Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide low-interest long term loans to non-qualifying buy-to-lent landlords with more than two leasehold properties who are unable to afford fire safety remedial costs.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
We are clear that leaseholders are no longer the first port of call to pay to fix building safety defects, we have taken action to support all leaseholders. The Building Safety Act will require that historical safety defects in any building above 11 metres or five storeys owned by the developer who built or refurbished it, or by a landlord associated with that developer, must be fixed by them. And over 45 developers have signed up to our developer pledge to fix their own buildings. This will benefit all leaseholders in the building.
In addition, leaseholders, including those with more than three properties may also benefit from government grant funding for the removal of unsafe cladding.
Where more than three properties are owned, the principal home always qualifies for the leaseholder protections, capping liability for building safety remediation costs on this property. We have also made changes to enable compensation to be sought through the civil courts for historic building safety defects from those responsible. We are, therefore, not planning to provide low-interest long term loans to non-qualifying buy-to-lent landlords.
The risk of bankruptcy is subject to personal circumstances and usually as a result of a myriad of factors. The action that the government has taken in legislation is to reduce this risk for the majority of people, regardless of their circumstances, when previously they would have faced exorbitant bills. We would hope that following the action we have taken no leaseholder, regardless of how many properties they own, will now face the risk of bankruptcy. We understand that those with multiple properties are better insulated from this risk.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to update their plans to support the economic recovery of towns and villages in rural and coastal areas; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what incentives they are introducing to encourage private landlords to offer short-term rental accommodation to Afghan refugees looking for employment.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made as to whether 3D printing represents the future of sustainable and affordable house building.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
DLUHC shares the cross-Whitehall objective of increasing the use of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). MMC provides an important opportunity to improve the quality of new homes, deliver more energy efficient homes, reduce construction waste, improve productivity and address the shortage in construction skills.
Between 2018 and 2020, the Department convened an MMC Working Group, chaired by industry expert Mark Farmer. The group developed an MMC framework, which defined 7 categories of MMC. Category 4 MMC includes "additive manufacturing," the industrial production name for 3D printing, a computer controlled process that creates three dimensional objects by depositing materials, usually in layers.
We recognise the potential benefits of all types of MMC. Different types of MMC will better support different objectives. Our strategy is to encourage uptake of MMC across the board, ranging from traditional building site productivity improvements to the smaller offsite manufacturers all the way to the high-tech end of the market. In the Affordable Housing Programme (2021-26) we set a target that at least 25% of units delivered through Strategic Partnerships will use MMC.
Our commitment to supporting modern methods of construction has been reconfirmed at the latest spending review, with further funding to be made available to support innovation in the housebuilding sector.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to alleviate homelessness among EU nationals living in England.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Local housing authorities report their homelessness activities under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 to the Department by completing the quarterly Homelessness Case Level Collection (H-CLIC) statistical return. H-CLIC is an upload of all cases about statutory homelessness and the authority's activities within the legislative framework.
Figures from the latest H-CLIC data show that in England between March 2020 and April 2021, 15,140 EEA nationals were owed a homelessness prevention or relief duty. This is an 11% decrease from 2019/20.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of EU nationals living in England who have become homeless since the UK formally withdrew from the EU.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Local housing authorities report their homelessness activities under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 to the Department by completing the quarterly Homelessness Case Level Collection (H-CLIC) statistical return. H-CLIC is an upload of all cases about statutory homelessness and the authority's activities within the legislative framework.
Figures from the latest H-CLIC data show that in England between March 2020 and April 2021, 15,140 EEA nationals were owed a homelessness prevention or relief duty. This is an 11% decrease from 2019/20.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have undertaken rural proofing of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund; and, if so, whether they plan to publish the findings of this.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), worth over £2.6 billion, will help people access opportunity in places in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people in disadvantaged groups across the UK. The funding announced at Spending Review 2021 meets the government's previous commitment to at least match receipts from EU structural funds. Further details about the UKSPF will be set out in due course.
Funding equivalent to European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), including Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale (LEADER) and Growth, has been provided as part of the domestic farm settlement that replaces UK participation in the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The farm settlement is being delivered by Defra in England, and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the UK Shared Prosperity Fund has (1) retained ring fenced funding for rural areas, and (2) matched previous EU funding before 2024–25; and, in each case, if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), worth over £2.6 billion, will help people access opportunity in places in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people in disadvantaged groups across the UK. The funding announced at Spending Review 2021 meets the government's previous commitment to at least match receipts from EU structural funds. Further details about the UKSPF will be set out in due course.
Funding equivalent to European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), including Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale (LEADER) and Growth, has been provided as part of the domestic farm settlement that replaces UK participation in the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The farm settlement is being delivered by Defra in England, and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow local planning authorities in rural communities to (1) set the threshold for affordable housing, and (2) decide the tenure for affordable housing.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Government believes that meeting the housing needs of rural communities is important. We’re increasing the supply of affordable housing and investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, should economic conditions allow.
Since April 2010, over 190,000 affordable homes have been provided in rural local authorities in England. And between April 2015 and March 2020, 11% of new build additional Affordable Homes have been delivered in villages with a population of fewer than 3000, and we recognise the importance of these settlements for both economic and housing growth.
The Government has given councils a comprehensive range of tools to deliver a new generation of council housing and have a key role in the delivery of affordable housing:
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what considerations they have given to replicating the Pool Re insurance model to help resolve the insurance premium increases faced by leaseholders in developments with building and fire safety defects.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is aware that some leaseholders are facing high buildings insurance premiums as a result of fire safety issues. We are continuing to closely monitor the market and are working with the insurance industry to encourage market-led solutions.
With regard to Pool Re, we would not typically recommend drawing parallels with existing Government-backed insurance schemes given the specific design of any intervention is dependent on the size, frequency and nature of the risk being insured.