Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to (a) retrospectively amend and (b) amend existing unfair leasehold contracts.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We are taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act will put an end to ground rents for most new residential leasehold properties as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation. It is absolutely right that leaseholders should know about the coming changes that might affect them. We are preparing a number of activities to help with this as part of ensuring a smooth implementation of the Act.
We understand the difficulties some existing leaseholders face with high and escalating ground rents. Unfair practices have no place in the housing market and the Government is committed to ending them. This is why we asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms in the leasehold sector. The Government has welcomed the action to tackle potential mis-selling and unfair terms in the leasehold sector and wants to see homeowners who have been affected obtain the justice and redress they deserve.
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act is the first of a two-part seminal legislation programme to reform the leasehold system in this Parliament. On 7 January 2021 the Government announced reforms to enfranchisement valuation, 990-year leases, and established a new Commonhold Council. We will reform the process of enfranchisement valuation making it cheaper and simpler for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold. For leaseholders buying the freehold or extending their lease, we will also cap ground rent to 0.1% of the freehold value for the purposes of calculating the premium. We will also prescribe rates and introduce an online calculator which will make it simpler for leaseholders to find out how much it will cost them to enfranchise.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is proposing to bring existing leasehold and ground rent contracts into line with his current leasehold reform plans.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We are taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act will put an end to ground rents for most new residential leasehold properties as part of the most significant changes to property law in a generation. We understand the difficulties some existing leaseholders face with high and escalating ground rents.
Unfair practices have no place in the housing market and the Government is committed to ending them. This is why the Government asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms in the leasehold sector. The Government has welcomed the action to tackle potential mis-selling and unfair terms in the leasehold sector and wants to see homeowners who have been affected obtain the justice and redress they deserve.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to ensure that the environmental health profession is supported through adequate (a) funding and (b) skills and training to deliver its services.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
We understand that regulatory services teams, including environmental health officers, have faced significant pressures during the period of pandemic response. The Regulatory Services Task and Finish Group, which was set up by the Department in December 2020, has considered these issues in partnership with the Local Government Association and with senior colleagues from local authorities. The Group is currently finalising a set of recommendations which will aim to support the development and retention of a skilled environmental health workforce.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to make additional resources available to increase the number of apprentices in environmental health training within local authorities.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
To ensure the effective operation of regulatory services teams, the Department convened the Regulatory Services Task and Finish Group in December 2020. The purpose of this group is to help coordinate central government’s expectations of local regulatory services and to propose short and long-term options to support the sector. The Group has already taken action to help local authorities (LAs) manage the capacity of their regulatory services teams. In January 2021 the Group issued LAs with a letter setting out government’s perspective on priority regulatory activities to help LAs to prioritise their resources during the pressures of the winter period. In March 2021, the Group produced a forward look of upcoming regulatory activities coming into effect in the next year to assist LAs with their forward planning.
The Group is now focussed on developing a suite of recommendations to address the immediate and systemic issues faced by local authority regulatory services teams. These recommendations will consider areas including the availability and number of apprentices in regulatory services teams.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to help ensure that (a) environmental health and (b) other local regulatory services are operating effectively with sufficient resources.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
To ensure the effective operation of regulatory services teams, the Department convened the Regulatory Services Task and Finish Group in December 2020. The purpose of this group is to help coordinate central government’s expectations of local regulatory services and to propose short and long-term options to support the sector. The Group has already taken action to help local authorities (LAs) manage the capacity of their regulatory services teams. In January 2021 the Group issued LAs with a letter setting out government’s perspective on priority regulatory activities to help LAs to prioritise their resources during the pressures of the winter period. In March 2021, the Group produced a forward look of upcoming regulatory activities coming into effect in the next year to assist LAs with their forward planning.
