Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits to the economy of the private rental sector.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
We have not made an assessment to quantify the contribution of the private rented sector (PRS) to the economy. We recognise that the PRS plays an important role on providing homes to over 4 million households in England. The Government is committed to delivering a package of reforms to ensure the PRS can operate effectively and meet the needs of both tenants and landlords.
The PRS supports labour market mobility, allowing households to move easily both within and between regions, leading to a more efficient allocation of labour and skills. This is due to the relative ease with which renters can give notice and sign new tenancies, and the relative lower costs of moving, when compared to owner-occupier house sales. A key part of our future PRS reforms is to ensure the flexibility of private rental tenancies is retained, whilst balancing increased security for those tenants who need and want it, alongside driving an improvement in the quality and standards of PRS accommodation.
In addition, the Build to Rent sector continues to attract investment with analysis by Savills estimating that approximately £1.2 billion was invested into the UK’s Build to Rent sector during the first quarter of 2021.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their press release Support for renters continues with longer notice periods, published on 12 May, on what grounds they have concluded that many landlords are “highly vulnerable to rent arrears”.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The UK Government has put in place an unprecedented package of support for renters during the pandemic, including financial measures to enable them to continue paying rent to landlords.
However, we know that 45% of landlords have just one rental property and 38% have between two to four properties. For most landlords, income from rent makes up 42% of their total gross income making them highly vulnerable when their tenants build up rent arrears.
The Government has to balance supporting tenants with landlords' ability to exercise their right to justice where needed. As national restrictions continue to ease, it is appropriate that the emergency measures start to lift but we are doing so gradually.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people declaring an income from letting property pay the (1) additional, (2) higher, and (3) standard, rates of income tax for the most recent period for which the data is available.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In 2019/20, the numbers of individuals declaring income via Self-Assessment from letting property and falling into each of the (1) additional, (2) higher, and (3) standard income tax bands that the question refers to, rounded to the nearest thousand, are:
Marginal tax rate | Number of individuals |
Additional higher rate (45%) | 106,000 |
Higher rate (40%) | 560,000 |
Basic rate (20%) | 1,519,000 |
It should also be noted that:
- Taxpayers in Scotland will not pay the tax rates referred to in the question as they are subject to a separate income tax regime, and are therefore excluded from the figures above.
- Not all individuals with property income are required to declare it. For example, those with income below the £1,000 property allowance are not required to tell HMRC.
- Some individuals with property income between £1,000 to £2,500 will declare this via PAYE rather than Self-Assessment. These individuals are not included here.
- Some individuals will not fall into any of the tax bands referred to in the question as their income will be within their personal allowance.
During the pandemic, the Government has put in place a substantial financial package, backed up by billions of pounds, which is supporting renters to sustain tenancies and to afford their housing costs. The Government is supporting landlords by providing tenants with extensive financial assistance to continue paying rent. The Government will also be bringing in a Better Deal for Renters designed to help the rental market work better for both tenants and landlords; a White Paper detailing this reform package will be brought forward in due course.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether buy-to-let mortgage holidays constitute a deferred payment which has to be repaid to lenders.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Mortgage holidays have provided support for borrowers to manage their finances during a period of uncertainty. Borrowers accessing payment holidays, including buy-to-let mortgage consumers, will still need to repay the full balance of their loan, and will continue to accrue interest during the payment holiday, unless the lender has indicated otherwise. There are various options for managing this, for example, by increasing their remaining monthly payments, or by adding an extension to the term. Borrowers should talk to their lender to understand the options they offer.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will update the Impact Assessment conducted by DEFRA in 2018 now that more is known about the Agriculture Transition Plan and Environmental Land Management Schemes.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government published two evidence and analysis papers to support the introduction of the Agriculture Bill in the last Parliament. These outlined, in detail, the case for creating a new Environmental Land Management scheme, the rationale for moving away from Direct Payments and provided evidence on the high-level costs and benefits of Government intervention in agriculture. They remain comprehensive sources of public information.
Defra has undertaken further work since then to assess the impacts of both regulatory and spending proposals.
Prior to the Agriculture Act becoming law in November 2020, a supporting Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) was published. This sets out, at a descriptive level, the anticipated impacts of the regulatory provisions within the Act.
Defra will produce more detailed full RIAs and submit to the Regulatory Policy Committee for independent scrutiny in advance of introducing any secondary legislation for all measures within the Act that are above the threshold specified in Better Regulation Framework guidance.
Defra is currently using the most recent data and evidence available to analyse and assess the impacts of its policy proposals as part of the process of it developing a Programme Business Case for its spending proposals. A summary business case will be published within four months of it receiving final approval, in line with the commitments set out in the recent HMT Green Book review.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual tenants, rather than households, are represented by the finding in the Household Resilience Study: Wave 2, published on 21 April, that 22 per cent of private renters reported finding it more difficult to keep up with rent payments since June–July 2020.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Household Resilience Study collects data by household, rather than by individual. In November-December 2020, 610,000 households reported that they were finding it more difficult to keep up with their rent payments since June-July 2020. 353,000 households reported that they were in rent arrears and 278,000 households reported that they were not currently in arrears but were very or fairly likely to fall behind with rent payments over the next three months.
Further information about the Household Resilience Study is available (attached) at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/household-resilience-study-wave-2.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual tenants, rather than households, are represented by the finding in the Household Resilience Study: Wave 2, published on 21 April, that eight per cent of private renters said they were very or fairly likely to fall behind with rent payments over the next three months.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Household Resilience Study collects data by household, rather than by individual. In November-December 2020, 610,000 households reported that they were finding it more difficult to keep up with their rent payments since June-July 2020. 353,000 households reported that they were in rent arrears and 278,000 households reported that they were not currently in arrears but were very or fairly likely to fall behind with rent payments over the next three months.
Further information about the Household Resilience Study is available (attached) at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/household-resilience-study-wave-2.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual tenants, rather than households, are represented by the finding in the Household Resilience Study: Wave 2, published on 21 April, that nine per cent of private renters were in arrears in November–December 2020.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Household Resilience Study collects data by household, rather than by individual. In November-December 2020, 610,000 households reported that they were finding it more difficult to keep up with their rent payments since June-July 2020. 353,000 households reported that they were in rent arrears and 278,000 households reported that they were not currently in arrears but were very or fairly likely to fall behind with rent payments over the next three months.
Further information about the Household Resilience Study is available (attached) at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/household-resilience-study-wave-2.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the replacement of field drains will qualify for support under the new Environmental Land Management schemes.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
We are working with stakeholders and end users to determine the specific land management actions that will be paid for under the Environmental Land Management scheme. We will set out more details on this later this year. ‘The Path to Sustainable Farming: An Agricultural Transition Plan 2021 to 2024’ set out examples of the types of actions that we envisage paying for under the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Carrington (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow dairy farmers affected by the collapse of the service trade during the COVID-19 pandemic to access the Retail Grant Hospitality Scheme or apply for bounce back loans in response to such farmers reported difficulty in accessing the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has announced a package of measures designed to support businesses facing difficulties in this period of uncertainty, including the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF), and the Bounce Back Loans Scheme.
Businesses in England that would have been in receipt of the Expanded Retail Discount (which covers retail, hospitality and leisure) on 11 March with a rateable value of less than £51,000 will be eligible for the following cash grants per property via the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund:
Guidance on the types of businesses covered by the Expanded Retail Discount can be found on the GOV.UK website.
Any enquiries on eligibility for, or provision of the RHLGF should be directed to the relevant local authority.