Written questions by Conlon.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support shared ownership leaseholders who are unable to sell their homes as a result of changes to lease terms following the implementation of the Building Safety Act 2022.

The Building Safety Act ensures that those who built defective buildings take responsibility for remedying them; that the industry contributes to fixing the problem; and that leaseholders are protected in law from crippling bills for historical safety defects.For shared owners, Schedule 8, paragraph 6(5) of the Building Safety Act provides that any contributions required towards remediation costs are capped according to the size of the share they own at the time their lease became qualified for the protections. This position does not change should a shared owner later increase their share by staircasing, including up to 100%.The government has also introduced guidance to support shared owners who continue to face challenges due to building safety issues, including that requests to sub-let should always be accepted by registered providers of social housing in England (though where required, shared owners may also need permission from their mortgage lender and/or the building’s freeholder).

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to provide safe accommodation for victims of domestic abuse.

This government is committed to tackling violence against women and girls and supporting victims of domestic abuse. Since 2021, local authorities in England have a duty under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to ensure victims of domestic abuse and their children have access to support within safe accommodation. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government provides funding to local authorities to deliver this duty. For 2025-26, £160 million has been allocated, a £30 million uplift from the previous year. This revenue funding is for local authorities to commission lifesaving support for victims and their children within safe accommodation. Funding for 2026/27 onwards will be a matter for the Spending Review. Statutory guidance to local authorities is available here providing further details on how the duty should be delivered. The current Affordable Homes Programme for 2021-2026 includes capital funding for new supply of supported housing, including domestic abuse safe accommodation. At Spring statement, the government announced an immediate injection of £2 billion to support delivery of the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and contribute to our milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament, including for victims of domestic abuse.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support community ownership of local assets.

I refer my hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN 22675 on 17 January 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking with (a) local councils and (b) Bromley Council to tackle homelessness.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected.We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Government is looking at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness once and for all.We are already taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness. In December, MHCLG announced that £633.2 million will be provided to councils in England through the Homelessness Prevention Grant 25/26, of which £6,499,229 has been allocated to Bromley. This funding represents an uplift of £1,595,200 for Bromley compared with 24/25 allocations, an increase of 32.5%, and will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping.This brings total spend on homelessness services to nearly £1 billion in 25/26, a record level of funding.More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including: delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament; and abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she has taken with Cabinet colleagues to increase the supply of affordable housing (a) in Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) generally.

I refer my Hon Friend to my answer to Question UIN 11383 on 31 October 2024.

Communities and Local Government, steps her Department is taking to help improve housing standards in the private rented sector.

The Renters’ Rights Bill includes provisions that will apply a Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for the first time and ensure that local councils have proportionate and effective enforcement powers. We are also introducing Awaab’s Law into the private rented sector. We will launch a consultation this year on the content of the Decent Homes Standard for social and privately rented homes.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help leaseholders with (a) service charges and (b) managing agents in Beckenham and Penge constituency.

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to end rental bidding wars by landlords and letting agents (a) nationally and (b) in Beckenham and Penge constituency.

The Renters’ Rights Bill will prohibit rental bidding practices.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to work with Community Land Trusts in providing affordable housing as part of the Government’s Affordable Homes Programme.

Community Land Trusts can apply to our delivery partners Homes England and the Greater London Authority for funding through the Affordable Housing Programme. If the development includes low cost rented tenures, they will also need to be a registered provider of social housing to receive funding or work in partnership with a registered provider.

Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to introduce regulatory reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework to help deliver affordable homes in (a) Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) England.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 11383 on 31 October 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to deliver affordable housing through the Affordable Homes Programme in (a) Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) England.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 11383 on 31 October 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to tackle unaffordable and unfair ground rents in Beckenham and Penge constituency.

The Government are committed to tackling unregulated and unaffordable existing ground rents. We will set out further details on this in due course.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to identify buildings with dangerous cladding.

The Government has been clear that more must be done to accelerate the pace of remediation of unsafe buildings across the country.After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Government prioritised identifying and providing funding for the highest risk buildings with unsafe cladding. Fire and rescue services and local authorities conducted a risk review of high-rise buildings over 18 metres in height, and building owners were required to register high-rise buildings with the department and apply for government funding to remove dangerous cladding.The Building Safety Act 2022 establishes a new regulatory regime for high-rise buildings, which requires all residential buildings above 18 metres or seven storeys to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator by October 2023. The regulator has powers to pursue any building owner who fails to comply, including prosecuting for non-compliance.In 2022, the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) was launched, to meet the cost of addressing life safety fire risks associated with cladding in buildings over 11 metres. Eligible building owners can apply for this scheme, and leaseholders can utilise the ‘Tell us tool’ to self-refer their building: Tell us about life-safety fire risks on the external wall system of your building - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).The department is working at pace to identify buildings eligible for funding that are not coming forward. We are utilising specialist data sources and knowledge from local regulators to identify buildings eligible for funding.The Deputy Prime Minister wrote to mayoral authorities on the 13 September to support and empower them to deliver plans, which use their convening powers, relationships and local knowledge to accelerate where buildings are not remediating quickly. The identification of buildings with unsafe cladding falls within the remit of this initiative. The Deputy Prime Minister will set out further steps to increase the pace of remediation this Autumn.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support the residents of buildings with unsafe cladding.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN 8547 on 28 October 2024.