Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of error in the last three financial years.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Details of measures the department is taking to prevent fraud and error are set out in the department’s annual accounts.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department has issued on claiming local council tax support when an elector (a) owns and (b) resides in more than one property.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Local authorities are required to put in place and administer council tax reduction schemes for low-income households. Support for working age people is designed by authorities and support for people of pension age must follow criterial prescribed in regulations by the Secretary of State in the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012.
In the case of pension-age local council tax reductions schemes, the Secretary of State has prescribed that a person must be resident in a property to claim support. In addition, the capital value of additional properties will be considered in determining eligibility, unless there are mitigating circumstances such as if the property is in the process of being sold. A pension age person with more than £16,000 of capital is not entitled to council tax reduction.
Eligibility for working age council tax reduction and the treatment of capital such as additional properties is decided by local authorities.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department holds on the percentage change in the average selling price of properties since 14 June 2017 of (a) flats affected by cladding and building safety defects and (b) flats not affected by cladding and building safety defects.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As of 18 December 2023, nine major mortgage lenders have signed a joined statement confirming they will lend on properties in buildings before they have been remediated. We will continue working with industry to monitor these changes and hold lenders to their commitments.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Fifth Report of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee Report of Session 2024/25 on Shared Ownership, HC 61, published on 28 March 2024, what information his Department holds on transactions by registered providers to buy back shares from shared ownership leaseholders due to building remediation issues.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department is considering the report by the Committee and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the oral contribution of 26 March 2024 by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Building Safety, Official Report, column 1414, how many building owners his Department has identified in the reducing core of building owners who continue to hold up remediation; and how many buildings such owners own.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We track the progress of buildings and make this publicly available here: Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - February 2024 - GOV.UK.
We have also made public the corporate entities responsible for the remaining buildings with the most dangerous cladding that have yet to start on site at: Aluminium composite material cladding - GOV.UK , and update this list periodically.
It is important that building owners fulfil their building safety responsibilities and where they do not that they are held to account. As I reiterated to the house on 26th March, and in a joint statement with building safety bodies, where building owners are stalling, they can expect to be subject to enforcement action by a local authority, fire and rescue service or the Building Safety Regulator.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the oral contribution of 26 March 2024 by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Building Safety, Official Report, column 1414, whether his Department plans to publish a list of building owners who continue to hold up remediation.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We track the progress of buildings and make this publicly available here: Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - February 2024 - GOV.UK.
We have also made public the corporate entities responsible for the remaining buildings with the most dangerous cladding that have yet to start on site at: Aluminium composite material cladding - GOV.UK , and update this list periodically.
It is important that building owners fulfil their building safety responsibilities and where they do not that they are held to account. As I reiterated to the house on 26th March, and in a joint statement with building safety bodies, where building owners are stalling, they can expect to be subject to enforcement action by a local authority, fire and rescue service or the Building Safety Regulator.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the fail rate for the competency assessment for registration to be a class (a) two, (b) three and (c) four building inspector was in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
There are currently three independent schemes that provide validation assessments for building control inspectors, which are now needed to register with the Building Safety Regulator for classes 2 to 4. The validation schemes run by the Building Safety Competence Foundation opened in 2022, while the other two schemes (run by Total Training and CABE) have been operational since 2023. All of the three schemes are independent of Government, and as the requirement to register with the BSR and undertake validation assessments only commenced on 6 April 2024, the department does not hold data that allows for comparison of fail rates over the past three years.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in relation to historic building safety defects, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of protecting (a) leaseholders and (b) non-qualifying leaseholders from a landlord's legal costs being recovered through the service change.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Building Safety Act 2022 sets out a number of protections for leaseholders relating to the cost of remediation of relevant defects.
Under paragraph 9 of Schedule 8 to the Act qualifying leaseholders are protected from the costs of legal or other professional services relating to the liability (or potential liability) incurred as a result of a relevant defect.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what criteria his Department plans to use to assess the effectiveness of the Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility; and over what timeframe he plans to use these criteria.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon Gentleman to the answer given to Question UIN 19172 on 22 March 2024.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department or the predecessor Department has issued on registration on the electoral roll when an elector (a) owns and (b) resides in more than one property.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Electoral Commission, as the independent electoral regulator, holds responsibility for issuance of guidance on electoral registration, voting and second homes.
This can be found at: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/who-can-vote/other-registration-options/voting-and-second-homes.
A person is entitled to be registered as a parliamentary elector for a constituency - or in the case of local elections, as a local government elector for an electoral area - if on the date they submit their application they meet the criteria for registration.
Those criteria include a requirement (except, regarding Parliamentary elections, in respect of a British citizen living overseas) that the applicant is resident in the constituency or electoral area. It is for the Electoral Registration Officer to determine whether the applicant meets this residency requirement by reference to the factors set out in section 5 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (and in some cases sections 6 to 7C of that Act also). Ownership of a property is not sufficient on its own, the ERO must determine that an individual is resident. Case law suggests this will involve a degree of permanence.
This means that some citizens are entitled to register to vote in respect of more than one address in certain circumstances.
However, it may be noted that it is a criminal offence for a registered elector to vote more than once in the same constituency at a parliamentary election or in the same electoral division or ward at a local government election. It is also a criminal offence for a registered elector to vote in more than one constituency at a parliamentary general election, or in more than once electoral division or ward at an ordinary election of councillors for county, London Borough or district.