Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the number of people in the private rented sector due to a lack of social housing.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
According to the most recent data from the English Housing Survey from 2022/23, 6% (280,000) of Household Reference Persons in the private rented sector reported that someone in their home is on the waiting list for social housing.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of introducing rent controls; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on Local Housing Allowance expenditure on private rent.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has been clear it does not support rent controls and has not discussed their introduction at a local authority level.
We believe that rent controls could make life more difficult for private renters, both in terms of incentivising landlords to increase rents routinely up to a cap where they might otherwise not have done, and in pushing many landlords out of the market, thereby making it even harder for renters to find a home they can afford.
The Renters’ Rights Bill will empower private rented sector tenants to challenge unreasonable within-tenancy rent increases.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has had recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on introducing rent controls at a local authority level.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has been clear it does not support rent controls and has not discussed their introduction at a local authority level.
We believe that rent controls could make life more difficult for private renters, both in terms of incentivising landlords to increase rents routinely up to a cap where they might otherwise not have done, and in pushing many landlords out of the market, thereby making it even harder for renters to find a home they can afford.
The Renters’ Rights Bill will empower private rented sector tenants to challenge unreasonable within-tenancy rent increases.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to ensure that annual increases in fees paid by leaseholders to management are capped in line with inflation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The level of service charge that leaseholders pay depends on many factors, including the terms of a lease, and the age and condition of a building. As a result, the cost of repairs, maintenance of common areas, and management fees vary considerably. Placing a cap on service charge increases would not only be complex but could prove detrimental to the interests of leaseholders, including those who have collectively enfranchised, by preventing sufficient funds being raised to manage and maintain their buildings effectively. As such, the Government have no plans to implement one.
By law variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to works or services, the works or services must be of a reasonable standard. Should leaseholders wish to contest the reasonableness of their service charges they may make an application to the appropriate tribunal.
The Government will act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, including those designed to increase service charge transparency and to rebalance the legal costs regime and remove barriers for leaseholders to challenge their landlord.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the (a) health and wellbeing and (b) housing needs of people experiencing homelessness.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The DPM is responsible for cross-governmental coordination of policy to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping and will update in due course.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of developing a youth homeless strategy.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises that homelessness levels are far too high and this can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people. We will look at these issues carefully and will consider youth homelessness as we develop our long-term, cross-government strategy to get us back on track to ending homelessness.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to reduce levels of homelessness in winter 2024-25.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness and rough sleeping once and for all.
Whilst we develop our new strategy, the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) is providing £547 million over the period from April 2022 to March 2025 to 300 local authorities across England for local, tailored rough sleeping services.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to help planning authorities prioritise reducing health inequalities.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As part of the current government consultation on reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, we are seeking views on proposed changes intended to ensure that the planning system supports the increased provision and modernisation of key public services infrastructure, such as hospitals, and enables the planning system to do more to support the creation of healthy places, such as through policies to help tackling childhood obesity.
The consultation is open until 24 September and we will use the responses we receive to inform future steps.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to end ground rent.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government will act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights. This includes driving up the transparency of service charges and reducing barriers for leaseholders to challenge their landlord. Over the course of this Parliament the Government will go further by enacting remaining Law Commission recommendations and tackling unregulated and unaffordable ground rent charges.
The Government will take steps to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end and reinvigorate commonhold by modernising the legal framework. We will also ban the sale of new leasehold flats. The Government will consult on the best way to achieve this, so that generations to come will benefit from absolute homeownership.
Our planned reforms to empower leaseholders and provide new and existing homeowners with greater security will help ensure landlords and managing agents are better held to account for management failures. It will also make it easier for leaseholders to take on management of their buildings themselves so they can directly appoint or replace agents.
The Government intends to bring forward draft legislation so that it may be subject to broad consultation and additional scrutiny by Parliament. It is only right that the Government takes its time when dealing with such a complex subject to make sure that any future legislation gets it right.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether it is her policy to bring forward legislative proposals to convert existing leasehold properties to commonhold.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government will act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights. This includes driving up the transparency of service charges and reducing barriers for leaseholders to challenge their landlord. Over the course of this Parliament the Government will go further by enacting remaining Law Commission recommendations and tackling unregulated and unaffordable ground rent charges.
The Government will take steps to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end and reinvigorate commonhold by modernising the legal framework. We will also ban the sale of new leasehold flats. The Government will consult on the best way to achieve this, so that generations to come will benefit from absolute homeownership.
Our planned reforms to empower leaseholders and provide new and existing homeowners with greater security will help ensure landlords and managing agents are better held to account for management failures. It will also make it easier for leaseholders to take on management of their buildings themselves so they can directly appoint or replace agents.
The Government intends to bring forward draft legislation so that it may be subject to broad consultation and additional scrutiny by Parliament. It is only right that the Government takes its time when dealing with such a complex subject to make sure that any future legislation gets it right.