Pincher: Replacement Of Section 106 To Put ‘More Ammunition In The Hands’ Of Councils

Speaking to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee, which has been undertaking an inquiry into meeting the UK’s housing demand, Christopher Pincher said the “new system that we develop should provide at least as much affordable housing as the present one”. The government’s proposed planning reforms include replacing Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy with a single new levy in a bid to ensure that affordable housing and infrastructure agreed by a developer is delivered “as expected” and on time. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/pincher-replacement-of-section-106-to-put-more-ammunition-in-the-hands-of-councils-73170 

Homelessness – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Hay of Ballyore: To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of homeless people living in England in each year since 2018.

Lord Greenhalgh: Levels of homelessness in England can be best estimated by looking at the number of households in temporary accommodation at the end of each year. In Q4 2018 this was 83,540; in Q4 2019 this was 88,310 and Q4 2020 is provisionally 95,370.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2021-06-09/HL944

Leasehold Reform Bill Published

The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill has been published and when implemented aims to help tackle inconsistency and ambiguity of ground rents for future leaseholders. The UK Government is introducing the Bill so that ground rents in new residential long leases in England will have no financial demand for all future qualifying leases and that leaseholders do not face unfair terms or significant ground rent liabilities. The first reading took place on 12 May which started the Bill's journey through the House of Lords. However, no further scheduled dates are in place for future readings to finalise the legislation. Read more on the Arla website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/may-2021/leasehold-reform-bill-published/

Leaseholders ‘Horrified’ After Final Vote On £10bn Fire Safety Costs

Homeowners have reacted with “horror” after parliament finally voted against protecting them from post-Grenfell fire safety costs that could run to £10bn. Campaigners for hundreds of thousands of people trapped with devastating bills to make their homes safe said Wednesday night’s vote in the House of Lords against protecting them “pulls the rug from under a generation of leaseholders”. It comes after weeks of debates in parliament in which the government rejected calls from Labour and about 30 rebel Tory MPs for them to meet the cost and recoup the money from property developers. Read more on the Guardian website.

Leaseholders ‘horrified’ after final vote on £10bn fire safety costs | Grenfell Tower fire | The Guardian

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have for the future of the New Homes Bonus scheme.

Lord Greenhalgh: As part of the Spending Review, the Government has announced that there will be a further round of New Homes Bonus under the existing scheme in 2021/22. However, we are committed to reforming the New Homes Bonus to ensure it is focussed on incentivising homes where they are needed most and we will consult on changes to the Bonus, for 2022/23 onwards, shortly.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2020-11-19/HL10515

No Immediate Repeal Of The Vagrancy Act

A repeal of the Vagrancy Act won’t happen right away despite growing evidence of the wider public thinking the arrest of rough sleepers is a waste of time. During a Lords debate on homelessness, MHCLG minister Viscount Younger of Leckie said the Government believes an on-going review of the Act rather than “immediate wholesale repeal” is the right course of action – to ensure that the consequences of a repeal are fully understood. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/no-immediate-repeal-of-the-vagrancy-act-despite-rising-opposition/

Temporary Accommodation: Children – Parliamentary Written Answer

The Earl of Listowel: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children have been living in temporary accommodation in each of the last five years.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: The following data refers to the number of children who were living in temporary accommodation on 31 March on each of the past 5 years.

·         31 March 2015: 98,620

·         31 March 2016: 111,060

·         31 March 2017: 120,520

·         31 March 2018: 123,520

·         31 March 2019: 126,020

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2019-10-24/HL407

Temporary Accommodation: Families – Parliamentary Written Answer

The Earl of Listowel: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many families have been living in temporary accommodation in each of the last five years.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: The following data refers to the number of households with children who were living in temporary accommodation on 31 March on each of the past 5 years.

·         31 March 2015: 51,210

·         31 March 2016: 56,430

·         31 March 2017: 60,980

·         31 March 2018: 61,610

·         31 March 2019: 62,010

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2019-10-24/HL406

Help to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Beecham: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will require the price of houses purchased under the Help to Buy Scheme to be no higher than that charged for comparable properties built by the same developer.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: Under the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, the lender is responsible for the valuation of each home at the initial sale. The home cannot be sold at a price higher than this valuation. This ensures that homes are sold at market value. The most recent independent evaluation of the scheme also found that Help to Buy prices have risen in line with the prices for other new build properties and are consistently below the average new build price.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2019-02-27/HL14079

Council Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether local housing authorities that divested themselves of their council housing stocks in the past and closed their housing revenue accounts (HRAs) are able to set up new HRAs and build new council housing under their new proposals for lifting the cap on local authority borrowing for such purposes or otherwise.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: Yes. All local housing authorities (LHA) retain the power to provide housing under Part II of the Housing Act 1985. Where they do they are under a duty to account for this in a Housing Revenue Account by section 74 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, unless that requirement is disapplied by direction by the Secretary of State – which may be considered appropriate if the LHA only has limited housing stock.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2018-10-09/HL10483

