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Written Question
Park Homes: Sales
Monday 29th January 2024

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

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 respond to the report commissioned by his Department entitled The impact of a change in the maximum park home sale commission, published in June 2022.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Announcements will be set out in the usual way.


Written Question
Buildings: Fire Prevention
Tuesday 12th September 2023

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to publish online guidance for leaseholders who do not qualify for protection under the Building Safety Act 2022 on the circumstances in which they are required to pay for cladding remediation costs.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

I refer the Hon Member to published guidance Remediation costs: what leaseholders do and do not have to pay.


Written Question
Buildings: Safety
Tuesday 11th July 2023

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether developers that are found not to need to undertake remediation work on their properties will be allowed to leave the Responsible Actors Scheme without sanction.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The regulations provide that a developer is only be eligible for the Scheme if they have developed or refurbished specific types of residential buildings relevant to the Scheme. Once a developer has joined the Scheme, Regulation 27 enables membership to be ended without sanction where the member has substantially satisfied their obligations under the Scheme.


Written Question
Buildings: Safety
Wednesday 5th July 2023

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the Responsible Actors Scheme does not apply to companies connected to developers that have no direct responsibilities for development.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Building Safety (Responsible Actors Scheme and Prohibitions) Regulations 2023 were signed into law on 3 July. We intend to launch the Scheme this Summer.

The eligibility criteria include a £10 million per annum average operating profits threshold, in order to make sure that the Scheme's initial focus is on substantial, profitable businesses. Companies that developed defective buildings but do not meet the profits threshold will be able to join the Scheme voluntarily, and we intend to extend the Scheme to cover all developers who have developed defective residential buildings over 11m and should be paying to fix them. The Building Safety Act 2022 also provides other ways to pursue developers who were responsible for unsafe buildings.

The regulations make it possible for entities which are controlled by a prohibited developer but are not in the building industry to apply for an exception from the prohibitions.


Written Question
Buildings: Safety
Wednesday 5th July 2023

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that unprofitable developers that built faulty and dangerous buildings are accountable under the Responsible Actors Scheme.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Building Safety (Responsible Actors Scheme and Prohibitions) Regulations 2023 were signed into law on 3 July. We intend to launch the Scheme this Summer.

The eligibility criteria include a £10 million per annum average operating profits threshold, in order to make sure that the Scheme's initial focus is on substantial, profitable businesses. Companies that developed defective buildings but do not meet the profits threshold will be able to join the Scheme voluntarily, and we intend to extend the Scheme to cover all developers who have developed defective residential buildings over 11m and should be paying to fix them. The Building Safety Act 2022 also provides other ways to pursue developers who were responsible for unsafe buildings.

The regulations make it possible for entities which are controlled by a prohibited developer but are not in the building industry to apply for an exception from the prohibitions.


Written Question
Local Government: Remote Meetings
Tuesday 4th July 2023

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress his Department has made on reviewing the responses to the call for evidence on local authority remote meetings that closed on 17 June 2021; when he plans to publish the Government's response to that consultation; and for what reason the Department has not published its response as of 29 June 2023.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 95817 2 December 2022.


Written Question
Homes for Ukraine Scheme
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

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 assist Ukrainian refugees seeking to rent accommodation in the private sector following the end of their initial family placement under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

I refer the Hon Member to the written statement made by my Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State (HCWS447) on 14 December 2022.


Written Question
Sheltered Housing
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

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 merits of introducing legislation to protect residents of retirement villages and for setting minimum standards for operators of retirement communities.

Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

In the Levelling Up White Paper, we committed to a new taskforce on the issue of older people's housing, which will look at ways we can provide greater choice, quality and security of housing for older people, and support the growth of a thriving older people's housing sector in this country.

Where retirement housing providers are registered with the Regulator of Social Housing, the Regulator has the role of ensuring that providers are well-managed and are able to meet the regulatory standards.

The Care Quality Commission oversees standards of personal care services in housing-with-care retirement settings irrespective of housing tenure.


Written Question
Housing
Monday 17th October 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the standard method for calculating local housing need provided by his Department for local authorities.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The standard method for calculating local housing need has been in place since 2018. The Government keeps all elements of its policies under review and, should there be announcements to make, will do so in the usual way and in due course.


Written Question
Local Plans: Greenbelt
Wednesday 8th June 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if the Government will make it its policy to make it mandatory for a planning inspector to visit any site that is being proposed for removal from the green belt as part of a local development plan.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Paragraph 140 of the National Planning Policy Framework states that 'once established, Green Belt boundaries should only be altered where exceptional circumstances are fully evidenced and justified, through the preparation or updating of plans'


All local plans must be submitted for independent examination by an inspector. Where a local authority is proposing to amend Green Belt boundaries, it is for the inspector to decide if exceptional circumstances have been adequately demonstrated, and ultimately, whether the local plan is 'sound' and can be adopted.

Government policy on local plan examination site visits is set out in paragraph 3.23 of 'Procedure Guide for Local Plan Examinations’. It states that: 'The Inspector will decide which sites and locations they need to visit in order to assess the soundness of the plan and may also undertake a familiarisation tour of the area. Site visits may take place at any time during the examination'.