been ready by now, but it is not. As the Minister mentioned, it is not projected to be ready until May and there will not be activities on the UK registry until June—which is the summer, by my reckoning. Can she say, reasonably hand on heart-ish, that the platform really will be ready by, shall we say, the end-ish of spring and working as she described? As she clearly understands, that is important to the workings of the ETS scheme as a whole.
The Minister indicated, as the explanatory memorandum to the regulations indicates clearly, that companies who have accounts in the UK’s KP registry have lost access to the original registry for the period during which the new UK registry is being compiled and the software sorted out for the platform. Indeed, the explanatory memorandum has the strange advice that companies involved in the original KP registry and awaiting transfer should, if necessary, open accounts in Europe to use the original KP registry. This is getting to be a bizarre state of affairs. It really should have been sorted out simultaneously with UK withdrawal so that a reasonably seamless transition could have taken place, but that that is clearly not the case.
The Minister mentioned that we have no reports of UK companies being seriously incommoded, but it could be that they are giving up on progress for the time being and awaiting further developments, as indeed they are on the auctions with the new UK system that we are promised. Can she assure us that no damage to the future of the UK ETS has occurred by the strange set of affairs of companies being in a hiatus, unable to trade in the UK and perhaps having to trade in Europe?
Finally, what are the arrangements likely to be for the alignment of UK ETS systems with other carbon trading platforms in the world and, most essentially, with the EU ETS? The UK-EU trade arrangement, signed on Christmas eve, clearly indicated that there would be alignment between the EU and UK systems at an early stage, but the energy White Paper, published at about the same time, merely says that
“the UK is open to linking the UK ETS internationally in principle and we are considering a range of options, but no decision on our preferred linking partners has yet been made.”
Can the Minister tell us whether that range of options has been considered, and whether any decisions about preferred linking partners have been made, or are in the process of being made, to allow the UK ETS to work in the best possible way?
To be helpful to the Minister, I can indicate that the EU authorities confirmed at the beginning of March that no negotiations with them about any EU ETS-UK ETS linkage had started. Perhaps the Minister can let us know today whether any negotiations have started and, if they have not, whether the decisions on preferred linking partners might concern schemes operating elsewhere in the world—China, some states of the USA or South Korea. I would have thought the rather obvious one to link with was the EU ETS. I am anxious to hear whether that is the Minister’s view. If it is, what has happened to allow that linking to happen?
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
I thank the hon. Member for his, as ever, forensic challenges. He raises some important questions. First, I will clarify one point. The UK Kyoto protocol registry is an international body, while our UK ETS is our domestic trading platform, so they are not incompatible—they are sitting in two different parts of the system. They are housed within the same IT platform in a technical sense, and, as the hon. Member highlights, that has had to be developed in a compressed timeframe. The UK ETS registry has been prioritised, given the large number of businesses using it and the significantly higher value of ETS allowances compared with Kyoto protocol units. I hope that clarifies that point.
The SI is limited in scope. It is being made under the powers of section 8 of the EU (Withdrawal) Act, and it can only prevent, remedy or mitigate failures of retained EU law to operate effectively or any other deficiency in retained EU law. It is not within the powers to make wider changes to terminology and so on in the registry. This is very much one small element of the new world we are in, working within our domestic market.
There was an important question about whether the platform will be ready for June. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is working very closely with the Environment Agency, which has the oversight, and the IT software developer. We are keeping in regular contact with the account holders, who are waiting for it to open up again, so that everything is very much joined up and everything will go smoothly when it opens.
The registry has to be connected to the United Nations framework convention on climate change’s international transaction log. Before it is reconnected, it has to pass a number of tests to meet the international standards, which are ongoing at the moment—dare I say, fingers crossed, that we are on track to pass them all? Like every exam, you never quite know, but it is progressing as we would hope. Once the tests have been passed, it will be ready to go live.
The hon. Member raised some questions about UK ETS and how it might join up with other schemes in the future. We have made the UK ETS more ambitious than the EU system that it is replacing. From day one, the cap on emissions allowed within the scheme has been reduced by 5%. We will consult in due course on aligning it with net zero. That gives industry the certainty it needs to be able to invest in low carbon technologies, because that is absolutely what we will continue to do.
The UK ETS will promote cost-effective decarbonisation. It will allow businesses to cut carbon where it is cheapest to do so and, in doing that, it promotes innovation and growth for UK businesses. It will allow us to expand our carbon pricing across the economy in order to encourage innovation and emerging decarbonisation technologies, which will be critical in helping us to meet our net zero challenge.
We have committed to exploring expanding the UK ETS to two thirds of presently uncovered emissions, and will be setting out our aspirations to continue to lead the world on carbon pricing in the run-up to COP26 later this year. This will also include how UK ETS could incentivise the deployment of greenhouse gas removal technologies. I hope that the hon. Member, and others, will be patient with us, but there is much to come.
We recognise the importance of international co-operation on carbon pricing and the role that international carbon markets can and will play as we all try to move internationally to a net zero position. The UK is open to linking the UK ETS internationally in principle. We are considering a range of options but have not reached a decision on where that will land, but I promise to keep the House posted as we progress.
I hope I have provided the necessary assurance for the Committee to approve the statutory instrument before us today. It provides a clear legal basis to operate the new domestic platform to house the UK’s Kyoto protocol registry, which is due to become operational in May. I commend these draft regulations to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.