Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had discussions with (a) housing associations and (b) local authorities on the full provision of flooring social housing.
Answered by Jacob Young
Landlords must ensure homes are of a decent standard and investigate and respond to complaints quickly. All residents have the right to a safe, warm and decent home. If residents are unhappy, they can contact the Housing Ombudsman.
The Government is currently reviewing the Decent Homes Standard and has been considering the question of floor coverings in social housing as part of this work.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2023 to Question 190204 on Housing Ombudsman Service: Complaints, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time for the Housing Ombudsman Service to respond to complaints made regarding (a) housing associations and (b) the private rental sector.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Department holds Accounting Officer meetings quarterly with the Ombudsman, where the focus is on tracking progress against performance indicators, including complaint handling times.
Recognising the growing demand, the Department has supported the Ombudsman by approving year on year increases in membership fees to increase numbers of staff dealing with social housing and private rented sector complaints.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of average changes in levels of (a) rent and (b) service changes for shared ownership tenants in housing associations over the last two years on tenants affected.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Shared ownership rents are increased annually in accordance with the terms of the lease. We are however aware of the impact that inflation has had on rents. That is why we welcome the fact that housing associations representing 95% of the sector's shared ownership homes have confirmed - through the National Housing Federation - that they will voluntarily limit rent increases to no more than 7% in 2023-24. We are pleased to note that a significant number of for-profit providers and local authorities have also chosen to adopt this approach. This is a sensible and proportionate measure to protect shared owners from particularly high rent increases, in response to cost of living concerns.
Service charges must reflect the cost of providing services to leaseholders and they should be supplied with clear information about how their charges are set, including any increases. If a shared ownership leaseholder is dissatisfied with this process, they can make an official complaint to their landlord. If this does not resolve the matter, they may be able to ask the Housing Ombudsman to investigate the complaint in some cases. The Ombudsman does not investigate complaints about the level of service charges (or the level of increase), but it may investigate complaints about the calculation, collection, or communication of service charges.
The Government recognises that the existing statutory requirements do not go far enough to enable leaseholders to identify and challenge unfair costs. We will take action to support and empower leasehold homeowners and are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of average changes in levels of rent for shared ownership tenants in housing associations over the last two years.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Shared ownership rents are increased annually in accordance with the terms of the lease. We are however aware of the impact that inflation has had on rents. That is why we welcome the fact that housing associations representing 95% of the sector's shared ownership homes have confirmed - through the National Housing Federation - that they will voluntarily limit rent increases to no more than 7% in 2023-24. We are pleased to note that a significant number of for-profit providers and local authorities have also chosen to adopt this approach. This is a sensible and proportionate measure to protect shared owners from particularly high rent increases, in response to cost of living concerns.
Service charges must reflect the cost of providing services to leaseholders and they should be supplied with clear information about how their charges are set, including any increases. If a shared ownership leaseholder is dissatisfied with this process, they can make an official complaint to their landlord. If this does not resolve the matter, they may be able to ask the Housing Ombudsman to investigate the complaint in some cases. The Ombudsman does not investigate complaints about the level of service charges (or the level of increase), but it may investigate complaints about the calculation, collection, or communication of service charges.
The Government recognises that the existing statutory requirements do not go far enough to enable leaseholders to identify and challenge unfair costs. We will take action to support and empower leasehold homeowners and are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the average increase in service charges for shared ownership tenants in housing associations in the last two years.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Shared ownership rents are increased annually in accordance with the terms of the lease. We are however aware of the impact that inflation has had on rents. That is why we welcome the fact that housing associations representing 95% of the sector's shared ownership homes have confirmed - through the National Housing Federation - that they will voluntarily limit rent increases to no more than 7% in 2023-24. We are pleased to note that a significant number of for-profit providers and local authorities have also chosen to adopt this approach. This is a sensible and proportionate measure to protect shared owners from particularly high rent increases, in response to cost of living concerns.
Service charges must reflect the cost of providing services to leaseholders and they should be supplied with clear information about how their charges are set, including any increases. If a shared ownership leaseholder is dissatisfied with this process, they can make an official complaint to their landlord. If this does not resolve the matter, they may be able to ask the Housing Ombudsman to investigate the complaint in some cases. The Ombudsman does not investigate complaints about the level of service charges (or the level of increase), but it may investigate complaints about the calculation, collection, or communication of service charges.
The Government recognises that the existing statutory requirements do not go far enough to enable leaseholders to identify and challenge unfair costs. We will take action to support and empower leasehold homeowners and are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to limit (a) rent and (b) service charge increases for shared ownership tenants in line with inflation.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Shared ownership rents are increased annually in accordance with the terms of the lease. We are however aware of the impact that inflation has had on rents. That is why we welcome the fact that housing associations representing 95% of the sector's shared ownership homes have confirmed - through the National Housing Federation - that they will voluntarily limit rent increases to no more than 7% in 2023-24. We are pleased to note that a significant number of for-profit providers and local authorities have also chosen to adopt this approach. This is a sensible and proportionate measure to protect shared owners from particularly high rent increases, in response to cost of living concerns.
