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 houses were bought using the Right to Buy scheme in each (a) Westminster constituency and (b) local authority area in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department publishes figures annually on homes that are sold by local authorities through the Right to Buy scheme. The figures for local authorities can be found here. Data are not available on a constituency basis.
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 recent estimate he has made of the number of Ukrainians housed under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme in each London borough.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The most up to date data on arrivals through the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be accessed here .
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 discussions his Department has held with stakeholders in the student accommodation sector on the proposals in the White Paper: A fairer private rented sector.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2019 the Government published the consultation - 'A New Deal for Renting: Resetting the balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants'. This sought views on how the new tenancy system should operate, including student housing. The Department has built on the feedback received from the consultation through extensive and detailed stakeholder engagement, which fed into the proposals outlined in the White Paper - 'A Fairer Private Rented Sector'.
Since the publication of the White Paper, the Department has continued to engage with student accommodation stakeholders, and we are considering how to best support the rental market.
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 estimate of the number of home owners in each constituency.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The department runs the English Housing Survey (EHS), which collects data on the number and proportion of households in each tenure. We have published data on the number and proportion of households in owner occupation in each region, for the most recent year of data collection (2020-21). However, due to sample size, the EHS cannot give robust figures at the constituency level.
For the most recently published data, the number of owner-occupied households in each region is as follows:
North East | 752 |
North West | 2,151 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 1,518 |
East Midlands | 1,399 |
West Midlands | 1,620 |
East of England | 1,794 |
South East | 2,754 |
South West | 1,752 |
London | 1,799 |
|
|
total | 15,540 |
Full details are available in the 20-21 Private Rented Sector report, at annex table 1.2, available on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2020-to-2021-private-rented-sector.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that private landlords abide by landlord-tenant laws.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have given local authorities strong powers to ensure private landlords abide by existing legislation. We strengthened these tools through the Housing and Planning Act 2016, by introducing civil penalties of up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution, extending rent repayment orders and introducing banning orders for the most serious and prolific offenders.
The Department is working closely with local authorities to better understand the private rented sector. However, there is currently no data available to estimate the number of people who illegally sublet accommodation or the number of private landlords who fail to abide by existing legislation.
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 estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) people who illegally sublet accommodation and (b) private landlords who fail to abide by landlord-tenant laws.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have given local authorities strong powers to ensure private landlords abide by existing legislation. We strengthened these tools through the Housing and Planning Act 2016, by introducing civil penalties of up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution, extending rent repayment orders and introducing banning orders for the most serious and prolific offenders.
The Department is working closely with local authorities to better understand the private rented sector. However, there is currently no data available to estimate the number of people who illegally sublet accommodation or the number of private landlords who fail to abide by existing legislation.
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, under what circumstances vendors need an EWS1 certificate; and whether those circumstances have been accepted by mortgage lenders.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The EWS1 process was designed, and is owned, by industry and is used as a valuation tool. The requirement for and use of the EWS1 form is determined by the lending policies of banks and building societies.
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 steps he is taking to support commercial tenants for the purposes of transforming town centres.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Regenerating our town centres is essential to levelling up the country. That is why Government is -
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, pursuant to the Answer of 6 June 2022 to Question 9090, on Buildings: Safety, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) requirements for checks from the Building Safety Regulator and (b) other requirements contained in provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 on the ability of developers to meet the Government's housing target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Through the Building Safety Act, the Government is introducing a more stringent regulatory regime, overseen by the Building Safety Regulator, in design and construction for new high-rise residential buildings, care homes and hospitals which are 18 metres or more in height, or at least seven storeys.
The Government has assessed the potential impact of the new requirements through an Impact Assessment. https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3021/publications.
The Government is continuing to work towards its ambition of delivering 300,000 homes a year and we are making clear progress. From April 2019 to March 2020 over 242,000 homes were delivered - the highest level for over 30 years.
We have announced £10 billion investment in housing supply since the start of this Parliament, with our housing supply interventions due to ultimately unlock over 1 million new homes over the Spending Review 2021 period and beyond. This includes an additional £1.8 billion investment announced at Spending Review 2021.
We are also investing £11.5 billion in the new Affordable Homes Programme which will build up to 180,000 affordable homes, should economic conditions allow.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that private car park operators adhere to the Code of Practice published by his Department on 7 February 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
As my honourable friend may be aware from recent media reports, following the publication of the Private Parking Code of Practice, some private parking companies started legal proceedings against the decisions to introduce new levels of parking charges and ban additional fees. The Code has been temporarily withdrawn until these decisions are reviewed and their impact assessed.
However, my department is committed to reintroducing a Code that provides the best possible protection for motorists while giving parking companies the tools to crack down on motorists who park obstructively or dangerously.
We will continue to work with industry and consumer groups to reintroduce the Code as quickly as possible.