Business and Planning Act 2020 (Pavement Licences) (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2021

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 8th July 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I want to flag three areas where the Government should look further at these regulations than merely extending them to 2022.

The first is the timeframe placed on local authorities to process, publicise and determine licences: a mere 10 working days. This has been incredibly onerous on council resources and should be extended to between 15 and 25 working days. With businesses shortly to reopen without restrictions, it is only fair to offer more time to councils and residents.

The second aspect is the cost of a licence, which has been set at a maximum of £100. I gather that most councils have charged this in full. For uncontested licences, it may cover their administrative costs, but it does not if an application is contested and senior officers and licensing teams need to be involved. Kensington and Chelsea Council told me that it would usually charge £512 for a table and chairs licence under the previous regime, which was calculated based on cost recovery. While the process has been streamlined under these regulations, it has not cut councils’ costs by 80%. Effectively, councils are struggling with this loss of income. In some cases, there is a double loss of income where a licence is granted for tables and chairs in parking bays, as there is an additional loss of parking revenue. If this regime is to be extended until September 2022, councils would welcome the discretion to set higher application fees where appropriate. In addition, local authorities would often recover their monitoring costs to ensure compliance with licences, often around £300 a year per premises. The regulations make no provision for this, yet monitoring is still needed.

My third comment may be too radical for some, but it has been suggested to me that the Government might be bolder and look at a British Summer Time pavement licensing scheme to operate annually but not in the winter, or trial these regulations on a more permanent basis in the central activities zone boroughs of, say, Westminster, Camden and Kensington and Chelsea.

The new regulations are much less cumbersome than the three regimes they replace, but the work being done by Westminster City Council to make pavement licensing cost-neutral needs to be taken on board, and a longer timeframe for processing, consulting and determining pavement licences is key to helping residents feel involved.

Private Landlords: Tenants with Pets

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Tuesday 15th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for coming up with practical suggestions for how tenants and landlords could work together to ensure wider pet ownership. It is of course for the landlord to consider each case on its merits.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, pets have done much to help those recovering from medical incidents. This cannot be overestimated. Following the updating of the Government’s model agreement for shorthold assured tenancies in January, to encourage landlords to allow pets, what will the Government do to help allay landlords’ concerns over the inadequacy of a five-week deposit to address any pet damage at the end of the tenancy? Are there plans to allow for a larger deposit to be taken at the outset or, alternatively, a monthly sum to be added to the rent to pay for damage that is refundable at the end of the tenancy to the extent that it is not required? I declare my interest in rental property as in the register, but I have no tenants who have asked to have a pet—although some have them quietly without mentioning it.

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My noble friend is right to point out the impact of the Tenant Fees Act 2019. The Government recommend that the rental deposit of five weeks is a maximum rather than a default. Charging a deposit of four weeks’ rent would provide leeway to expand it to five weeks for such things as pet ownership and also to take up some of the suggestions that we have heard today around insurance or potentially looking at rent levels to accommodate wider pet ownership.

Rogue Landlords Register

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Wednesday 26th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

I do not accept that it has been a failure, partly because of the time taken going through the process of charging and convicting individuals. As I pointed out in the previous answer, it is one of a number of measures that we introduced to tackle the issue of rogue landlords. Obviously, we are consulting on a number of wider measures, including increasing the scope and accessibility of this database as part of that White Paper. More will be announced later in the year.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I refer to my entry in the register of interests. Can the Minister comment on the position on creating a register of short-term lets, whether by council area or more generally? These now represent a significant part of the rental market; most are unknown to councils and, consequently, avoid safety checks.

Social Housing

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I accept that this should not always be about a drive for volume and that we need quality, decent-sized family housing and to ensure that we have the homes we need for people with particular disabilities.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

Are the Government considering setting aside a portion of the affordable homes programme funding announced by the Chancellor in March 2020 specifically for more social housing? My interest is declared in the register.

Rent Arrears: Covid-19

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 20th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, we continue to survey this very carefully indeed. As I pointed out, although we have seen an increase, according to the survey, in the number of renters in arrears, the vast majority of them—some two-thirds—have arrears of no greater than two months.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my interests as in the register. Can the Minister comment on what plans the Government have to assist small and medium landlords who are unable to recover Covid-related rent arrears and face potential enforcement action by their mortgage providers? Might the Government persuade mortgage providers to extend their overall repayment period in these cases, instead of seeking to enforce the mortgage?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My noble friend will be pleased to know that, to support landlords, mortgage lenders have agreed to offer payment holidays of up to six months, including for buy-to-let mortgages. Although that is available only until July 2021, from 1 April 2021 there have been moves to enable forbearance options tailored to the individual landlord.

