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Written Question
Housing: Standards
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to help improve the living conditions in (a) local authority, (b) housing association and (c) private housing.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is committed to halving the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030, building on the strong progress already made in improving the standards of rented homes since 2010. We are clear that everyone deserves to live in a home that is decent, safe and secure. We will bring the private rented sector under the scope of a Decent Homes Standard for the first time and have introduced Awaab’s Law, which will require social landlords to address hazards within a fixed time period.

The English Housing Survey sets out levels of overcrowding and damp and mould in rented homes and details of the findings are available online.

Our consolidated damp and mould guidance, developed with the Department for Health and Social Care covers the impacts of damp and mould on health, and sets out how all landlords in the private and rented sectors should address damp and mould.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities wrote to all providers of social housing and to all local authority chief executives. In these letters he set out his expectation that providers go further than the letter of the Decent Homes Standard, and have particular regard to damp and mould, and that local authorities should take action to resolve poor housing conditions in their area.

As I set out in my answer to Question UIN 8866 on 17 January 2024, we are committed to reducing overcrowding by increasing the supply of affordable housing and enabling councils and other social landlords to make better use of their existing stock. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.


Written Question
Housing: Mould and Overcrowding
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of overcrowding on levels of (a) damp and (b) mould in homes.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is committed to halving the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030, building on the strong progress already made in improving the standards of rented homes since 2010. We are clear that everyone deserves to live in a home that is decent, safe and secure. We will bring the private rented sector under the scope of a Decent Homes Standard for the first time and have introduced Awaab’s Law, which will require social landlords to address hazards within a fixed time period.

The English Housing Survey sets out levels of overcrowding and damp and mould in rented homes and details of the findings are available online.

Our consolidated damp and mould guidance, developed with the Department for Health and Social Care covers the impacts of damp and mould on health, and sets out how all landlords in the private and rented sectors should address damp and mould.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities wrote to all providers of social housing and to all local authority chief executives. In these letters he set out his expectation that providers go further than the letter of the Decent Homes Standard, and have particular regard to damp and mould, and that local authorities should take action to resolve poor housing conditions in their area.

As I set out in my answer to Question UIN 8866 on 17 January 2024, we are committed to reducing overcrowding by increasing the supply of affordable housing and enabling councils and other social landlords to make better use of their existing stock. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.


Written Question
Social Rented Housing: Mould and Overcrowding
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with the social housing sector on the links between the prevalence of (a) damp and (b) mould and overcrowding.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is committed to halving the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030, building on the strong progress already made in improving the standards of rented homes since 2010. We are clear that everyone deserves to live in a home that is decent, safe and secure. We will bring the private rented sector under the scope of a Decent Homes Standard for the first time and have introduced Awaab’s Law, which will require social landlords to address hazards within a fixed time period.

The English Housing Survey sets out levels of overcrowding and damp and mould in rented homes and details of the findings are available online.

Our consolidated damp and mould guidance, developed with the Department for Health and Social Care covers the impacts of damp and mould on health, and sets out how all landlords in the private and rented sectors should address damp and mould.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities wrote to all providers of social housing and to all local authority chief executives. In these letters he set out his expectation that providers go further than the letter of the Decent Homes Standard, and have particular regard to damp and mould, and that local authorities should take action to resolve poor housing conditions in their area.

As I set out in my answer to Question UIN 8866 on 17 January 2024, we are committed to reducing overcrowding by increasing the supply of affordable housing and enabling councils and other social landlords to make better use of their existing stock. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing: Deposits
Monday 29th January 2024

Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will introduce a low interest deposit scheme for people seeking entry-level rental accommodation in the private sector.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government does not have plans to introduce a low interest deposit scheme for the private rented sector. Local authorities may offer deposit guarantee or bond schemes to people on low incomes or at risk of homelessness.

Councils can choose to use Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) or Homelessness Prevention Grant funding to provide rent deposits for people in financial difficulties.

Since 2011 the government has provided almost £1.7 billion in DHP funding to local authorities and is investing over £1 billion in the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years (2023-2025) including a £109 million top up for 2023/2024.


