Asked by: Baroness Janke (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of unpredictable housing transaction timelines on removals and storage businesses and the ability of those businesses to meet demand.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The home buying and selling process in England is cumbersome , taking an average of nearly five months to complete and a third of transactions fall through – this is holding up the property market.
We believe an improved home buying and selling system that is more efficient has the potential to help people move into their homes more quickly and plan their moves with more certainty. This will benefit the storage and removals sector by enabling more predictable moving timelines, helping businesses anticipate demand more effectively.
On 9 February we announced action to improve home buying and selling by digitalising the process. In collaboration with HM Land Registry, we are working with local authorities to digitise property data, introduce common data standards, and enable digital identity services for the property sector. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-land-registry-local-land-charges-programme/local-land-charges-programme.
Asked by: Baroness Janke (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) Islamophobic, and (2) anti-Palestinian, rhetoric in the UK as part of expressions of support for Israel.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government maintains a dialogue with communities, stakeholders and key victim reporting and support centres such as Tell MAMA and the Community Security Trust during periods of heightened community tension. Our assessment of anti-Muslim and antisemitic hate crime in relation to recent events in the Middle East has been based on information regarding hate crime statistics, hate incidents and online sentiment released publicly by Tell MAMA and the Community Security Trust.
Asked by: Baroness Janke (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what process they followed in making appointments to the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Secretary of State is responsible for appointing members to the local government pension scheme’s advisory board. No more than 12 members in total may be appointed, divided equally between members representing scheme members and scheme employers in England and Wales.
The list of appointments made by the Secretary of State is shown below. The appointments were made on the basis of nominations submitted by the Local Government Association on behalf of local authority employers and the three major local government trade unions. The 12 appointments shown below replaced the members of a shadow scheme advisory board established in July 2013.
Local authority employer representatives
Councillor Roger Phillips (Herefordshire County Council representing non-local authority employers)
Emelda Nicholroy (Universities and Colleges Employers Association representing education employers).
Councillor Michael Adams (London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham representing London councils).
Councillor Keiran Quinn (Greater Manchester Pension Fund representing Metropolitan authorities)
Councillor Denise Le Gal (Surrey County Council representing English local authorities)
Councillor Mary Barnett (Torfaen Pension Fund representing Welsh local authorities)
Scheme member representatives
Jon Richards - UNISON
Chris Tansley – UNISON
Brian Strutton - GMB
Gary Warwick - GMB
Fiona Farmer - UNITE
Dick Banks - UNITE