Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future role of almshouses in providing housing to elderly people.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Almshouses have played an important role for many years in providing affordable homes, and often support, for older and other vulnerable residents in need. They provide a safe and secure environment in communities across the country, particularly in many rural areas. It is clear that almshouses, not least through the dedication and work of the trustees and volunteers who run them, will continue to play a most valuable role in the future.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the service provided by almshouses to local communities.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Almhouses have for many hundreds of years played, and continue to play, an important role in providing homes for those in need in communities across the country.
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made in his review of the effects of the one per cent rent reduction on small almshouse charities.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Social Housing Rents (Exceptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2016 provided a one year exception for almshouses from the one per cent rent reduction. We are carefully considering the approach for the second year of the reduction onwards, and my officials recently met the Almshouse Association to discuss this. Our aim is to ensure there is a workable and sustainable solution for almshouses, their residents and for taxpayers.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of proposals to impose mandatory rent reductions on social landlords of one per cent each year for four years on housing co-operatives which have had a policy of maintaining low levels of rent.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Housing Benefit bill for England in the social sector now has risen by a quarter over the last 10 years, reaching £13.2 billion in 2014/15. Rising rents in the social housing sector are fuelling this increase in Housing Benefit, with average social rent increases of 55% over the last ten years, compared to 23% in the private rented sector. In the interests of fairness the Government plans to bring rent increases within the social sector back into line with the private rented sector by cutting rents for social housing tenants by 1% a year, for four years.
The Government recognises that rent reductions may have a bigger impact on some providers and some specific types of housing and has decided to put in place a one-year exception from the rent reduction for fully mutual co-operative housing, almshouses, community land trusts and supported housing while we consider the approach for the second year of the reductions onwards.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to revise the agreement reached with the National Housing Federation on right to buy to remove references to almshouses in the table of discretionary sales.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Almshouses are exempt from the Right to Buy for council housing. This long-standing exemption will also apply to the extended Right to Buy for housing associations.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to revise the agreement reached with the National Housing Federation on right to buy to expressly state that almshouse licensees will not have the right to buy.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Almshouses are exempt from the Right to Buy for council housing. This long-standing exemption will also apply to the extended Right to Buy for housing associations.
Asked by: Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to revise the agreement reached with the National Housing Federation on right to buy to clarify that it does not cover almshouse residents.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Almshouses are exempt from the Right to Buy for council housing. This long-standing exemption will also apply to the extended Right to Buy for housing associations.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of almshouses.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
Almshouses continue to play an important role today in providing accommodation for those in need throughout the United Kingdom and have a role in responding to the huge national challenge of creating more housing specially designed for older people. Almshouses have been part of this country's life for many generations and also make a valuable contribution to our national heritage by maintaining many fine, historic buildings.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the reasons for backlogs of medical assessments for personal independence payments.
Answered by Mike Penning
We are committed to ensuring personal independence payment (PIP) claimants receive high quality, objective, fair and accurate assessments. Since the introduction of PIP new claims in April 2013, we have been closely monitoring all aspects of the process.
As personal independence payment (PIP) is a new benefit, processes are currently bedding in. Our latest analysis is telling us that the end-to-end claimant journey is taking longer than expected. We are working closely with the assessment providers to ensure that they are taking all necessary steps to improve performance, speed up the process and ensure claimants receive a satisfactory experience. We are also seeking to ensure that all the steps in the process run as smoothly as possible and that there are no barriers in our processes and systems that contribute to claims taking longer than necessary to progress.
Whilst there are no statutory (legal) requirements to complete action on a claim to PIP within a specified time, we have set both personal independence payment assessment providers a target for the length of time to complete assessments of 30 working days.
Any delays experienced in the new claims process will not affect the date from which claimants are paid; all successful claims will be paid from the date the claim was initially made or the date the qualifying period is met, whichever is the later.
As for the administration of all benefits, a claimant is free to complain about the service they have received from the Department for Work and Pensions. Complaints about the service received from our assessment providers should be made direct to the relevant assessment provider. A complaint may result in a special payment if the claimant has experienced unfair treatment or suffered financially.
The Department has robust expectations for provider performance and contracts include a full set of service level agreements setting out expectations for service delivery, including quality of assessments and the number of days to provide advice to the Department. Officials meet regularly with both assessment providers to discuss performance. The contracts include a range of remedies and failure to meet contractual obligations will result in the Department applying service credits in line with the contract.