Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to reduce carbon emissions in the construction sector.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government, working in partnership with industry, launched the Construction Sector Deal in July 2018, in order to deliver a substantial improvement in the productivity growth of the sector. At the heart of the deal is a joint public and private sector investment of £420m in the Transforming Construction Programme, which will accelerate the adoption of digital and manufacturing technologies to improve building performance and reduce waste, with the aim of reducing lifetime carbon emissions by 50%. In particular, £32m has been invested in the Advanced Building Centre which is developing energy generation and storage technologies for use in buildings.
Through the Green Construction Board, we are working with industry to achieve the Buildings Mission goal of halving the energy consumption of new buildings by 2030, and halve the cost of retrofit over the same period. The Board is also working with Government to develop a road map to zero avoidable waste in the sector. The road map will be delivered by the end of next year. By reducing waste and encouraging the use of sustainable materials we can further reduce Green House Gas emissions.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the document entitled Bus Services Act 2017: Bus Open Data Consultation Response: Moving Britain Ahead, published by his Department in January 2019, when he plans to publish the steps his Department will take in response to the responses received to that consultation.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government’s consultation response on bus open data explains that the Government will bring forward a statutory instrument later this year which will require bus operators in England to publish various forms of data.
The key requirements are for data on routes and timetables to be published from January 2020; real time information and simple fares by January 2021; and complex fares by January 2023. The difference between simple and complex fares is explained in section 4 of the consultation response.
To support this, the response also explains that the Government is developing a Bus Open Data Digital Service, which will allow app developers to access all of the information in a machine-readable format. We are currently developing the digital service and expect it to be available for use by all bus operators towards the end of the summer.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
What plans he has to mark the centenary of UK Export Finance.
Answered by Graham Stuart
We will celebrate UK Export Finance’s centenary throughout the year, notably at the UK Trade & Export Finance Forum in June. I am delighted that in its centenary year UK Export Finance was awarded ‘Best Export Credit Agency’ at the 2019 International Trade Finance Awards. As the world’s first export credit agency, UK Export Finance will continue to innovate as it has done for the past 100 years.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
What progress is being made on increasing UK exports.
Answered by Liam Fox
The Export Strategy sets out how the Government will encourage, inform, connect and finance UK businesses to enable them to take advantage of the international demand for British goods and services. Last month we launched an enhanced digital service on great.gov.uk, connecting businesses to over 20,000 export opportunities.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the annual cost to the public purse is of employing staff as part of the current testing regime for controlling bovine tuberculosis.
Answered by George Eustice
The direct costs of TB tests for routine surveillance and control are met by government although no staff in my department are employed full time on TB testing. In England government staff costs associated with TB testing totalled £2,454,234 in 2016-17. In the same year the cost to government of TB testing carried out under contract by delivery partners totalled £17,489,217. Cattle keepers pay for pre- and post-movement TB tests, however they can use a government-funded surveillance test instead if it takes place within the required time period.
Asked by: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff of his Department are employed full-time as part of the current testing regime for controlling bovine tuberculosis.
Answered by George Eustice
No staff in my Department are employed full time on TB testing. Animal and Plant Health Agency vets and animal health officers involved in TB testing also carry out other duties.