Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Paragraph: 70
A social housebuilding programme should be top of the Government’s agenda to rebuild the country...
Conclusion
A social housebuilding programme should be top of the Government’s agenda to rebuild the country from the impact of COVID-19. The crisis has exposed our broken housing system. Families in overcrowded homes have faced worse health outcomes. Private renters have struggled to meet housing costs. A large social housebuilding programme will provide jobs, boost the economy, and help the Government meet its 300,000 homes a year target.
Paragraph Reference:
70
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Due to the current COVID 19 pandemic, the courts suspended possession proceedings on 27 March. On 5 June 2020, the suspension of possessions was extended by 2 months until 23 August 2020. On 21 August it was extended by a further four weeks, until 20 September. This means that, in total, there has been a 6 month ban on possession proceedings – giving a huge amount of protection for renters during the pandemic. The Government has protected renters by legislating to suspend new evictions from social or private rented accommodation and introduced regulations to require landlords to give tenants six months’ notice before they can progress eviction action, except in the most egregious cases, such as incidents of anti-social behaviour and serious rent arrears. We have also issued guidance to allow people to move home again. As well as this, we have announced a 3-month mortgage holiday for those in difficulty, including for buy to let landlords – which was extended by a further 3 months on 22 May (applications until 31 October 2020). The Government has also issued regulations that give local authorities more flexibility to support small and medium sized developers, by allowing them to defer Community Infrastructure Levy payments, and disapply mandatory late payment interest. This will enable levy charging authorities to support SMEs that are struggling with cashflow due to the impacts on development of the COVID-19 pandemic, while ensuring that local communities still receive contributions towards infrastructure from developers in the longer term. In addition, we have launched the new Affordable Homes Programme ahead of the next Spending Review to ensure that providers can continue to build.