Service charges must reflect the cost of providing services to leaseholders and they should be supplied with clear information about how their charges are set, including any increases. If a shared ownership leaseholder is dissatisfied with this process, they can make an official complaint to their landlord. If this does not resolve the matter, they may be able to ask the Housing Ombudsman to investigate the complaint in some cases. The Ombudsman does not investigate complaints about the level of service charges (or the level of increase), but it may investigate complaints about the calculation, collection, or communication of service charges.
The Government recognises that the existing statutory requirements do not go far enough to enable leaseholders to identify and challenge unfair costs. We will take action to support and empower leasehold homeowners and are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) capping service charge rises at the rate of CPI inflation, (b) requiring housing association landlords to publish an annual independent audit of service charges, (c) implementing a requirement for housing associations to fully itemise bills and accompany them with validated receipts and (d) requiring the boards of housing associations to improve monitoring of (i) service charges and (ii) complaints systems.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to works or services, the works or services must be of a reasonable standard.
We believe that 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.
With regard specifically to social housing tenants I refer the Hon. Member to the oral answers given on 27 March 2023 (Official Report, HC, Volume 730, Column 644) and to the answers given to Question UIN 114788 on 13 January 2023 and Question UIN 86547 on 23 November 2022.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what forms of redress are available for those with complaints against letting agencies where they are not members of recognised industry standards associations.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As part of a fair and just housing system, the Government is committed to making sure that landlords and tenants are protected from abuse and poor service. This is why we introduced in October 2014 a legal requirement for letting and managing agents in England to belong to one of the two Government-approved redress schemes. Agents who fail to comply can be fined up to £5,000. The two schemes are: The Property Ombudsman (https://www.tpos.co.uk/) and the Property Redress Scheme (https://www.theprs.co.uk/).
Whether or not letting agencies choose to also be members of an industry standards association, landlords and agents have access to redress via the redress schemes.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendation in End Our Cladding Scandal's Dereliction of Duty report, published on 20 February 2022, on strengthening the role of the Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman to ensure that (a) housing associations are held to account for their obligations relating to building safety and (b) leaseholders are able to obtain appropriate redress in circumstances where a housing association is found to have failed to uphold those obligations; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Regulator of Social Housing's consumer regulation function is primarily responsible for regulating landlords in their delivery of services to tenants, and in some cases shared owners. The Regulator of Social Housing does not have a legal remit on protections for leaseholders. Leaseholders in properties owned by registered providers have different arrangements than tenants - they operate under the terms of a lease rather than a tenancy agreement, which are subject to separate legal and contractual requirements.
The Housing Ombudsman Service's role is to resolve disputes involving tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (housing associations and local authorities). The Housing Ombudsman's role is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and The Housing Ombudsman Scheme approved by the Secretary of State. We have strengthened the Housing Ombudsman's powers and increased their resources to help improve performance and delivery of services. This has enabled the Housing Ombudsman to publish important work such as their Spotlight reports into leasehold, cladding, damp and mould in social housing.
Through the Building Safety Bill, we will be ensuring that building owners of higher-risk buildings have clear accountabilities for managing building safety as Accountable Persons. This will include housing associations and other social housing providers. Leaseholders and residents will have a clear voice under the new regime and will be empowered to hold their Accountable Person to account. They will have the ability to raise and escalate complaints to the Regulator of Building Safety for breach of building safety obligations. We are also laying a series of amendments to the Building Safety Bill to require that historical safety defects in any building above 11 metres or five storeys owned by a landlord associated with that developer must be fixed by them. Building owners that can afford to pay must not pass any costs relating to remediating those historical safety defects to leaseholders.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on housing associations engaging residents of shared accommodation with the outcome of (a) fire inspections and (b) any requirements that result from those inspections.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Housing associations must meet the obligations, on all landlords, requiring resident engagement regarding fire inspections. Housing associations who are registered with the Regulator of Social Housing must also meet the regulator's Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard, ensuring tenants are provided with accessible, relevant and timely information, including on progress of repairs work, and that tenants are given a wide range of opportunities to influence and be involved in the management of their homes.
The Building Safety Bill will ensure that every in scope residential building (18 metres and higher and/or 7 storeys or more), including those belonging to housing associations, must have a resident engagement strategy produced by the Accountable Person. This will provide residents with access to key safety information about their building. Accountable Persons must also establish a formal complaints process for residents to raise concerns - ensuring residents' voices are heard with parity and consistency.
In addition, the Bill requires that the Building Safety Regulator must establish its own process to deal with the safety concerns of residents of high-rise residential buildings, providing a further channel to ensure complaints are handled fairly, and can be escalated effectively.
Finally, the Building Safety Bill will also amend the Fire Safety Order to require Responsible Persons for buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises to provide residents with comprehensible information about relevant fire safety matters.
This will mean that residents have access to relevant fire safety information to help ensure they feel safe and are safe from fire in their homes.