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Written Question
Homelessness
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total cost of eradicating homelessness in England.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government has made the unprecedented commitment to end rough sleeping and to fully enforce the Homelessness Reduction Act. In September 2022, we published our cross-government strategy ‘Ending Rough Sleeping for Good’, and we are investing almost £2.4 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping between 2022 and 2025.

We are also taking action to prevent people from becoming homeless or rough sleeping in the first place. We are investing over £1.2 billion in the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years, including a £109 million top-up for 2024/25, giving councils the funding they need to prevent homelessness and help more people sooner.


Written Question
Property Development: Energy
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the incentives required to encourage housing developers to join a voluntary energy-use monitoring scheme.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We are committed to ensuring that good quality homes are built which meet the energy efficiency standards they were designed to. That is why, as part of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation, we are consulting on introducing a post-occupancy fabric performance testing scheme for new homes.

We are proposing that developers opt-in to performance testing a proportion of their new homes. This would enable us to gather better data on how significantly new homes are underperforming.

We envisage that many developers will opt-in to the performance testing scheme and have been encouraged by work some developers are already doing to monitor and improve the actual performance of their homes.


Written Question
Housing: Energy
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce mandatory energy performance testing for new homes.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We are committed to ensuring that good quality homes are built which meet the energy efficiency standards they were designed to. That is why, as part of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation, we are consulting on introducing a post-occupancy fabric performance testing scheme for new homes.

We are proposing that developers opt-in to performance testing a proportion of their new homes. This would enable us to gather better data on how significantly new homes are underperforming.

We envisage that many developers will opt-in to the performance testing scheme and have been encouraged by work some developers are already doing to monitor and improve the actual performance of their homes.


Written Question
Buildings: Insurance
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to stop managing agents charging leaseholders excessive commission charges for renewing buildings insurance.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill seeks to ban the placer of insurance on residential leasehold properties from receiving any form of commission that is passed on to leaseholders as a cost. Instead, costs relating to the placement and management of buildings insurance will be issued through a transparent handling fee, proportionate to the value of the work done. The detail will be set out in affirmative secondary legislation.

Transparency reforms within the Bill will require the placer of insurance to disclose information about their decision-making process when purchasing buildings insurance on behalf of leaseholders. These measures will support responsible, transparent, and accountable sourcing of buildings insurance for leaseholders of multi-occupancy buildings.


Written Question
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to set the deferment rate in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill to 5 per cent or greater.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

Our reforms will make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.

The rates used in enfranchisement valuation calculations will be prescribed by the Secretary of State and the Government is giving further consideration to how these rates should be reached.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill is A1P1 ECHR compliant as introduced on 27 November 2023.

We are going to launch an online calculator which will help leaseholders understand how much it will cost to extend their lease or purchase their freehold upfront.


Written Question
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce an online calculator for the cost of lease extensions under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

Our reforms will make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.

The rates used in enfranchisement valuation calculations will be prescribed by the Secretary of State and the Government is giving further consideration to how these rates should be reached.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill is A1P1 ECHR compliant as introduced on 27 November 2023.

We are going to launch an online calculator which will help leaseholders understand how much it will cost to extend their lease or purchase their freehold upfront.


Written Question
Leasehold: Reform
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether leasehold reform breaches the human rights of freeholders as property owners.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

Our reforms will make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.

The rates used in enfranchisement valuation calculations will be prescribed by the Secretary of State and the Government is giving further consideration to how these rates should be reached.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill is A1P1 ECHR compliant as introduced on 27 November 2023.

We are going to launch an online calculator which will help leaseholders understand how much it will cost to extend their lease or purchase their freehold upfront.


Written Question
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will specify (1) the deferment rate, and (2) the rate for discounting future ground rent schemes, in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

Our reforms will make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.

The rates used in enfranchisement valuation calculations will be prescribed by the Secretary of State and the Government is giving further consideration to how these rates should be reached.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill is A1P1 ECHR compliant as introduced on 27 November 2023.

We are going to launch an online calculator which will help leaseholders understand how much it will cost to extend their lease or purchase their freehold upfront.


Written Question
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill on the cost and speed of extending leaseholds.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

Our reforms will make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. An Impact Assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill has been carried out and published on the Parliament website at: Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.

The rates used in enfranchisement valuation calculations will be prescribed by the Secretary of State and the Government is giving further consideration to how these rates should be reached.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill is A1P1 ECHR compliant as introduced on 27 November 2023.

We are going to launch an online calculator which will help leaseholders understand how much it will cost to extend their lease or purchase their freehold upfront.


Written Question
Rented Housing: Flats
Monday 31st July 2023

Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 20 July (HL9153), whether legislation in the Renters (Reform) Bill will override leases in apartment blocks which ban short lets.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

I refer the noble Lord to the previous answer given on this matter HL9153 on 20 July 2023.