Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to prevent the full cost of fire safety remediation works from being passed on to leaseholders who do not own 100 per cent of their home.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has recently announced a globally unprecedented investment in building safety under which hundreds of thousands of leaseholders, including shared owners, will be protected from the cost of removing and replacing unsafe cladding on their homes. We will provide over £5 billion in grant funding for the remediation of unsafe cladding on buildings over 18 metres, and we are establishing a generous finance scheme which will provide leaseholders in buildings of 11-18 metres with access to finance for cladding remediation costs. The monthly cladding repayment costs for these leaseholders will not exceed £50. We will publish more details on how these schemes will work as soon as we are in a position to do so.
We have also introduced a new model for Shared Ownership which will include a 10 year period during which the landlord will support with the cost of repairs in new build homes. The changes will prevent new shared owners from being faced with unexpected costs and will help to bridge the gap between renting and home ownership.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 19 April 2021 to Question 175876 on fire safety costs, when information on the (a) eligibility, (b) application process and (c) timeframe for issuing loans to leaseholders for fire safety works in buildings under 18 metres will be published.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government will fund the remediation of unsafe cladding on buildings over 18 metres. In lower rise buildings of 11-18 metres, with a lower risk to safety, leaseholders will gain new protection from the costs of cladding removal through a financing scheme that will limit repayments so that leaseholders will never pay more than £50 a month. Further details of this scheme will be made available as soon as we are in a position to do so.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department’s Spending Review 2020, which includes a £125 million settlement for the new duty on local authorities contained in the Domestic Abuse Bill, took into account the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on domestic abuse.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
MHCLG engaged with local authorities and service providers to ensure that the new duty is funded appropriately. The £125 million new burden funding has now been paid to local authorities to provide support in safe accommodation, to include all unmet demand, for financial year 2021-22. This is on top of £10 million in emergency funding during 2020/21 and continued supply of free PPE to refuge providers.
We continue to work with the sector to monitor demand on services as a result of Covid-19.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the finding of Solace Women’s Aid’s report entitled Violence against women and girls, housing and homelessness: A joined up strategy, that 70 per cent of women who have experienced domestic violence also have a housing need, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the shortage of suitable long-term housing for domestic abuse survivors.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
It is critical that victims of domestic abuse get support, especially when they are in housing need. In May 2020 the Government announced its intent to give those who are homeless as a result of being a victim of domestic abuse priority need for accommodation secured by the local authority. This will be achieved through the Domestic Abuse Bill and will help to ensure victims do not remain with their abuser for fear of not having a roof over their head.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation for households in priority need and owed the main homelessness duty until suitable long-term accommodation can be offered to them. Housing authorities have a continuing obligation to keep the suitability of accommodation under review, and to respond to any relevant change in circumstances which may affect suitability.
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and are investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, which will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help leaseholders secure a low interest rate on loans taken to cover fire safety costs.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has announced a globally unprecedented investment in building safety and hundreds of thousands of leaseholders will be protected from the cost of remediating unsafe cladding from their homes. Lower-rise buildings between 11 and 18 metres will gain new protection from the costs of remediating dangerous cladding through a long-term, low interest, government backed financing scheme.
The Government is conscious of the need to make any financing scheme affordable for leaseholders. That is why we have said that the financing scheme will have a £50 a month cap. Now that the financing solution has been announced, we will publish more details on how it will work as soon as is feasible.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the statutory guidance accompanying the Domestic Abuse Bill will make clear that housing officers should accept evidence from specialist services as proof of homelessness when they assess applications from women made homeless by domestic abuse.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
It is critical that victims of domestic abuse get support, especially when they are in housing need, and that local authority housing officers are aware of the risks victims of domestic abuse face and know how to support them appropriately.
The published draft statutory Homelessness Code of Guidance, which will accompany the Domestic Abuse Bill, makes clear that with consent from the applicant, housing authorities can seek evidence from friends and relatives of the applicant, social services, health professionals, representatives from Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences, a domestic abuse support service or the police, as appropriate.
This is not an exhaustive list and housing officers should exercise their judgement in determining how to obtain the necessary supporting evidence in each case. The guidance is also clear that local authorities should ensure their enquiries do not provoke further violence or abuse, and that they should not approach the alleged perpetrator.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on removing VAT from fire safety works for leaseholders affected by materials deemed unsafe after the Grenfell tragedy.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 171625 on 23 March 2021.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how his Department plans to ensure that loans taken out by leaseholders living in block affected by cladding-related issues are capped at £50 per month for repayments.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government will fund the removal and placement of unsafe cladding on buildings over 18 metres. In buildings of 11-18 metres, with a lower risk to safety, leaseholders will gain new protection from the costs of cladding removal through a financing scheme so that leaseholders will never pay more than £50 a month. We will be publishing further details of the financing scheme.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the average waiting time for decisions to be made on applications for loans made by leaseholders living in blocks affected by cladding-related issues; and what plans he has to implement an appeals process for leaseholders declined a loan.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We have announced an unprecedented multi-billion investment to protect hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes. Now that the significant increase in Government funding and the financing solution have been announced, we will publish more details on how these will work as soon as is possible.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the loans for leaseholders in buildings affected by cladding-related issues will be introduced; and when the application process for those loans will open.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We are working swiftly to launch the scheme as soon as is feasible and will publish more details on how it will work.