Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to take action to ensure that short-term holiday letting agents conduct checks on the rights of tenants to sub-let their properties.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Whether a property is sublet in a manner which is contrary to the terms of a lease is a matter to be resolved between the leaseholder and the freeholder. Where there are disputes, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) can adjudicate.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
Her Majesty's Government what proposals they have to protect long-term residents from the adverse impacts of unlawful short-term holiday lets in neighbouring properties.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government supports the sharing economy, and welcomes Airbnb’s recent decision to amend its systems so that entire home listings in London are not available for more than 90 nights in any given year without appropriate planning permission. The Government also welcomes the formation of the UK Short Term Accommodation Association and its work to develop an industry code of conduct.
Changes in section 44 of the Deregulation Act in no way weaken existing protection for residents against statutory nuisances and anti-social behaviour.
Where short term lets breach the rules, responsibility for enforcement lies with the local authority, as it does for any breaches of planning control, and householders who breach the rules face significant fines.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 2 March (HL Deb, col 941) that London boroughs can already apply to the Secretary of State for consent to restrict short-term letting in a particular area where necessary, how many such applications from London boroughs have been received, and how many have been granted.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
One application has been received. The application was not granted.
The London Borough which submitted the application was invited to re-submit the application with a more targeted approach to identify the problem properties from which it considered the right to short-term let should be suspended.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the demand for, and demographic pressures on, adult social care local authority budgets in order to inform national and local budget planning and further assess the dependencies between health and social care.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Adult social care provides a vital service to millions of people across the country. It is for local authorities to choose how much to spend on social care to meet their duties. We recognise there are pressures on these services, and the Spending Review 2015 as a whole paid particular attention to adult social care services. As a result the 2015 Spending Review provided a package of almost £3.5 billion of support for adult social care by 2019-20.
Following representations from local authorities and care providers that funding is needed sooner, the Provisional Local Government settlement included further measures to tackle these pressures, increasing the potential total funding available for social care during this Parliament.
The Government announced on 15 December that savings from reforms to the New Homes Bonus will be retained in full by local government to contribute towards adult social care, through a new dedicated £240 million Adult Social Care Support Grant in 2017 to 2018, distributed according to relative need. In recognition of the immediate challenges faced in the care market, Councils will be also be granted flexibility to raise the social care precept on council tax by up to 3 per cent next year and the year after, but by no more than 6 per cent over the three years. This could provide a further £208 million to spend on adult social care in 2017 to 2018 and £444 million in 2018 to 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the adult social care precept announced in the 2015 Spending Review, how much this was intended to raise; how many local authorities have used it; how much additional money has been raised; and whether alternatives to the precept were considered prior to its announcement.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The social care precept created in the 2015 Spending Review works by giving local authorities the flexibility to raise council tax in their area by up to 2 per cent above the existing threshold. If all local authorities used this to its maximum effect it could help raise nearly £2 billion a year by 2019-20. In 2016-17 144 out 152 (95 per cent) of adult social care authorities took up the precept, raising £382m extra for social care this year. The precept was accompanied by the introduction of the 'improved Better Care Fund' grant for social care from 2017-18, worth £105million in that year and £1.5billion in 2019-20.
The Government announced on 15 December that, in recognition of the immediate challenges faced in the care market, Councils will be granted flexibility to raise the social care precept on council tax by up to 3 per cent next year and the year after, but by no more than 6 per cent over the three years. This could provide a further £208 million to spend on adult social care in 2017 to 2018 and £444 million in 2018 to 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the terms of reference of the fair funding review; when they expect to complete and publish the results of that review; and whether the review will take into account the different funding needs of different local authority areas.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Fair Funding Review is a thorough reassessment of the relative needs and resources formula for local government for a world in which local government spending will be funded by local resources not central grant. The Review will establish the funding baselines for the introduction of 100 per cent Business Rates Retention, which will be implemented by the end of the Parliament.
Since we announced the Review we have collaborated closely with local government representatives. We published a Call for Evidence in July which sought views on key questions the Review will address and are currently considering the responses.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered advising local authorities to extend the consultation period of planning applications which include bank holiday periods; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
No, we have not considered this. Local authorities are already obliged to consult on proposals for development in their area; the consultation period usually lasts for 21 days and we believe this period strikes an appropriate balance between ensuring sufficient consultation with the community and an efficient determination period for the applicant.
However, where statutory consultation is required, article 22(3) of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 gives local authorities and statutory consultees the opportunity to agree in writing to a period other than 21 days in which to provide responses if necessary.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to (1) give local authorities permission to hold a register of properties available for short-term let by Airbnb and similar platforms, and (2) enable local councils to check that (a) such properties are suitably sized for the number of persons to whom they will be let, and (b) such properties are not illegally sublet in a manner which is contrary to the terms of their leases.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government currently has no plans to provide for local authorities to hold registers or enable inspections in respect of short term lettings. Local authorities have powers to address overcrowding where they consider action would be appropriate. Whether a property is sublet in a manner which is contrary to the terms of a lease is a matter to be resolved between the leaseholder and the freeholder.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they reconcile the additional financial burden placed on local authorities, such as those set out in the Housing and Planning Bill, with the level of financial support they provide to meet those costs.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The government requires policies not considered and funded as part of the multi-annual local government settlement process to be subject to new burdens assessments. New burdens assessments require departments to detail financial costs on local authorities from new legislation or regulation and provide funding to meet these costs.
Measures in the Housing and Planning Bill will be subject to these assessments.
Asked by: Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will clarify the measures that can be taken to enable works to be carried out when they are wanted or needed by a majority of leaseholders in leasehold residential properties.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The maintenance and repair of a block of flats containing leasehold properties is normally the responsibility of the landlord and will be set out under the terms of the lease. This responsibility can pass to a Right to Manage Company where leaseholders have exercised and acquired that right, allowing them to exercise direct control over how their block is maintained.
Landlords, or those who have acquired the Right to Manage, have a contractual obligation under the terms of the leases to carry out necessary works to the properties that they are responsible for maintaining. Where works are suggested by a majority of leaseholders that are not essential to the repair or maintenance of the property, we would expect landlords to engage with their leaseholders to discuss the feasibility of the suggested works, but there are no plans to legislate to obligate landlords to carry out such work.
There are also no plans to legislate to provide a limited time within which non-resident leaseholders who fail to respond to a proposal for qualifying works, are deemed to have agreed to the proposed works. The statutory consultation process (known as section 20) gives leaseholders the ability to have a greater say on proposed works to their property by making observations. It does not require leaseholders to make observations, but any observations that are made must be made within a specified time limit. The landlord (or Right to Manage Company) is therefore in the knowledge that subject to observations made, they are able to proceed with necessary works.