Written questions by Duncan-Jordan.

Communities and Local Government, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to require building and health and safety standards in (a) emergency and (b) temporary accommodation provided to homeless families.

All tenants deserve a safe and decent home, and the Government is working to improving standards across all sectors with a commitment to introduce a new Decent Homes Standard.Local authorities must ensure temporary accommodation is suitable and should keep the suitability of accommodation under review. Housing authorities should as a minimum ensure that all temporary accommodation is free of Category 1 hazards as identified by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). To enable effective enforcement, we have given local authorities strong powers, including financial penalties of up to £30,000, extending rent repayment orders and introducing banning orders for the most serious and prolific offenders.The Renters’ Rights Bill will drive significant improvements to conditions in the private rented sector. Ensuring landlords adhere to a legally binding Decent Homes Standard and extending ‘Awaab’s Law’ to private landlords will significantly reduce the number of poor-quality privately rented homes and empower tenants to raise concerns about damp, dangerous and cold homes.Through the Bill, the Government has introduced powers to apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector, which includes new powers to bring temporary accommodation into scope of the DHS. This will ensure that safe, secure housing is the standard people can expect in temporary accommodation.The Renters’ Rights Bill will also make it possible to apply Awaab’s Law to temporary accommodation occupied under licence through regulations. We will consult in due course on how best to apply Awaab’s Law to such accommodation occupied under licence to make sure we strike the right balance by providing protections to residents while maintaining ambitions on supply.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to pay automatic compensation to all tenants when landlords and managing agents are slow to reimburse tenants after overcharging.

Since 2014, all letting and managing agents in England have been required by law to be members of one of two mandatory agent redress schemes. These schemes already have statutory powers to require agents to pay compensation in circumstances where their actions or behaviours fall short of a fair and reasonable standard. These services are independent and free for tenants to use.Through provisions in the Renters’ Rights Bill, currently before Parliament, the government will establish a new Private Landlord Ombudsman Service. This will similarly empower tenants to seek redress – including compensation – in relation to their landlord’s behaviour or actions.

Communities and Local Government, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to require landlords and managing agents to pay automatic compensation to tenants when overcharging occurs.

Since 2014, all letting and managing agents in England have been required by law to be members of one of two mandatory agent redress schemes. These schemes already have statutory powers to require agents to pay compensation in circumstances where their actions or behaviours fall short of a fair and reasonable standard. These services are independent and free for tenants to use.Through provisions in the Renters’ Rights Bill, currently before Parliament, the government will establish a new Private Landlord Ombudsman Service. This will similarly empower tenants to seek redress – including compensation – in relation to their landlord’s behaviour or actions.

Communities and Local Government, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to cap service charge rises annually at the rate of CPI inflation.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 7465 on 15 October 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help strengthen communities after the riots in August 2024.

The Government has made £15 million available to the places most severely affected by disorder through the Community Recovery Fund to support the immediate recovery. Officials from my department have also carried out an extensive engagement process with these places to understand and address the underlying causes of the unrest.The disorder that affected communities across the UK following the Southport tragedy this summer has made clear that a new approach to community cohesion is urgently needed. This is a priority for the Government and I have stood up a cross-government Communities & Recovery Steering Group to oversee this work.We are listening to communities across the country to understand the challenges they face and this will inform how this government works to empower communities and build greater cohesion.

Communities and Local Government, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to require (a) all service charge accounts to be audited every year by independent accountants and (b) that the cost of this audit cannot be passed onto residents through service charges.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 7465 on 15 October 2024.

Communities and Local Government, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to extend to ten years the time limits for tenants and residents to request invoices and receipts in relation to service charges.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 7465 on 15 October 2024.

Communities and Local Government, if her Department will ensure that (a) audio and (b) tactile solutions are available at polling stations to enable (i) blind and (ii) partially sighted voters to vote (A) independently and (B) in secret.

I refer my hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN 10319 on 29 October 2024.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has had discussions with local authorities that are (a) trialing and (b) intend to trial a four-day working week.

Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces and any announcements on local authorities that are trialling or intending to trial a four-day working week will be made in the usual way.

Communities and Local Government, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals on increasing the rights of leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of their service charges.

The Governments intend to act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. These include a new right to a lease extension for leaseholders of both houses and flats, for a term of 990 years at a peppercorn ground rent on payment of a premium, and reforms to drive up the transparency of service charges to make them more easily challengeable if leaseholders consider them to be unreasonable. We will set out details in due course about the extensive programme of secondary legislation need to bring the Act into force.