Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the last three years.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
None.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether any refurbishments have been made to ministerial offices in his Department in each of the last two years.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
No significant refurbishments have been made to ministerial offices in London or Wolverhampton during the last two years, but in line with the practice of successive administrations details of departmental expenditure are set out regularly.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 impact of building safety remediation costs on housing associations’ ability to deliver new social housing.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
As set out previously, Government recognises that building safety remediation represents a significant cost for some housing associations. The Building Safety Act provided new measures to allow Registered Providers (RPs) to pursue those who were responsible for defective work.
The Government has committed £400 million to support RPs to remove and replace unsafe ACM cladding on buildings over 18 metres. RPs are also able to access the £4.5 billion Building Safety Fund (BSF) and the new Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) for remediating unsafe cladding on buildings over 11 metres in relation to costs that would otherwise have been attributable to their leaseholders.
RPs can apply for additional BSF or CSS funding where their financial viability is jeopardised. We also expect some RPs to benefit from the remediation pledges made by housebuilders.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many settlement payments his Department issued following claims of (a) bullying, (b) harassment and (c) discrimination in the (i) 2019-20, (ii) 2020-21, (iii) 2021-22 and (iv) 2022-23 financial years.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details will be withheld to avoid identifying individuals when numbers involved are five or fewer.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether there have been any power cuts on their Department's property in each of the last three years.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
DLUHC does not maintain a central register of power cuts.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data their Department holds on the (a) number and (b) cost of replacing (i) laptops, (ii) mobile phones, (iii) memory sticks and (iv) external hard drives that have been (A) lost and (B) stolen in the last 12 months.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This department has over 3,500 staff and almost all have access to devices to enable them to work effectively.
Sadly, on rare occasions, some devices are lost or stolen. This is not a unique problem for Government and I note that according to the Huffington Post ‘Sheffield Lib Dems HQ [was] burgled’ in 2019 leading to local campaign organiser Kurtis Crossland appealing for ‘replacement laptops and mobile phones.’ A link to this article is available here.
In 2022, this department recorded ten lost/stolen laptops and eight lost/stolen phones – which is a very small proportion of total devices.
All departmental IT is security encrypted. The department does not provide or support memory sticks or external drives. Details of Government contracts are published online. Departmental security investigates each reported loss from the department. There has been no reported data loss or compromise as a result of these losses.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recommendations of the report entitled Housing Association Service Charges Abuse published by the Social Housing Action Campaign in July 2023.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government welcomes the report from the Social Housing Action Campaign on housing association service charges. We believe that any charges to leaseholders and social housing tenants should be transparent and communicated effectively, and there should be a clear route to challenge them if things go wrong.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 impact of poor quality housing on (a) outcomes for people with (i) respiratory and (ii) chronic health conditions and (b) the cost of healthcare provision.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 126650 on 26 January 2023.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 impact of changes in the level of spending on legal disrepair cases on the prevalence of health conditions caused by poor quality housing.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 126650 on 26 January 2023.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the Final Report of the Regulation of Property Agents Working Group, published in July 2019; and whether he plans to introduce legislation to create an independent body to regulate managing agents.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is considering the recommendations in the final report on the regulation of property agents from Lord Best's working group. We will continue to work with industry on improving best practice. Announcements will be set out in the usual way.