Queen’s Speech

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Monday 17th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I refer to my entry in the register of interests. There is much to commend in this Government’s Queen’s Speech. I will comment on the proposals for the planning and building safety Bills.

I welcome the building safety Bill and would ask that, either in this Bill or the planning Bill, it is made compulsory for all new builds or buildings being converted for residential use to have at least two staircases for means of fire escape. Perhaps American-style external fire escapes could be made compulsory for all conversions where there is only one internal staircase.

I also make a plea for a safety regime for all short- term lets, such as those on Airbnb and Booking.com. This is currently an unregulated area. These types of lettings are meant to be for up to 90 days a year only, yet in most cases they are professional businesses operating throughout the year and there does not appear to be any means of regulating standards or safety requirements. As local councils do not know who or where they are, a register would help. They go uninspected and are potentially an accident-in-waiting. Surely all short-term lets should meet minimum safety standards such as fire safety doors, smoke alarms, heat detectors, fire escape lighting and maps. I call upon the Government to include them in the remit of the building safety regulator and the Bill.

I worry, however, about the Government’s proposals to reform the planning process with fast-tracked planning and removing the right of an individual to object to an application. It is just too easy to blame the process when, as the Local Government Association has stated, nine out of 10 planning applications are granted, yet over 1.1 million homes do not get built by developers despite having planning permission. It is not the system’s fault, but the developers, who are so often over- ambitious in cramming too much on to a site or chasing greater profits at the expense of the quality of living accommodation and space. I know of a site in Kensington, where the developer had three live planning permissions, yet was seeking a fourth. In Kensington and Chelsea alone, it was worth just sitting on land as the value increased and the demand for houses did also, creating a suppliers’ market. The Government need to remove such incentives. They also need to ensure that we do not find the new planning process becomes a developers’ charter to build high and without quality, leaving the ruination of our streets and landscapes, littered with poor-quality homes as this Government’s legacy.

Lastly, I know that many of these builds will rely on people using online resources and portals—for example, the planning regime. However, not everyone is online. Many do not have the skills or the kit to navigate the technology needed to join in. We need to ensure that the Government’s agenda does not preclude people from participating. Digital exclusion is a real issue if we move everything online, and often forgotten by those in front of a computer or a smartphone screen when drafting the necessary legislation.

I also support the views expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, about providing for children’s needs.

Leaseholders and Property Management Companies

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 29th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, this is clearly a wide-ranging question that raises all kinds of issues. I will have to write to the noble Baroness on the progress of that matter.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. Given the growth in short-term lets since the changes in legislation in 2015, most of which are beyond the permitted 90 days per year, could the Minister look at whether landlords and management companies can be given the power to charge more to those letting short-term in order to reflect the additional usage of communal areas, given the high turnover of their short-term let properties, which is otherwise unfairly borne by long-term block residents who do not get any of the benefits from the higher rent?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I am not sure that you can charge differentially because of the extent of a letting period. I know managing agents will seek to maximise their percentage within the market structure, but the law means that you have to justify what you charge.

Covid-19: Poverty and Mass Evictions

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 22nd April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I was shocked to read that Citizens Advice had published a report which said that 58% of those who have now fallen behind on their rents were not in arrears before the Covid pandemic. Total arrears in January 2021 were estimated at £360 million. This has a knock-on effect on landlords, with 60% of them saying that they have lost income. Many are reliant on that rent as their only income. I declare my interests as set out in the register.

I have repeatedly welcomed the ban on evictions as introduced by this Government because it is of critical importance during such uncharted times that people retain their homes, as that gives them stability and confidence when they face such uncertainty. In the latest renewal of the protection from eviction regulations, I queried with the Minister whether 31 May 2021 was too early. I appreciate that there needs to be a balance for the landlords who are carrying the burden of non-payment of rent because they are not bankers and, in many cases, are suffering hardship themselves through non-payment of rent. However, I doubt that mass evictions will help either tenants or landlords.

Logic tells me that there needs to be further help or the courts will be bombarded with eviction hearings, while local authorities will find that they are forced to help rehome people who have lost their homes. In effect, the problem is merely being shifted to local councils, which will often be forced to used unsuitable temporary accommodation. Can the Minister outline what range of measures the Government are looking to introduce that will help meet the arrears, even if only in part, avoid the rush to the courts for evictions and help local authorities not to be swamped with homelessness cases? Without those measures, it is a bleak picture ahead for those in arrears.