The Group is now focussed on developing a suite of recommendations to address the immediate and systemic issues faced by local authority regulatory services teams. These recommendations will consider areas including the availability and number of apprentices in regulatory services teams.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to Homes England's press release of 8 December 2020 on the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on housing starts, if his Department will ensure that buyers already in the process of purchasing properties will not lose access to Help to Buy scheme finance in the event of covid-related delays to the construction of their properties.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Following the initial effects of Covid-19 there was a hiatus to construction during the first national lockdown. That is why the Government working with Homes England on 31 July announced changes to the Help to Buy contractual deadlines, which provided developers an extra two months’ build time. This gave developers using Help to Buy until 28 February 2021 to build out properties, with the deadline for legal completion remaining at 31 March 2021. However, additionally, where reservations were agreed before 30 June 2020, they were granted some further flexibility allowing such reservations to practically complete by 30 April and legally complete by 31 May 2021.
Working in line with sector guidance, the construction industry has been allowed to continue during the subsequent Covid-19 restrictions. Reservations for the current scheme were closed on 15 December, providing builders sufficient time to complete their orders.
Meanwhile, to mitigate against the risk of outstanding reservations not completing in time, Homes England announced on 15 January that it will not enforce the practical completion deadline of 28 February 2021 for the current scheme, thereby maximising the remaining time available time for developers to build out.
These measures provide relief for developers to build out homes delayed by Covid-19. We nevertheless continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the deadline for applications to the Building Safety Fund will be extended.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The timelines for the Building Fund, set out in the prospectus, are intended to incentivise building owners to demonstrate pace of progression with their remediation plans for unsafe buildings. We will keep timelines under review as we continue through the application process.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the capacity of the construction industry to carry out cladding remediation work.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
From the outset of the Building Safety Programme, the Department has engaged industry to ensure sufficient capacity exists to meet demand and to have arrangements in place to address any blockages in the supply chain.
We are providing £600 million to speed up the removal of the most dangerous ACM cladding, making homes safer, quicker. We are also providing £1 billion to remove other forms of unsafe cladding
Where funding alone has not been enough to increase the pace of remediation we have provided direct expert support to projects.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 Fifth Report of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Building Safety Bill, published on 24 November 2020, HC 466, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for building remediation works.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In the March 2020 budget, the Government announced that it will provide £1 billion in 2020/21 to support the remediation of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on residential buildings 18 metres and over, in both the private and social housing sectors. This funding is in addition to the £600 million which Government has already made available to ensure remediation of the highest risk ACM cladding, the type that was in place on Grenfell Tower.
This will go a long way to addressing the most significant safety risks and, in many cases, address the costliest remediation works necessary.
Government’s decision to place the scope of the Building Safety Fund at buildings over 18m reflects the exceptional fire risk that certain cladding products pose at that height, as previously noted by the Independent Expert Advisory Panel and Dame Judith Hackitt.
Government support is focused on cladding because unsafe cladding acts as an accelerant to fire spread, and funding will remove any financial barriers to remediation proceeding.
Our impact assessment also identifies work not related to cladding that will need to be remediated. Michael Wade, senior adviser to?MHCLG, is accelerating work with leaseholders and the financial sector to identify financing solutions that defend leaseholders from unaffordable costs of building safety works while ensuring that taxpayers are protected.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support and regulations he has put in place nationwide to protect and rehouse relatives who have been sharing accommodation but then become ineligible for that size property when a resident family member passes away; and if he will take steps to assess the effectiveness of legislation on evicting remaining resident family members to ensure that they do not become homeless.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Localism Act 2011 has made changes to the rules on succession to social tenancies. From April 2012, rather than being limited by law to providing only one statutory succession, social landlords are able to give to new tenants whatever additional succession rights they deem to be appropriate in the tenancy agreement. This means that, for example, adult children who have lived in a property for many years can be provided with the assurance of a right to succeed to the tenancy regardless of whether a previous succession has already taken place.
In addition social landlords are able to grant, to those who remain in the home after the death of the tenant but have no succession rights, a new tenancy on the same or another more suitable property, provided that is in line with their own policies for allocating tenancies.
On 18 November I wrote to all local housing authorities to encourage them to consider how they can make best use of these existing flexibilities and to ask them to provide examples of good practice so that these can be shared more widely.
In addition, where family members other than a spouse or partner have a statutory right to succeed to a local authority tenancy, the landlord may seek to evict them if the property is or will become under-occupied. However, the landlord must ensure that suitable alternative accommodation is made available.