Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how leaseholders wishing to hold a 'right to manage' ballot can acquire the data to communicate with the other leaseholders prior to the ballot being held.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Right to Manage is a statutory process requiring all qualifying non-participating leaseholders to be invited to become a member of the Right to Manage company using a prescribed “notice inviting participation”. The company serves these notices on the leaseholders with no input from the freeholder.
Leaseholders wishing to take forward a claim will need to obtain the title documents for their building from His Majesty’s Land Registry to determine if they qualify and to provide the required details of their leases in the claim notice. The title documents will contain the names and addresses of the owners of the other flats in the building.
In order to qualify for the Right to Manage, no ballot is held, leaseholders who have setup a Right to Manage company invite other leaseholders to participate and the claim can go forward if the qualifying criteria is met. The criteria is as follows: two-thirds of the flats in the building must be held on long residential leases and leaseholders representing not less than 50% of the total number of flats in the building must participate in the claim.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that homeless families are not relocated to temporary accommodation in other parts of England which results in them having to change schools.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to Question UIN 197285 on 11 September 2023
If a local authority places a household into accommodation in another local area, they are required by law to notify the local authority of any placement, to ensure there is no disruption to schooling or employment.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the impact of temporary housing on the development of young children.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to Question UIN 197285 on 11 September 2023
If a local authority places a household into accommodation in another local area, they are required by law to notify the local authority of any placement, to ensure there is no disruption to schooling or employment.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of social houses that need to be built each year to end temporary accommodation for families and to clear the backlog of local authority housing waiting lists.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
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 Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of local authority private sector licensing schemes.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
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 Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of any benefits gained from children's housing situations being tracked on the healthcare system to the adequacy of their healthcare.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of any benefits gained from increasing the number of community land trusts on the current shortages of housing.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
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 Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decline of microbiome on the planet.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No assessment has been made regarding any decline of soil microbiomes in England.
On 31st January 2023 the Government published its second statutory Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23), as committed to in the Environment Act. The EIP23 builds on the Government’s commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it. It is delivery focused and sets out the actions that will drive us towards reaching our long-term environmental targets and goals, including improving and protecting soil health.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for ammonia powered plants, vehicles and ships being used in the UK and in UK waters.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is aware of the potential for ammonia-fired electricity generation and is keeping the technology under review.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the supply of water and measures taken to conserve it.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Despite the dry summer of 2022, water companies in England have assured us that essential water supplies remain resilient across the country. It is their duty to maintain those supplies. Defra Ministers expect water company action in accordance with their pre-agreed drought plans.
Defra recently published its Plan for Water which sets out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. The National Framework for Water Resources, published in March 2020, sets out the strategic water needs for England to 2050 and beyond. The Government is requiring water companies to plan to deliver resilience to a one in 500-year drought, that is not needing to resort to emergency measures, such as standpipes and rota cuts.
Regional water resources groups and water companies are now consulting on their new Water Resources Plans. These plans will set out how each company will meet water supply needs over at least a 25-year period. In addition to their Water Resources Management Plans, water companies are using the £469 million made available by Ofwat in the current Price Review period (2019-24) to progress the infrastructure required.