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Written Question
Holiday Accommodation
Wednesday 25th January 2017

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to enable regulation of short-term holiday lets in line with the regulation of bed and breakfast properties.

Answered by Lord Barwell

The Government currently has no plans to introduce legislation to bring short term holiday lets in line with bed and breakfast property regulations.

Local authorities have powers to inspect residential properties where they consider action would be appropriate under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).


Written Question
Service Charges
Wednesday 23rd March 2016

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to increase the financial limit for the contribution of tenants to qualifying works as set out in paragraph 6 of the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The Government is aware of concerns surrounding the financial threshold above which consultation on service charges must take place under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (as amended by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002). This was also referred to as part of the Competition and Markets Authority study into property management services. We have been working with stakeholders in the sector, including the Association of Residential Managing Agents, to consider what can be done to improve how section 20 works, including the financial threshold. The Government is awaiting the final set of recommendations from the Association and will respond to the Competition and Markets Authority study in the Autumn.


Written Question
Planning Permission
Monday 14th March 2016

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to speed up planning enforcement to reduce damage in heritage centres.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

We have given local planning authorities a wide range of strong enforcement powers to enable them to tackle unauthorised development or works to listed buildings, including the ability to apply for planning injunctions to prevent actual or apprehended breaches. We consider these powers remain appropriate and have no plans to amend them at this time.


Written Question
Trees
Wednesday 27th January 2016

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department issues to local authorities on ensuring that consent is granted before a person undertakes work on a neighbour's tree.

Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm

Guidance on the tree preservation legislation is published on the planning guidance website at http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/blog/guidance/tree-preservation-orders/ and is available to local authorities and other interested parties. Local authorities are responsible for determining applications for works to trees protected by Tree Preservation Orders.


Written Question
Local Government: Pay
Tuesday 19th January 2016

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to establish an independent body to monitor the salaries of council staff.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

Ministers have taken a number of steps to increase the transparency and accountability of local decisions on the pay and reward of council staff. This action has helped ensure that local people have the information they need to hold councils to account.

Local elected members need to make sure that decisions about the remuneration of senior staff are clearly in the interest of local taxpayers, and that they operate to the same standards of restraint as the rest of the public sector.



Written Question
Housing: Disability
Friday 4th December 2015

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help increase the number of disabled people who own their own home.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The Government is committed to extending home ownership opportunities for everyone. Disabled people with aspirations to own their own home can benefit from a number of policies offered by this Government, like Help to Buy and Right to Buy. However, we do recognise that for some people with long-term disabilities, our mainstream home ownership programmes may not be suitable. The Home Ownership for those with Long-term Disabilities (HOLD) scheme is specifically designed to help people living with such disabilities to buy a property on the open market on shared ownership terms with a registered housing provider.

The Government is also providing affordable housing for disabled and older people through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, phase 1 of which will deliver around 4,000 new homes by 2018. Between 2011-15 the Affordable Homes Programme has also delivered almost 14,000 specialised and mainstream affordable homes for older and disabled people.

In the Spending Review we have committed to £400 million of funding to deliver 8,000 specialist homes for the vulnerable elderly or those with disabilities. A commitment to funding from the Department of Health could deliver up to a further 7,500 homes over the Spending Review period.



Written Question
Shared Ownership Schemes
Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to extend schemes of shared ownership for existing housing stock.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The Autumn Statement announced measures to double the number of first time buyers and confirmed £8 billion to deliver over 400,000 affordable housing starts including £4 billion for 135,000 new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership starts by 2020. This will build on the 41,000 new Shared Ownership homes we have delivered since 2010.

We believe that shared ownership has an important role to play, as part of a diverse and thriving housing market, in helping those who aspire to home ownership but may be otherwise unable to afford it. The Government is also committed to working with housing associations to help to develop flexible tenure models and savings vehicles. This could include tenants converting their rented properties into shared ownership, overpaying on their rent in order to take an equity share in their property.


Written Question
Sleeping Rough
Wednesday 25th November 2015

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to take to provide further guidance to local authorities on preventing people who apply to those authorities for accommodation from continuing to sleep rough.

Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)

This Government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. One person without a home is one too many. That is why since 2010 we have invested more than £500 million to prevent and tackle homelessness in England. This investment has helped local authorities prevent almost one million households from becoming homeless since 2010.

We already require all authorities to ensure that advice and information about homelessness, and the prevention of homelessness, is available to everyone in their district free of charge. The Homelessness Code of Guidance for local authorities, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-code-of-guidance-for-councils-july-2006, provides statutory guidance on how local authorities should exercise this function.



Written Question
Private Rented Housing
Friday 23rd October 2015

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to introduce a requirement that private landlords have a certificate confirming their accommodation has reached a minimum condition before it can be let.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

Local Authorities have powers under the Housing Act 2004 to assess the risks and hazards in properties, and to require landlords or owners to remove hazards, and to prosecute if they fail to do so. If a property is found to contain serious hazards, the local authority has a duty to take the most appropriate action in relation to the hazard. This could include serving a notice for the landlord to carry out improvements.

The Government wants to crack down further on the small minority of rogue and criminal landlords who exploit their tenants by renting out unsafe and substandard accommodation and are taking forward proposals through the Housing and Planning Bill. The legislation will enable local authorities to:

  • access a database of rogue landlords and letting agents helping councils keep track of them and target enforcement action;
  • seek banning orders for the most prolific and serious offenders;
  • issue civil penalty notices of up to £5,000 for certain breaches of housing legislation, ring-fencing resources for housing compliance activity;
  • extend Rent Repayment Orders to cover situations where a tenant has been illegally evicted, the landlord has failed to rectify a serious health and safety hazard in the property or has breached a banning order, allowing local authorities to retain the money for housing purposes.
  • apply a more stringent ‘fit and proper’ person test for landlords letting out licensed properties.


The majority of landlords in the private rented sector provide decent accommodation with surveys showing that 84% of tenants are satisfied with their accommodation, and staying in their homes for an average of 3.5 years.


Written Question
Housing Associations
Wednesday 21st October 2015

Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will review the regulation of service charges to ensure that housing associations are not exploiting residents.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

Service charges are subject to legal requirements that limit these to covering the cost of providing the services. The Social Housing Regulator requires that providers give clear information to tenants about how their service charges are set. If tenants feel their service charges are too high they may make a complaint through their landlord’s formal complaints procedure.