Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
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 impact of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 on airspace development.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department conducted an impact assessment for the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2022 which included the impact of the Act’s provisions on development and housing supply. The assessment can be found here.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
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 airspace development to help tackle housing shortages.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises the value of upward extensions in delivering urban intensification where appropriate. We are consulting on further support for upward extensions as part of our consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system, which began on Tuesday 30 July and closes on Tuesday 24 September.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
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 restricting the sale of a proportion of new homes to those under 30.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government wants to help first-time buyers of all ages. In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, the Government has committed to introducing a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme and to giving first-time buyers the first chance to buy homes.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
Announcements will be set out in the usual way.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
I refer the Hon Member to published guidance Remediation costs: what leaseholders do and do not have to pay.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
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.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 95817 2 December 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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
I refer the Hon Member to the written statement made by my Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State (HCWS447) on 14 December 2022.