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Written Question
Rented Housing: Guarantees
Friday 9th June 2023

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the provision of rent guarantors, particularly for vulnerable individuals who may require such support to secure accommodation.

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

We strongly encourage landlords and letting agents to assess the suitability of potential and existing tenants on an individual basis. However, to ensure a sustainable tenancy for both parties, landlords and letting agents are free to impose a requirement for a guarantor on a tenancy.

We recognise that securing a guarantor can be difficult for some tenants. In these cases, local councils may offer guarantee schemes to help people on low incomes or at risk of homelessness. Further advice is available from local authority housing teams, Shelter and other specialist advisers.

Some universities and colleges operate a rent guarantor scheme. Typically, if the university or college accepts an application to join their scheme, it acts as the guarantor to help the student become a private renter.

In February, the government published our ambitious and wide-ranging children’s social care implementation strategy, which includes the commitment to promote rent guarantor schemes for care leavers. We encourage local authorities to use the freedoms they already have, that is why we are investing in excess of £1 billion into the Homelessness Prevention Grant from 2022-25.


Written Question
Rented Housing: Guarantees
Friday 9th June 2023

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (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 rent guarantor schemes are (1) widely available, and (2) accessible, for care experienced and estranged students enrolled at universities.

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

We strongly encourage landlords and letting agents to assess the suitability of potential and existing tenants on an individual basis. However, to ensure a sustainable tenancy for both parties, landlords and letting agents are free to impose a requirement for a guarantor on a tenancy.

We recognise that securing a guarantor can be difficult for some tenants. In these cases, local councils may offer guarantee schemes to help people on low incomes or at risk of homelessness. Further advice is available from local authority housing teams, Shelter and other specialist advisers.

Some universities and colleges operate a rent guarantor scheme. Typically, if the university or college accepts an application to join their scheme, it acts as the guarantor to help the student become a private renter.

In February, the government published our ambitious and wide-ranging children’s social care implementation strategy, which includes the commitment to promote rent guarantor schemes for care leavers. We encourage local authorities to use the freedoms they already have, that is why we are investing in excess of £1 billion into the Homelessness Prevention Grant from 2022-25.


Written Question
Local Government Boundary Commission for England
Tuesday 3rd August 2021

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many functional economic areas there are in England; and what plans they have to match them with local authority administrative boundaries.

Answered by Lord Greenhalgh

HM Government does not recognise a set number of functional economic areas. As such, there are no plans to match them with local authority administrative boundaries.


Written Question
Leisure: Coronavirus
Thursday 11th February 2021

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to support district councils (1) to provide, and (2) to protect, leisure services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Answered by Lord Greenhalgh

The funding available to support local authorities with leisure provision depends on whether they receive revenue or subsidise their provision and whether they provide it in-house or externally. Leisure facilities may also be eligible for wider government support for businesses. The amount any council receives will depend on their individual circumstances.

If an authority has budgeted to receive income from its leisure centres (whether in-house or externalised) and has irrecoverable transactional income losses which were budgeted for in 2020-21, they may claim support for these losses through the Sales, Fees and Charges Income Compensation Scheme (which refunds 75% of eligible income loss beyond a 5% threshold). The scheme was recently extended into the first three months of 2021-22.

If an authority subsidises its leisure provision (whether in-house or externalised), they may wish to use part of their allocation of the £4.6 billion of unringfenced funding MHCLG has provided to support councils to meet additional costs as a result of the pandemic to offset these costs, of which Shire District Councils have received £318 million in 2020/2021. Recognising the impacts of COVID-19 on local authorities will continue beyond this financial year, the Department announced £1.55 billion of support for additional costs at the 2020 Spending Review, of which Shire District Councils have been allocated over £102 million. Allocations for this £1.55 billion of support were published on 17 December 2020 and payments are planned to be made in April 2021.

If an external provider delivers leisure services, they may have been eligible for Sport England’s National Leisure Recovery Fund (NLRF) to support operators during the current national restrictions, support the reopening and recovery of the public leisure sector and prevent further closures of outsourced leisure trusts and operators. Applications to the fund have now closed and the results will be known by late February.


Written Question
Electric Cables: Fire Prevention
Monday 9th July 2018

Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that cable standards are strengthened to improve their ability to react to fire, in order to improve public safety in buildings.

Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

The independent review of building regulations and fire safety, which recently reported, made a number of recommendations about the testing and labelling of products with safety implications. The Government is considering its response to the recommendations. As part of that process, the Government will review evidence related to the classification of electrical cabling.