Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the independent report entitled Regulation of Property Agents: working group report, published on 18 July 2019.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 41307 on 2 April 2025.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her timetable is for consulting on mandatory qualifications for managing agents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 41307 on 2 April 2025.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Written Statement of 21 November 2024 on Leasehold and Commonhold Reform, HCWS244, what her planned timeline is for (a) reforms of and (b) consultations on the leasehold system.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November (HCWS244).
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has made an assessment of the merits of reforming linked estate charges.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November (HCWS244).
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance her Department has issued on the apportionment of cladding remediation costs between occupants of shared ownership properties and full owner occupiers where properties of both tenures exist within the same building.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The responsibility for undertaking cladding remediation and, in the majority of cases, paying for the works will rest with the landlord of the building. This is correct for both shared ownership and for owner occupiers.
Where a responsible developer cannot be identified, traced, or held responsible, leaseholders can benefit from the funding available for cladding repairs on residential buildings over 11 metres in height in England. The Building Safety Fund still provides funding for some buildings over 18m in height in the Greater London Area.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support her Department is providing to occupants of shared ownership properties with cladding remediation costs.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The responsibility for undertaking cladding remediation and, in the majority of cases, paying for the works will rest with the landlord of the building. This is correct for both shared ownership and for owner occupiers.
Where a responsible developer cannot be identified, traced, or held responsible, leaseholders can benefit from the funding available for cladding repairs on residential buildings over 11 metres in height in England. The Building Safety Fund still provides funding for some buildings over 18m in height in the Greater London Area.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 (a) lower the threshold for right to manage applications and (b) increase the maximum proportion of commercial property permissible for right to manage applications to occur.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has commenced the Right to Manage measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. They came into effect on 3 March 2025.
These changes implement the Law Commission recommendation to increase the non-residential floorspace limit from 25 to 50 per cent for Right to Manage claims. This means that more leaseholders in mixed-use buildings will qualify for the right to manage, gaining control over the management of their building. Further changes mean that leaseholders making right to manage claims will no longer have to pay their freeholder’s process costs for that claim.
Over the course of this Parliament, the government will enact remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to the Right to Manage. We do not plan to lower the participation requirement or further increase the non-residential limit for the Right to Manage at this time but will continue to evaluate how the Right to Manage operates following the recent changes.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support she is providing to housing associations, in the context of costs associated with the Building Safety Act 2022.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Social landlords, including Housing Associations, can apply to the Building Safety Fund and the Cladding Safety Scheme where the cost of remediating a building would threaten the financial viability of the landlord or to cover costs which - without the protections of the Building Safety Act - could have been passed on to leaseholders and shared owners. As of November 2024, social landlords had been allocated £568 million by government remediation schemes. From April 2025, we will increase funding for social landlords applying for government remediation funding so that remedial works can start sooner. We are working with the sector to develop a long-term social housing remediation strategy.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 made an estimate of costs for housing associations related to the remediation of aluminium composite material cladding.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In 2018, government estimated that the cost of removing and replacing unsafe ACM cladding on 18m+ social residential buildings would be approximately £400 million. As of March 2025, 144 high rise buildings had entered the Social Sector ACM Fund. To date, government schemes approved allocation of c.£297 million towards remediating those buildings, including c.£101 million for buildings owned by Housing Associations.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential reasons for housing associations selling homes previously let out for social rent.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) publishes annual statistics relating to the social housing stock owned and managed by Private Registered Providers in England, including information on stock lost from the sector. Sales for non-social use in 2023/24 were recorded as 4,341 homes. Further information can be found on gov.uk here.
RSH’s analysis suggests that providers are undertaking fixed asset sales for a variety of reasons. These include stock rationalisation and disposal of uneconomic properties, as well as generating receipts to support reinvestment in new and existing stock.