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many potential homes are included but not yet started under existing planning permissions; and what proportion of the total are on sites for 50 or more dwellings.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: On 30 June 2018, there were 748,000 homes with full planning permission, of which 431,000 were on projects which had started on site, and 317,000 had yet to start on site. Of these 748,000 homes, 86 per cent are on sites of 50 or more dwellings.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2018-07-10/HL9381

Social Rented Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many homes designated for social rent were built each year from 2010 until the last year records are available; and how Page 16 23 July 2018 Written Answers this compares to homes designated for other purposes.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: These are published statistics and are in the public domain on the gov.uk website. The number of new built additional dwelling for social rent up to 2016-17 by year can be found in Live Table 1009. It shows there were nearly 117,000 new built additional dwelling for social rent between 2010-11 and 2016-17.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2018-07-12/HL9492

Councils Call For Additional Powers To Tax Empty Homes

The Local Government Association (LGA) has called for the House of Lords to support an amendment to the Rating and Council Tax Bill. The bill was launched by the government in March this year after initially being announced in last November’s budget. In the original bill, it states that for long-term empty properties the premium councils can charge can go from 50% to a maximum of 100%. However, the amendment would allow councils to charge beyond the 100% premium on an escalating scale from 2020. This would mean councils could charge a 200% premium for homes empty for five years or more or 300% for homes empty for 10 years or more. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3_36AKldA54J:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/councils-call-for-additional-powers-to-tax-empty-homes-57244+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Beecham: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they estimate has been realised since 2010 through the sale of council housing under right to buy; and what was the  total of the discounts accorded to purchasers exercising that right. 

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: Nearly £4.8 billion has been generated from Right to Buy sales receipts since 2010. Table 682 - Social Housing Sales: Annual Financial Data on Right to Buy sales for England. (https:/www.gov.uk/government/statistical-datasets/live-tables-on-social-housing-sales) contains the average discounts that tenants received when purchasing their home under the Right to Buy.

Council Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Beecham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the reduction in council housing rents on (1) the maintenance and improvement of the existing council housing stock, and (2) the building of new council houses between now and 2022.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: I refer the noble Lord to my previous answer to him on 27 March - PQ HL6120. As stated in the Housing White Paper, the Government will in due course set out a rent policy for social landlords for the period beyond 2020 to help them to borrow against future income. Our aim is to ensure that they have the confidence they need about their future income in order to plan ahead.

Help to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Cooper of Windrush: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been the total cost of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme since its introduction. 

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) individuals, and (2) families, have bought homes through the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The total cost of running the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme from its introduction in 13 October to 31 March 2016 was £11.9 million. This has been paid in full with the commercial fees collected from lenders. The Treasury routinely publishes Official Statistics on the performance of the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme. The most recent publication was on 30 March 2017. This showed 101,960 mortgages had been completed with the support of the scheme. We do not record whether mortgage applications submitted to the scheme are made by a single individual or jointly.

Homelessness Bill Passes As Temporary Accommodation Numbers Rise

The Homelessness Reduction Bill cleared its third and final reading in the House of Lords – as new figures confirm the number of households in temporary accommodation in England rose by 10% over the course of 2016 to 75,740 up 58% on the low of 48,010 on 31 December 2010. The CLG figures confirm councils accepted 14,420 households as being statutorily homeless between October-December last year – down 3% on the previous quarter and down 0.4% on the same quarter of last year. These are households that are owed a main homelessness duty to secure accommodation as a result of being unintentionally homeless and in priority need. Read more on 24housing.

Peers Back Homelessness Reduction Bill

Peers have backed the Homelessness Reduction Bill but used the debate to set out concerns over the effect of wider government policy on housing. In the second reading peers voted through the bill but several expressed doubts over whether £61m of funding announced by the government for councils over two years would cover the full costs of the extra responsibilities they will face from the bill. Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Olly Grender questioned the accuracy of the CLG rough sleeping figures, which have previously been criticised by the UK Statistics Authority. Read more on Inside Housing.

Homelessness Reduction Bill Moves To The House Of Lords

The Homelessness Reduction Bill has passed the relevant stages in the House of Commons. It will now move to the House of Lords for its first reading on the 24 February 2017. There have been a number of changes to the Bill since it was introduced, including:

·         Removal of the requirement for local authorities to provide 56-days emergency accommodation for homeless people and rough sleepers with no safe place to stay.

·         Clarification that a local authority’s duty to prevent homelessness begins on receipt of a valid section 21 notice. Local authorities do not need to wait until a court order/bailiff’s warrant has been issued.

·         A limitation on the circumstances in which households can be found to be non-cooperative.

Read more on the Homeless Link website.

Freud Orders 'Urgent' Review Into Universal Credit Arrears

Lord Freud has commissioned an “urgent” review into the high rate of rent arrears owed by Universal Credit claimants. The welfare reform minister said the number of Universal Credit claimants in debt was higher than he had expected. He described the proportion of claimants already in arrears before they switched over to direct payment of benefit for housing costs under Universal Credit as “frightening”. Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Freud revealed that he had “commissioned work from the department to help understand the true level and causes of these arrears”. Read more on Inside Housing.