Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Adams Excerpts

Monday 23rd July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Danielle Rowley (Midlothian) (Lab)]

4. What recent estimate he has made of the number of children in temporary accommodation.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Nigel Adams)]

Temporary accommodation provides an important safety net and ensures that no child is left without a home. In 2011, we changed the law so that councils can place families in decent and affordable private rented homes. This now means that homeless households should not have to wait as long for settled accommodation and should spend less time in temporary accommodation.

[Danielle Rowley]

A constituent of mine is living in temporary accommodation with her children, aged two and seven, opposite a nightclub. The noise keeps her children scared and awake at night. Shelter Scotland says that 13% of homeless households spend over a year in temporary accommodation, and that those with children tend to spend more time in temporary accommodation than those without. What does the Minister think the long-term impact is on children who spend a long time in temporary accommodation?

[Nigel Adams]

First, I acknowledge the work the hon. Lady did before coming to the House, working for Shelter Scotland, which is an organisation we work with very closely on wider homelessness, most recently on our rough sleeping strategy. We acknowledge there has been an increase—a 2% rise in the latest figures to March 2018. No one wants to be in temporary accommodation too long, especially children. However, there are good examples of local authorities leading the way in ensuring families spend less time in temporary accommodation. One such example is Barnet Council, whose targeted approach to support has seen the number of children in temporary accommodation reduce by 11%.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

12. Will the Minister commit today to devoting more funds to local authorities specifically to resolve the issue of families living in temporary accommodation?

[Nigel Adams]

We are committing an enormous amount of money—£1.2 billion over the spending period—and we expect local authorities to follow the example of councils such as Barnet, which has managed to achieve that reduction. I encourage the hon. Gentleman to talk to his local authority and perhaps to approach Barnet to see an example of best practice.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

Local authorities are ignoring circulars from the Department and housing children in temporary accommodation many miles from their place of education. What can my hon. Friend do to enforce circulars and make councils take into account educational requirements when housing children and their families?

[Nigel Adams]

My hon. Friend makes a superb point. I can be absolutely clear from the Dispatch Box that local authorities must take account of circulars. It does seem nonsensical that councils are taking this approach. Youngsters are being taken away from their local areas and their schooling is being affected.

[Gillian Keegan (Chichester) (Con)]

5. What steps his Department is taking to tackle unfair practices in the leasehold system.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Nigel Adams)]

The Government want the leasehold system to be fair and transparent so that a person feels their home is their own. We will legislate to ban the sale of new leasehold houses and to reduce ground rents to a peppercorn as soon as parliamentary time allows.

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank the Minister for his answer. This Parliament and this Government are the first in over 15 years to seek justice and to offer the prospect of help to vulnerable residential leaseholders. Action is welcome on fair terms for new leases and to promote commonhold. However, how and when will there be beneficial steps for current leaseholders, including the many in retirement who suffer a reduction in capital values because of high event fee charges?

[Nigel Adams]

My hon. Friend raises a very important issue. I congratulate her on her work, with her colleagues, on an ongoing campaign in this area, not least via the all-party group on leasehold and commonhold reform. We will shortly announce our response to the Law Commission report on tackling event fees to help those in retirement housing. The Law Commission will also consult on how we can make it easier and cheaper for existing leaseholders to buy their freehold or extend their lease.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

I, too, welcome the Law Commission report, because for too long leaseholders have been dealt a very, very poor hand. When looking at the report and developing a response, will the Government for once put leaseholders at the front of their mind, rather than the freeholders who only seem to rip off leaseholders?

[Nigel Adams]

The hon. Lady makes a very good point. We also welcome the Law Commission proposals, which include recommendations to ensure that we make leaseholds cheaper and fairer. The Government will continue to work with the Law Commission to ensure that this practice continues and we get a better outcome for leaseholders.

[Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) (Con)]

I speak as a contented leaseholder in my constituency. Following the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Gillian Keegan), will the Minister say when we might expect private leaseholders in tower blocks to hear that the cladding problems are going to be paid for by the developers, insurers or others, and not by them? They are always told that they are tenants and yet have to carry all the costs for everything.

[Nigel Adams]

My hon. Friend raises an absolutely important issue. Leaseholders are facing massive bills over cladding following Grenfell. Families are going to lose their homes and are faced with enormous bills; we should be helping them and are determined to do so. In the private sector, remediation costs will fall naturally to the freeholder. Where they do not, we have urged those with responsibility to follow the lead from the social sector, and private companies are already beginning to do the right thing. They should not be passing on these costs to leaseholders.

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

In response to my written questions, various Ministers in the Department have confirmed that the majority of developers have agreed not to use Help to Buy loans to finance the purchase of leasehold properties in future. However, they have admitted that not all developers have agreed to do that, so what are the Government going to do to stop any taxpayers’ money being used in this way?

[Nigel Adams]

Of course, certain contractual obligations are already in train. We have made it absolutely clear that no more public money will be used in such a way.

[Fiona Onasanya (Peterborough) (Lab)]

6. What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of new homes available for social rent since 2010.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ruth George (High Peak) (Lab)]

9. What the timetable is for his Department bringing forward proposals to prevent the sale of new houses by leasehold.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Nigel Adams)]

The Government cannot see any good reason for new-build leasehold houses other than in exceptional circumstances. Earlier this month the Secretary of State announced that no new Government money will fund them. We intend to consult over the summer on how a ban on new leasehold houses will be implemented.

[Ruth George]

Last year the then Secretary of State promised that by the summer the Government would make concrete proposals for banning the sale of new leasehold homes, yet they are still being sold in my constituency. The buyers thereof are unable to sell their homes and are also unable to afford to buy out their freehold at the extortionate rates being demanded by the freeholders. How and when will the Government fix this?

[Nigel Adams]

The hon. Lady raises an important point, and that is why we are acting: we are introducing legislation to stop the development of new-build leasehold houses and will restrict ground rent to a peppercorn. We are also planning to fix the loopholes in the law, to increase transparency.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

With more problem leaseholds being sold, what is my hon. Friend doing to determine the scale of the problem and inform householders of that problem?

[Nigel Adams]

That was why I mentioned the issue of transparency. It is very important that leaseholders get as much information as is practically possible. We are currently working with the Law Commission on how best to support current leaseholders because we want to make buying a freehold easier for people going forward, but we also want to ensure that those with leases are helped out.

[Lee Rowley (North East Derbyshire) (Con)]

10. What steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to build new homes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

16. What assessment he has made of trends in homelessness since 2010.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Nigel Adams)]

This Government are serious about tackling homelessness, which is why we have allocated more than £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness to 2020. We have implemented the most ambitious legislative reform in decades: the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. We have also committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and to ending it by 2027, and we will shortly be publishing a strategy that sets out our plans to do that.

[Christian Matheson]

Homelessness has doubled nationally since 2010, but the increase is greater in the north-west. Why is that?

[Nigel Adams]

I know how seriously the hon. Gentleman takes this issue, and I am very encouraged by the work he is doing collaboratively with his local authority and organisations such as Chester Aid to the Homeless and Share. They will welcome, as I am sure he does, the £1.15 million that has been recently provided to help on this issue. Like me, he will be encouraged by the latest figures, which show a 9% fall nationally in statutory homelessness acceptances in the past year.