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 impacts of storms over the winter of 2021-22 on (a) social housing and (b) the number of outstanding repair requests in (i) Newcastle and (ii) the North East.

The impacts of severe weather events, such as those resulting from storms over the winter of 2021-2022 are traumatic for those communities they impact, and the Government has support routes in place to assist local authorities for emergencies such as these. However, following Storms Arwen, Malik and Corrie the flooding impacts reported did not support activation of these schemes. No specific additional funding was available for local authorities to repair social housing.

All social rented homes are still required to meet the Government's Decent Homes Standard. The Standard requires that homes are free of serious hazards, are in a reasonable state of repair, have reasonably modern facilities and services such as kitchens and bathrooms, and have efficient heating and effective insulation.

This Government has set an ambitious mission to halve the number of non-decent homes, to drive up standards, in all rented sectors by 2030 with the biggest improvements in the lowest-performing areas.