Written Question
Rented Housing: Wales
Monday 22nd January 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, whether he has had discussions with the Welsh Government on the impact of increased rental costs on tenants in Wales.

Answered by David T C Davies - Secretary of State for Wales

Although housing is a devolved matter the UK Government is supporting renters in Wales by increasing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA). From April 2024, the UK Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to cover the lowest 30% of local market rents. Around 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will gain nearly £800 per year on average in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. In Wales, around 82,500 households are set to benefit from the boost.

This significant investment, taken together with the wider benefits uprating, will improve housing affordability for low-income households on benefits renting in the private sector, helping them afford their rent and reducing the risk of rent arrears and homelessness.

More broadly, the UK Government and Welsh Government are working closely to apply the prohibition against Blanket Ban practices in Wales. Through the Renters (Reform) Bill we will achieve our shared objective to make sure families with children and people who receive benefits can access homes in the private rented sector.

Moreover, the National Living wage will increase by 9.8% to £11.44 per hour for workers over 21 and the National Minimum wage will increase by 14.8% to £8.60 per hour for people aged 18-20. This will benefit 140,000 people in Wales and is further evidence of the support the UK Government is providing to support people with the cost of living.


Written Question
Rented Housing: Wales
Monday 22nd January 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, whether he has had discussions with the Welsh Government on the impact of increased rental costs on renters in Wales.

Answered by David T C Davies - Secretary of State for Wales

Although housing is a devolved matter the UK Government is supporting renters in Wales by increasing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA). From April 2024, the UK Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to cover the lowest 30% of local market rents. Around 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will gain nearly £800 per year on average in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. In Wales, around 82,500 households are set to benefit from the boost.

This significant investment, taken together with the wider benefits uprating, will improve housing affordability for low-income households on benefits renting in the private sector, helping them afford their rent and reducing the risk of rent arrears and homelessness.

More broadly, the UK Government and Welsh Government are working closely to apply the prohibition against Blanket Ban practices in Wales. Through the Renters (Reform) Bill we will achieve our shared objective to make sure families with children and people who receive benefits can access homes in the private rented sector.

Moreover, the National Living wage will increase by 9.8% to £11.44 per hour for workers over 21 and the National Minimum wage will increase by 14.8% to £8.60 per hour for people aged 18-20. This will benefit 140,000 people in Wales and is further evidence of the support the UK Government is providing to support people with the cost of living.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing: Overseas Students
Friday 19th January 2024

Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)

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 potential impact of trends in the number of foreign students at universities on the (a) availability and (b) affordability of private rented sector accommodation in England.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The information requested is not held centrally.


Written Question
Empty Property
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 bring empty properties into use that have been vacant (a) for extended periods and (b) for shorter lengths of time.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The number of long-term empty homes remains substantially lower than when records began in 2004. As of May 2010, over 300,000 homes in England had been standing empty for longer than 6 months. As of October 2022, the number of long-term empty properties had fallen to 248,633.

Local authorities can exercise powers we have provided to them to take over the management of long-term empty homes in order to bring homes back into use in the private rented sector. Local authorities can apply for an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) when a property has been empty for more than two years, subject to the production of evidence that the property has been causing a nuisance to the community and evidence of community support for their proposal.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department (a) has made an assessment of and (b) holds data produced by commissioned research on the potential impact of changes proposed by the Renters (Reform) Bill on the number of private residential landlords.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Renters (Reform) Bill will deliver the government’s commitment to ‘a fairer private rented sector’.

The Bill’s green rated impact assessment estimated the gross costs of reforms amount to just £10 per rented property annually – approximately 0.1% of mean annual rents.


Written Question
Private Rented Housing: Standards
Thursday 11th January 2024

Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish a response to his Department's consultation A Decent Homes Standard in the private rented sector.

Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Announcements will be set out in the usual way.

I look forward to meeting with the Hon Member imminently and working to deliver a Decent Homes Standard in the private rented sector for the first time.