Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has plans to reform local government finance to ensure funding allocations take greater account of local need.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Future local authority funding decisions will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement in which we are engaged. The department will work with local government leaders to ensure they are better able to fulfil their statutory duties.
We want to hear from councils about the financial challenges they are facing and we are committed to stabilising the local government finance landscape in this Parliament.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has plans to reform council tax.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Future local authority funding decisions will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement in which we are engaged.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to return landlord licensing powers to local authorities.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local housing authorities are able to introduce selective licensing of landlords in targeted areas to tackle specific problems, if the statutory requirements are met.
Since 2015, new or renewed schemes which cover more than 20% of a local authority’s private rented stock or geographical area require approval from the Secretary of State.
We will keep this 20% threshold under review in light of our proposals for devolution and supporting improving rented sector standards.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress he has made on (a) cladding and (b) non-cladding remediation for residential buildings.
Answered by Lee Rowley
All residential buildings above 11 metres in England now have a pathway to fix unsafe cladding, through either a taxpayer-funded scheme or developer-funded scheme. I refer the Hon Member to our monthly Building Safety Data Release published on gov.uk for further information on the progress made to fix residential buildings over 11 metres with unsafe cladding in England.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help reduce the number of families in temporary accommodation in (a) Liverpool, Walton constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 14761 on 26 February 2024.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of section 21 evictions on levels of homelessness.
Answered by Jacob Young
The department publishes relevant official statistics and these are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to the letter of 14 November 2023 from the Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing of Liverpool City Council about homelessness in Liverpool.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
A response to the letter was issued on 1 December 2023.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) antisemitism and (b) Islamophobia.
Answered by Lee Rowley
As set out previously, antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred are abhorrent and have no place in our community. No one should be a victim of hatred because of who they are. Since the appalling terrorist attacks of 7 October in Israel we have seen a sharp increase in reported antisemitic incidents here in the UK. We have also seen a rise in anti-Muslim hatred and other racist and religiously motivated incidents.
The Government has announced an additional £3 million for the CST to provide additional security at Jewish schools, synagogues and other sites. Tell MAMA are our key partner working to monitor and support victims of anti-Muslim hatred and we have allocated over £6 million since 2012.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2023 to Question 119055 on Gazumping, what progress his Department has made on (a) evaluating and (b) encouraging the adoption of voluntary reservation agreements.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The government remains committed to improving the home buying and selling process. We are working with industry to ensure potential buyers have access to the critical information they need to know – including tenure type, lease length and service charges – in an accurate and timely digital format. This will help them to make informed decisions about whether to purchase a property, reducing the likelihood of the sale falling through. We will provide further details on our plans to reform the home buying and selling system in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the long-term viability of the buy-to-let sector.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Renters (Reform) Bill Impact Assessment (IA) was submitted to the Regulatory Policy Committee for review before the Bill was introduced and has now been published. The green-rated IA shows that the net cost to landlords of the reforms in the Bill is estimated to be just £10 per rented property annually - approximately 0.1% of mean annual rents. This cost is unlikely to lead to good landlords leaving the sector.