There is emotional turmoil for tenants in losing their homes. The stresses and strains from being in rent arrears pale into insignificance when compared to the emotional breakdown of being evicted. To be able to seek local authority help, a tenant has to go through all the heart-wrenching court proceedings of being evicted in order to produce a court order to prove that they have been made homeless.

I know that myriad suggestions have been made—from loans to help meet arrears, to hardship grants by local authorities. While not ideal, perhaps there should be some form of wiping the slate clean arrangement, whereby landlords are provided with some compensation for rent arrears while keeping the tenant in place, thus avoiding mass evictions, with housing benefit to cover. I should add that the local housing allowance needs to be retained at the 30th percentile or increased.

I commend the noble Lord, Lord Bird, for bringing this debate to the Committee as I know that he has done much to help the long-term homeless and speaks from the heart in seeking to avoid yet more homelessness. His contribution to this House and on the street, particularly with the Big Issue magazine, has been enormous.

Housing Strategy

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Wednesday 24th March 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, as a member of the Greater London Council, I had comprehensive involvement in housing. The newly built Harold Hill estate in Havering was one of my responsibilities. We had regular meetings with the residents. I was shocked by information from a bride-to-be that she had set out her wedding dress on the large bed only to find that it was beyond use as green sludge had fallen from the ceiling and straight on to it. Investigation revealed that the fault was a lack of ventilation and the turning off of the heating system when the residents when off to work. Every flat in the whole development had to have ventilation introduced.

We all know the importance of housing to our physical and mental well-being, and that this pandemic has put even more strain on people and housing alike. To build more housing or to make more of it available, we need both funds and land. It is the latter aspect that I want to talk about. In her more recent days as a local councillor in London, my daughter talked about her frustration with a number of large development sites in her ward that had already secured planning permission but were coming back for yet another application, and then another. She had at least two large sites with three or four live planning permissions, yet still the applicant did not build. Every time, they returned to the council seeking more and more on the land for commercial gain, constantly pushing the boundaries, yet the growth in affordable housing was minimal by comparison.

I know that the Local Government Association has estimated that more than one million homes have been given planning permission but have not yet been built, with nine in 10 planning applications approved by councils. In addition, it estimates that a further million homes have been earmarked for councils for development but have not brought forward for planning. This Government should be looking at sites with live planning permission and at measures to encourage building on these sites—dare I say it, perhaps even considering punitive steps for those who do not build on large sites where they already have current planning permission, such as not being allowed to apply for another planning application for the site for five years. This would have the advantage of crystallising the applicant’s mind on what they wish to apply for in the first instance and of using their and council officers’ time and resources wisely. For every developer who returns for a new planning application, precious time and resources that could be used elsewhere are spent. It really clogs up the system. The Government need to look at how to get developers to actually build and must not take the planning process away from local councils, which already pass planning applications and know what works best for their area.

I also add my voice to the argument that building high is not the answer people want, even here in London. The pandemic has illustrated this further. People want a home—not a flat in some 20-storey tower—where they have proper space, indoors and outdoors, and can get to know their neighbours and be part of a community; nor do they want to be part of Airbnb, which has taken away many London homes.

Non-Domestic Rating (Designated Area) Regulations 2021

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Wednesday 24th February 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I know that the scheme is welcomed by many local authorities as a way of getting money back into their areas by means of development and reinvesting locally. It is very much to be commended for that.

I inquired of staff in the House of Lords Library how many designated areas had been granted and for how long, and I thank them greatly for their excellent assistance in this. It was fascinating to see the range of places covered, the sums involved and the length of time granted. However, it gave me pause to ask about two aspects.

First, how does the Minister determine how long an area is designated for? I see that Birmingham city centre, which was designated in April 2013, was given 33 years, whereas Mersey Waters in Liverpool was designated for only 25 years, and the London zones of Croydon and Brent Cross for only 16 years and 12 years respectively. Can the Minister explain why some are granted such short periods and others so much longer, or does that reflect the period applied for by the local authorities?

My second question relates to how many applications are refused. As with any such applications, a great deal of work will go into preparing these and, over the years, I have known of too many cases in which the Government of the time encourage applications and then refuse to approve any, or many. I hope that this is not the case here. When a previous inquiry of this type was sought in 2011, the then Minister in another place would not disclose the number of unsuccessful applicants. I hope that the number of applicants is high and the percentage of refusals low. In either case, it must be clear in advance what is required and why an application is to be refused. Like other Members of this House, I too recall the effectiveness of the work of the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, in Liverpool. We have something to build on in so many places in this country, and we should be doing it.