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 data his Department holds on the number of buildings expected to have remediation paid for by a building owner that meets (a) the Developer Test (b) the Contribution Condition as of 15 April 2024.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Data on Building Safety Remediation progress is published on gov.uk.
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, whether he has made an assessment of the impact of Stewart Milne Homes Northwest England (Developments) entering administration on building safety remediation in England.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
If the Hon Gentleman has specific concerns, we would be happy to receive them.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to ban party political adverts from video streaming services.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Political advertising is a fundamental part of any democratic system and is an established way for political parties and campaigners to connect with the public and have their message heard.
The ban on paid political advertising on television and radio (introduced in the Communications Act 2003) continues to be supported across the political spectrum as it levels the playing field in political campaigning.
The Government remains committed to protecting the integrity of our democracy and continues to keep campaigning rules under close review to ensure that digital campaigning remains transparent and fair.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to facilitate greater involvement of architects in the development stage of new housing schemes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
National planning policy makes clear that local authorities should prepare their own local design codes in line with the principles set out in the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code, which can define what well-designed new development means in their local area.
The NPPF and supporting National Design Guide and National Model Design Code emphasise that effective engagement between local authorities, communities, applicants and other interests, such as architects, throughout the design process, including the preparation of design codes, is helpful to achieving well designed and sustainable new development.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 is taking to help ensure standards of (a) quality and (b) sustainability in new housing developments.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government legislated through the Building Safety Act 2022 to provide for a statutory New Homes Ombudsman and accompanying Code of Practice that set out expectations of scheme members around standards of conduct and standards of quality of work.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
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 statement by the Minister for Veteran's Affairs on Resettlement of Afghans of 19 September 2023, Official Report, column 1253, how many and what proportion of the Afghans that were housed in temporary accommodation under the local authority homelessness provision on 19 September 2023 have since been moved into permanent accommodation.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The department continues to monitor homelessness in these groups, and further data will be published on this in due course. This will be available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-management-information-afghan-nationals-england.
We publish data on this subject on an ad hoc basis that is voluntarily provided by local authorities. The last time information was published was in September 2023 and related to 1 July 2023 to 31 August 2023. This data was published to monitor the success of the move of Afghans out of hotels into settled accommodation.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many Afghans under the (a) Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and (b) Afghan citizens resettlement scheme are in temporary accommodation provided under local authority homelessness provision.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The department continues to monitor homelessness in these groups, and further data will be published on this in due course. This will be available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-management-information-afghan-nationals-england.
We publish data on this subject on an ad hoc basis that is voluntarily provided by local authorities. The last time information was published was in September 2023 and related to 1 July 2023 to 31 August 2023. This data was published to monitor the success of the move of Afghans out of hotels into settled accommodation.
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 fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is determined to uncover fraud in the public sector and is proud of its record.
As part of this, the Government established the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180 million of savings to the taxpayer. In fact the PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. As it enters its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.
The Government has also announced an additional £34 million to deploy cutting edge tools and Artificial Intelligence tools to help combat fraud across the public sector, saving £100 million for the public purse. This is in addition to existing partnerships between PSFA and the tech sector.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of his Department’s (a) advertising and (b) marketing expenditure was on (i) local newspapers in print and online, (ii) national newspapers in print and online, (iii) social media, (iv) search engines, (v) broadcast and on-demand television and (vi) other channels in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The data requested is not held centrally.
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 a company must meet in order to be included on the Homes England Fire Risk Assessor Panel and authorised to carry out FRAEWs for buildings in the Cladding Safety Scheme.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
To join the Fire Risk Assessor Panel firms must sign a participation agreement which sets out the terms for the panel and eligibility criteria. Along with agreeing to follow Homes England processes set out in the scheme guidance and use the correct scheme documents, firms must have:
Membership is renewed annually with firms having to provide evidence of their PII insurance and self-certification of qualifications and experience of firm assessors. The use of PAS 9980 and proportionality is assured by sample audit.
Since the scheme went live, four firms have left the panel through their own accord. Two pulled out due to resourcing issues and their inability to commit to meeting service level agreements and two others left due to them not receiving any business from being on the panel.
To date, Homes England have not had to remove any firms due to performance however Homes England can exercise this option should they need to.