Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of a redress scheme to enable leaseholders to bring complaint cases against their freeholder.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
There is no one set of information which captures the full extent of leaseholder concerns as these come in many forms.
Leaseholders have a number of routes to redress including challenging the reasonableness of costs or services provided at the Property Tribunal, making a complaint through a freeholder or managing agent’s own complaints procedures, or using a government approved redress scheme of which all managing agents must belong by law.
Through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill the Government will expand routes of redress for leaseholders where their landlord carries out their own management of the building by requiring these landlords to join a redress scheme.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many cases of (a) freehold and (b) management company misconduct have been reported in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
There is no one set of information which captures the full extent of leaseholder concerns as these come in many forms.
Leaseholders have a number of routes to redress including challenging the reasonableness of costs or services provided at the Property Tribunal, making a complaint through a freeholder or managing agent’s own complaints procedures, or using a government approved redress scheme of which all managing agents must belong by law.
Through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill the Government will expand routes of redress for leaseholders where their landlord carries out their own management of the building by requiring these landlords to join a redress scheme.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham 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 plans to take steps to support tenants of private landlords to take action against landlords who (a) refuse to act and (b) delay acting on cases of (i) damp and (ii) mould.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We have been very clear that where landlords of private rented sector properties fail to act on damp and mould, local authorities must support tenants by holding landlords to account, including taking enforcement action where necessary.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of developers who are responsible for fire safety-related defects on buildings over 11 metres in height in England are headquartered overseas.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Information on developers who have signed the developer remediation contract is published online. Several signatories are subsidiaries of companies that are based overseas.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential of legal challenges to the Government’s proposals to blacklist developers who do not sign up to his Department's building safety remediation contract.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In the Building Safety Act 2022, Parliament created a power for the Secretary of State to set up building industry schemes such as the Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS) to secure the safety of people in or about buildings in relation to risks arising from buildings and to improve the standard of buildings, and to place prohibitions on persons who do not join the scheme. The Government will lay regulations to implement such a scheme and prohibitions this Spring. Eligible developers that fail to sign the developer remediation contract and comply with its terms will no longer be able to carry out major development or to secure building control sign-off for buildings under construction.
Parliament clearly set out its intent in the Act, and regulations to give the scheme effect will also be scrutinised by Parliament in the usual way. Neither the scheme nor the prohibitions are to 'blacklist' developers. They will hold eligible developers to account for remediating unsafe buildings which they developed or refurbished.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which external legal practitioners are advising the Government on the cladding pledge legally binding agreement and the Responsible Actors Scheme.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In line with the practice of successive administrations details of legal advice are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham 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 estimate of the number of builders or developers who are deemed financially responsible for remediating or mitigating fire safety-related defects on buildings in England but which are not in scope of signing his Department's building safety remediation contract.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We are taking steps to make sure that all developers pay fair share and can be held to account if they fail to do so.
On 30 January 2023, the Government published a developer remediation contract that will, once signed, commit major developers (including 49 developers that signed the developer remediation pledge) to pay for work to fix defects estimated to cost at least £2 billion. In Spring 2023, the Government will lay regulations to establish a Responsible Actors Scheme. Under those regulations, developers eligible for the Scheme will have to sign and comply with the terms of the developer remediation contract if they wish to join and remain in the Scheme. Any eligible developer that does not join and remain in the Scheme will be prohibited from commencing new major developments for which they have planning permission, and from securing building control sign-off for buildings already under construction.
In addition, the Building Safety Act 2022 placed new responsibilities on all developers to pay to fix buildings they constructed, and gave third parties avenues to seek redress in cases where a developer shirks their responsibilities.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham 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 estimate of the number of UK builders or developers who are deemed financially responsible for remediating or mitigating fire safety-related defects on buildings in England.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We are taking steps to make sure that all developers pay fair share and can be held to account if they fail to do so.
On 30 January 2023, the Government published a developer remediation contract that will, once signed, commit major developers (including 49 developers that signed the developer remediation pledge) to pay for work to fix defects estimated to cost at least £2 billion. In Spring 2023, the Government will lay regulations to establish a Responsible Actors Scheme. Under those regulations, developers eligible for the Scheme will have to sign and comply with the terms of the developer remediation contract if they wish to join and remain in the Scheme. Any eligible developer that does not join and remain in the Scheme will be prohibited from commencing new major developments for which they have planning permission, and from securing building control sign-off for buildings already under construction.
In addition, the Building Safety Act 2022 placed new responsibilities on all developers to pay to fix buildings they constructed, and gave third parties avenues to seek redress in cases where a developer shirks their responsibilities.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 23 November 2022 from the hon. Member for Lewisham East, reference JD29336.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I apologise for the delay in responding to the Hon. Member's correspondence. The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Honourable Members. A response was issued to the Hon. Member on 30 January 2023.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham 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 encourage companies with responsibility for issuing Parking Charge Notices to offer discounts for early payment.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
It is standard practice to offer a discount for early payment of a parking charge notice in both local authority and private car parks. We expect the new Private Parking Code of Practice to require private parking operators to offer a discount where payment is made within 14 days of the receipt of notice.