Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will commit to introducing the Renters' Reform Bill to Parliament in 2022.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government remains committed to building back fairer and delivering a better deal for renters. We will publish a White Paper this spring that will set out a package of reforms to create a fairer private rented sector.
We are undertaking robust and structured engagement with stakeholders to inform our plans, while also learning from the pandemic’s impact on the sector. We will provide more detail around when we will bring forward legislation in due course.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which groups representing private renters has he had discussions with ahead of the publication of the White Paper on renter reform in spring 2022.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We have undertaken extensive and wide-ranging engagement with tenants and landlords, delivery partners such as local authorities as well as key stakeholders in the sector. We know that understanding tenants’ experiences of the private rented sector is vital to making sure reforms work in the long term. We have engaged with a number of groups representing private tenants including Shelter, Generation Rent, Justice for Tenants, Citizens Advice, St Mungo’s, and Crisis.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of current building regulations on the height at which buildings require more than one fire escape.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In April 2020, the Government published the workplan for the technical review of the statutory guidance to the Building Regulations with regards to fire safety (Approved Document B). This technical review includes research on the means of escape in blocks of flats. It will consider what escape route provisions are necessary to ensure residents are safe in the event of a fire and will provide a robust evidence base for us to make any policy decisions.
Details of the technical review are set out here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877365/Technical_review_of_Approved_Document_B_workplan.pdf.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if the Regulator of Social Housing will introduce specific standards for dealing with complaints of racism in social housing.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All people living in social housing must be treated with fairness and respect, and their complaints – including those of racism - must be handled effectively by registered providers.
The Regulator of Social Housing has four consumer standards governing landlord services, which landlords are required to meet. The Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard requires providers to treat all tenants with fairness and respect, have an approach to complaints that is clear, simple and accessible, and ensure that complaints are resolved promptly, politely and fairly.
Following the commitments made in the Charter for Social Housing Residents, we are working with the Regulator of Social Housing to create a strong, proactive consumer regulatory regime. We will give the Regulator the powers to proactively monitor and drive compliance with the consumer standards, with new tenant satisfaction measures on issues including complaints handling. The Regulator will also revise the standards to ensure they are fit for purpose.
We will introduce legislation as soon as is practicable to bring forward the new consumer regime.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of incidence of property managers taking commission for high building insurance costs which are then passed onto leaseholders.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is committed to ensuring that those living in the leasehold sector are protected from abuse and poor service. We believe very strongly that service charges should be transparent and communicated effectively, and that there should be a clear route to challenge or redress if things go wrong. The law is clear that service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. Leaseholders may make an application to the First-tier Tribunal to make a determination on the reasonableness of their service charges or fees.
We established an independent working group chaired by Lord Best that considered how the service charge regime could be improved to increase transparency for leaseholders. The working group published its final report to Government (see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulation-of-property-agents-working-group-report) and we are considering the report's recommendations.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with (a) property managers and (b) their professional bodies on mitigating high insurance costs for leaseholders.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department has continued to engage with the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) on the increasing insurance costs facing leaseholders. We believe that buildings insurance issues require leadership directly from insurers and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and have engaged them in seeking evidence and solutions that could enable customers to find affordable premiums, for reasonable coverage.
In the Secretary of State's oral statement to parliament on the 10 January, he has asked Lord Greenhalgh to press the sector further on the increasing insurance costs facing leaseholders.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of building owners using permitted development rights to build additional stories on buildings deemed in need of remediation following an EWS1 report.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Under the permitted development rights to extend detached blocks of flats or detached buildings in commercial or mixed use upwards to create new homes developers must obtain the prior approval of the local planning authority on certain matters. This includes a requirement, in relation to an existing building which is 18 metres or more in height, that a report from a chartered engineer or other competent professional is provided confirming that the external wall construction of the existing building complies with the paragraph B4(1) of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/2214). Where a report is not provided the local planning authority must refuse prior approval and the development cannot proceed.
Where additional storeys and homes are added to a building some aspects of the building as a whole may also be required to be upgraded under Building Regulations, including in respect of fire safety. These provisions are described in detail by a circular which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/924449/Building_regs_circular_032020.pdf.