Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
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 estimate of trends in the level of services charges in the housing association sector in each of the last five years; and what impact service charge inflation has had on social housing tenants in Birmingham.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Department does not hold information on service charges for all tenants in the social sector.
The Government strongly believes that service charges should be transparent and communicated effectively. The Government believes that there should be a clear route to challenge or redress if things go wrong.
As announced at the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022, an increase in the cap on social housing rents has been set at 7% for 2023-24. This followed the consultation we carried out last year, which is available here. We published an Impact Assessment alongside the consultation and will publish a final Impact Assessment in due course.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the revaluation of business rates on local authority finances in Birmingham.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Further to the information already published here, the Government will make an adjustment to the business rates retention system to strip-out as far as practicable impacts on local authority income. Individual figures will be published at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, however the Government’s proposed methodology for the revaluation adjustment for the 2023-24 financial year was set out in this consultation.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many expressions of interest his Department received for Investment Zones.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As the Chancellor’s statement made clear, further details will be published in due course.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to allocate grants from the second round of the Levelling Up Fund this calendar year; and if he will support all five of Birmingham's Levelling Up Fund bids, in the context of the city recently hosting the Commonwealth Games.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
It was a great honour to have the City of Birmingham host the fantastic 2022 Commonwealth Games which showcased some of the best athletic talent in the world and the fantastic city of Birmingham.
All bids submitted to the second round of the Levelling Up Fund, including the bids submitted by Birmingham, have been assessed in line with the published assessment framework. I cannot discuss individual bids during this period of competition, but we will announce the results of round two this year.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the £4.8 billion for the second round of the levelling up fund will be ringfenced from potential Government cuts.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I am grateful to the Hon Member for raising the second round of the Levelling Up Fund. I know local areas are eager to hear results, which the Government will look to announce before the end of the year.
Final decisions will not be taken until the new Prime Minister is in post and further information on the Government’s plans for public spending will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has plans to reduce the length of time that parking operators can pursue unpaid fines as part of the Private Parking Code of Practice.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 makes provision for the recovery of unpaid parking charges, whilst section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980 prescribes the time limit for how long a claimant has to take action through the courts to enforce the payment of a breach of contract.
The Private Parking Code of Practice will provide guidance for private parking operators about the operation and management of private parking facilities. However, it cannot overrule primary legislation or amend the statute of limitation.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
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 reissue the Private Parking Code of Practice.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to PQ 54476 on 12 October 2022.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many notifications the Regulator for Social Housing has received of a change of status from registered providers that have been (a) taken over, (b) merged and (c) changed their constitution in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 6 April 2017, not for profit registered providers have been required to notify the regulator when they are undergoing particular constitutional events which may be considered a merger, take over or constitutional changes. Those notification requirements are set out in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (as amended) and can be found in the direction about notification of constitutional changes and associated guidance.
Whilst there are other forms of merger, takeover or constitutional changes that may occur, the direction and guidance set out those that are required to be notified to the regulator. The table below shows the numbers of notifications the Regulator has received from not for profit registered providers that have been taken over, merged and changed their constitution in the last five years, in line with the direction.
| Number of notifications received | |||||
Calendar year | Transfer of Engagement * | Amalgamation * | Conversion from a registered society to a company or vice versa | Rule change relating to | ||
Becoming / ceasing to be a subsidiary | A possible change in designation | A change in charitable status | ||||
2017 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 4 |
2018 | 22 | 9 | 15 | 10 | 1 | 3 |
2019 | 14 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 1 |
2020 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1 |
2021 | 22 | 0 | 7 | 11 | 1 | 1 |
2022 up to 21/9 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
*Notifications of transfer of engagements and amalgamations can involve more than one registered provider.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the removal of the Regulator for Social Housing’s veto power over the registered provider status of organisations which are taken over, merge or fundamentally change their constitutions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government removed the need for the Regulator of Social Housing to give consent for takeovers, mergers or other fundamental constitutional changes as part of a package of deregulatory measures to ensure that housing associations would remain classified as private bodies.
Measures included in the new Social Housing Regulation Bill ensure that the Regulator will continue to have clear sight of where these changes take place and is aware of the structure of registered providers after a change has occurred.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of safeguards against dormant registered providers restarting operations with new boards or activities to avoid scrutiny from the Regulator for Social Housing.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Social Housing White Paper set out a number of measures that would ensure the Regulator has the powers it needs to scrutinise the operations of registered providers in a proportionate manner. This included the “notification of change of control”, recently introduced by government amendment to the Social Housing Regulation Bill. This measure will require registered providers to notify the Regulator where a substantial change of control over a registered provider takes place.
This is supported by the “collection of information” clause which broadens existing powers for the Regulator to access the information it needs to understand how a registered provider is operating, and in turn would help to inform any investigation into concerns about a provider’s compliance with regulatory standards.