Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of levels of demand for (a) integrated retirement communities and (b) other specialist housing for older people (i) as of 14 December 2021 and (ii) over the next 10 years.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has not made its own assessment of the levels of demand for different kinds of specialist housing for older people. According to one study, between 2020 and 2030, projected demand for supported housing in England, which includes specialist accommodation for older people, is estimated to increase by 125,000 units.
Further details are set out in the Department of Health and Social Care’s recently published white paper, People at the Heart of Care.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions his Department has had with the Treasury on funding the Housing First places needed in England to end rough sleeping and homelessness for cases of people with complex needs.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
This Government is committed to ending rough sleeping as part of its latest Manifesto Commitment, utilising schemes like Housing First. Announcements regarding the Spending Review are imminent, which will set out how Government will continue to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Communities and Communities, whether it is Government policy to implement the Law Commission’s proposals on event fees in older people’s housing.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill currently in Parliament will put an end to ground rents for new residential leasehold properties as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation. The Bill's provisions will lead to fairer, more transparent homeownership for thousands of future leaseholders.
This includes retirement properties, where purchasers of new leases will not be faced with financial demands for ground rent.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Communities and Communities, what steps he is planning to take to increase transparency for consumers in older people’s housing and associated fees and charges.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill currently in Parliament will put an end to ground rents for new residential leasehold properties as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation. The Bill's provisions will lead to fairer, more transparent homeownership for thousands of future leaseholders.
This includes retirement properties, where purchasers of new leases will not be faced with financial demands for ground rent.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the proposed timescale for an Accountable Person to be able to commence building safety works under the provisions of the Building Safety Bill.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Building Safety Bill sets out requirements on Accountable Persons to make a full assessment of and take reasonable steps to manage prescribed building safety risks, which are defined in the Bill as the spread of fire and structural failure.
The draft transition plan, developed with the HSE, published alongside the Bill, sets out expected timeframes for the provisions in the Bill coming into force.
We currently expect the provisions relating to the new duties on Accountable Persons to come into force around 18 months after the Bill gains Royal Ascent.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with businesses which have applied for the Additional Restrictions Grant; and if he will apply lessons learnt from the process to the new £1.5 billion business rates relief fund for businesses affected by the covid-19 outbreak outside the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Department will work closely with local government throughout the development of the £1.5 billion relief scheme and will ensure that experiences from the delivery of other support measures are taken on board. This includes experiences of administering the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) which – as of 28 March 2021 – has delivered £816 million in support to over 400,000 businesses. The Government will continue to support local authorities in making further ARG payments throughout 2021/22.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to simplify and homogenise across local authorities the process of applying for business rates relief under the Government’s new £1.5 billion of funding for businesses affected by the covid-19 outside outside the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Department will ensure that local authorities have the guidance they need to deliver the additional £1.5 billion business rates support package once primary legislation is passed, in line with the announcement on 25 March. As with other business rates reliefs, officials will work closely with local government on the development of the relief scheme and guidance for local authorities will be published in due course.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his plans are to increase the glazing renovation rate of existing houses.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Double glazing is a popular energy efficiency measure and the English Housing Survey suggests that more than 85% of properties in England are fully double glazed, with less than 4% having no double glazing. As such, there is limited potential for further energy savings because so much of the stock already has efficient windows. Nevertheless, there are other benefits to more efficient glazing such as reduced internal noise, and improving the remaining single glazed windows would contribute to lower emissions.
The Government is committed to improving the energy efficiency of all homes. As part of reaching Net Zero by 2050, the Clean Growth Strategy set out that all homes should reach EPC C by 2035 where that is cost effective, affordable, and practical.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to increase building standards for glazing in line with improvements in modern glazing technology for (a) new and (b) existing homes.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government will introduce a Future Homes Standard for new homes by 2025. Homes built to the Future Homes Standard will be future-proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency. To help industry prepare for that, in 2021 we will introduce an interim uplift in Part L standards that delivers a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions and provides a stepping stone to the Future Homes Standard in 2025. Within the 2021 standard, there is an increase in the performance of windows. The draft specification for the Future Homes Standard includes a further increase in the performance of windows, which will be further developed over the next couple of years and consulted on in 2023
We also recently consulted on proposals for changes to requirements when work is done in existing buildings. That consultation opened on the 19 January 2021 and closed on the 13 April 2021. For this consultation we have reviewed the standards for windows in order to identify improvements. The proposal we put forward is the highest standard for replacement windows in existing homes which is still cost-effective using a simple measure of payback for investment over the life of the product. We are currently analysing responses to this consultation and will be responding to it.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using the Indices of Multiple Deprivation to prioritise investments through the UK Community Renewal Fund.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
To ensure the UK Community Renewal Fund funding reaches the most in need, we have identified 100 priority places based on an index of economic resilience across Great Britain which measures productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density.
We are committed to transparency and a methodological note explaining how the 100 priority places were determined has been published: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-community-renewal-fund-prospectus/uk-community-renewal-fund-prioritisation-of-places-methodology-note.
The Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) does not represent a ‘one size fits all’ solution to measuring economic need - not all of the variables it considers are relevant to the particular interventions we want to support through the UK Community Renewal Fund, and some of the variables it does not consider, such as productivity, are central to the policy goals of the Fund.