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Written Question
Leasehold: Reform
Monday 28th October 2019

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to reform the regulation of leasehold properties.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The government remains committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service

We have set out a strong package of measures to tackle unfair practices in the leasehold market. This includes a commitment to bring forward legislation to ban the unjustified use of leasehold for new houses, reducing future ground rents to zero financial value, and introducing new rights to challenge fees for freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates. We are also working with the Law Commission to make buying a freehold or extending a lease easier, faster, fairer and cheaper, as well as reinvigorating Commonhold and making Right to Manage easier, to provide greater choice for consumers

The government is also working to ensure charges related to leasehold properties are transparent and communicated effectively and that there is a clear route to challenge or redress if things go wrong. Last October we established an independent working group chaired by Lord Best to raise standards across the property sector, which also considered how fees such as service charges should be presented to consumers. The working group published its final report to government on 18 July. We are considering the report’s recommendations and will announce next steps in due course.

We remain committed to legislating on leasehold reform as soon as parliamentary time allows.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing
Monday 28th October 2019

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to reform the private rented sector.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The government is committed to rebalancing the relationship between tenants and landlords to deliver a fairer, good quality and more affordable private rented sector.

In April this year the government announced that it proposes to consult on the future of Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. This would provide tenants with more stability, protecting them from having to make frequent moves at short notice, empowering them to challenge poor property standards and enabling them to put down roots and plan for the future. Our consultation on how the new system should operate closed on 12 October. We are now carefully considering the responses received and will publish our response in due course.

In January 2019, the government committed – in response to the Strengthening consumer redress in housing consultation – to requiring all private landlords to belong to a redress scheme, so that all tenants have access to redress when things go wrong. This will require primary legislation, which will be introduced at the earliest appropriate opportunity


The government will also shortly lay regulations to introduce mandatory five yearly safety inspections and tests on electrical installations in private rented sector properties.


Written Question
Housing: Carbon Emissions
Tuesday 8th October 2019

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government has taken to reduce carbon emissions in the housing sector.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.


Written Question
Housing: Carbon Emissions
Tuesday 8th October 2019

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to reduce carbon emissions in the housing sector.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing: Homelessness
Tuesday 21st November 2017

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of Help to Rent projects in helping homeless people access housing in the private rental market.

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

Help to rent projects play an important role in enabling homeless people to access the private rented sector. We are considering how best to take forward mediated access in the context of our overall homelessness prevention approach.


Written Question
Homelessness: Task Forces
Monday 17th July 2017

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will set out the (a) remit, (b) membership, (c) timetable and (d) resources of the proposed Homelessness Reduction Taskforce.

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

We will be implementing manifesto commitments to help those at risk of becoming homeless, already sleeping rough or with complex needs, to support them to lead more independent lives. We aim to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it altogether by 2027. The remit of the Homelessness Reduction Taskforce will include looking at prevention and affordable housing. In addition we will pilot a Housing First approach to tackle rough sleeping.

Homelessness is a wide-ranging and complex set of issues. That is why we aim to set up the Homelessness Reduction Taskforce with the right membership to drive these commitments forward.


Written Question
Department for Communities and Local Government: Land
Thursday 27th April 2017

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraphs 1.296 and 1.297 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what progress his Department has made by estimated capacity of land sold since March 2016 in identifying and disposing of land to meet the Government's commitment.

Answered by Lord Barwell

In March we published a Government Review: Making Commercial Terms of Government Land Disposals More Transparent. The report committed to publish details of Government land sales annually, with the first publication in summer 2017. The report will include all sales in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Progress towards meeting the housing ambition is set out in Table 3 of the Public Land for Housing Programme Annual Report published in February 2017 which shows that between 8 May 2015 and 30 September 2016, DCLG released land with capacity for 6,618 homes, generating £145,783,417 in receipts.

As a major landowner the Government has a crucial role to play in managing its estate more efficiently to secure best value for money for the taxpayer, boost growth and help support the building of new homes.


Written Question
Housing: Older People
Friday 16th December 2016

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health on the health benefits of retirement housing and its potential in reducing local authority adult social care bills.

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

Ministers and officials from both departments meet when necessary to discuss a range of issues of interest to both departments.

Older people have a wide range of different housing needs, ranging from suitable and appropriately located market housing through to residential institutions and we are clear in the National Planning Policy Framework that councils should plan for a mix of housing, based on the needs of different groups in the community, including older people. We strengthened planning guidance last year to reinforce our expectations.

Housing is an important element to people's health and wellbeing and provision of suitable housing can and does play a role within the wider integration of health and social care to which we are committed.


Written Question
Housing
Monday 14th November 2016

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on which day in November 2016 he expects to publish the housing white paper.

Answered by Lord Barwell

Building more homes is central to this Government’s vision of a country that works for everyone. We expect to publish a Housing White Paper later this year, setting out measures to help us deliver this ambition.


Written Question
Local Government: Pensions
Monday 14th November 2016

Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the administrative costs arising from the separate operation of 99 local government pension schemes.

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

The most recent data on local government pension scheme costs are at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-government-pension-scheme-funds-for-england-2015-to-2016

The Project POOL report prepared for a number of local authorities by Hymans Robertson estimated in January 2016 that annual savings from pooling investments in the scheme could reach £200-300 million in ten years.