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, with reference to the consultation on a direction to the Regulator of Social Housing to set a Competence and Conduct Standard for social housing, published on 6 February 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending competency and mandatory qualification standards to residential property managers who are responsible for (a) tall and high-risk and (b) other residential buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We are currently consulting on a direction to the Regulator of Social Housing to set a Competence and Conduct Standard for social housing, which closes on 2nd April. We will analyse responses and respond in due course.
PAS 8673 (Competence requirements for the management of safety in residential buildings) already sets out a competence framework for people involved in managing residential buildings. This includes support for accountable persons and others in managing building safety risks in higher risk buildings, and for those managing non higher-risk residential buildings.
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, with reference to the publication entitled Raising accessibility standards for new homes: summary of consultation responses and government response, updated 29 July 2022, what his planned timetable is for raising the baseline regulatory requirements for accessibility of all new homes to the M4(2) accessible and adaptable requirement.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN HL8422 on 26 June 2023. Councils can only adopt a plan that is sound; it should be consistent with national policy, be supported by evidence and take the views of local people into account. Each plan is subject to a public examination in front of an independent Inspector who plays an important role in examining plans impartially to ensure that they are legally compliant and sound. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out that local authorities should assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community, including older people and people with disabilities, and reflect this in their local plan.
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, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the Planning Inspectorate to reject local plans that do not include a policy statement that sets a target for the proportion of homes to be built for wheelchair users under part M4 (3) of the building regulations.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN HL8422 on 26 June 2023. Councils can only adopt a plan that is sound; it should be consistent with national policy, be supported by evidence and take the views of local people into account. Each plan is subject to a public examination in front of an independent Inspector who plays an important role in examining plans impartially to ensure that they are legally compliant and sound. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out that local authorities should assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community, including older people and people with disabilities, and reflect this in their local plan.
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 estimate his Department has made of the average costs incurred by a leaseholder due to the building safety regime since 28 April 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question 180227 on 24 April 2023.
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, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the (a) Building Safety Act 2022 and (b) related regulation to introduce requirements for periodic hydronic balancing of hydronic domestic heating systems; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government has no current plans to legislate to mandate periodic hydronic balancing of hydronic heating systems. Balancing of a heating system is something that is routinely done as part of a commissioning process and is therefore more suited to technical guidance. However, if my Hon. Friend would like to discuss this further I’m happy to meet with him.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that women who are experiencing (a) homelessness and (b) rough sleeping are receiving the support they need.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We know that women sleeping rough have different experiences and needs to men, particularly relating to violence and abuse, and that female rough sleepers can be less visible than other rough sleepers as a result. It is important rough sleeping services meet the needs of women.
As part of our Ending Rough Sleeping Strategy, we committed to the creation of an operational risk assessment tool which will help local authorities to prevent rough sleeping. The tool will be developed to consider various factors that contribute to rough sleeping, including how best to support different cohorts such as women.
The tool will enable local networks to allocate Rough Sleeping Initiative and other funding streams appropriately to support tailored and targeted interventions for groups like women sleeping rough who are not known to outreach services.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) gender informed methods and (b) patterns of women’s homelessness are incorporated into data collection on rough sleeping.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We know that women sleeping rough have different experiences and needs to men, particularly relating to violence and abuse, and that female rough sleepers can be less visible than other rough sleepers as a result. It is important rough sleeping services meet the needs of women.
As part of our Ending Rough Sleeping Strategy, we committed to the creation of an operational risk assessment tool which will help local authorities to prevent rough sleeping. The tool will be developed to consider various factors that contribute to rough sleeping, including how best to support different cohorts such as women.
The tool will enable local networks to allocate Rough Sleeping Initiative and other funding streams appropriately to support tailored and targeted interventions for groups like women sleeping rough who are not known to outreach services.
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, whether his Department is taking steps to review the definition of rough sleeping to ensure it recognises women who use the tactic of hidden homelessness.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We know that women sleeping rough have different experiences and needs to men, particularly relating to violence and abuse, and that female rough sleepers can be less visible than other rough sleepers as a result. It is important rough sleeping services meet the needs of women.
As part of our Ending Rough Sleeping Strategy, we committed to the creation of an operational risk assessment tool which will help local authorities to prevent rough sleeping. The tool will be developed to consider various factors that contribute to rough sleeping, including how best to support different cohorts such as women.
The tool will enable local networks to allocate Rough Sleeping Initiative and other funding streams appropriately to support tailored and targeted interventions for groups like women sleeping rough who are not known to outreach services.
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 steps his Department is taking to roll out a nationwide annual women's rough sleeping census that is gender informed.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We know that women sleeping rough have different experiences and needs to men, particularly relating to violence and abuse, and that female rough sleepers can be less visible than other rough sleepers as a result. It is important rough sleeping services meet the needs of women.
As part of our Ending Rough Sleeping Strategy, we committed to the creation of an operational risk assessment tool which will help local authorities to prevent rough sleeping. The tool will be developed to consider various factors that contribute to rough sleeping, including how best to support different cohorts such as women.
The tool will enable local networks to allocate Rough Sleeping Initiative and other funding streams appropriately to support tailored and targeted interventions for groups like women sleeping rough who are not known to outreach services.