Regulation
Communities and Local Government

Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which housing regulations currently being consulted on by the Cabinet Office in its red tape review his Department has recommended be scrapped.

Grant Shapps (Minister of State (Housing and Local Government), Communities and Local Government; Welwyn Hatfield, Conservative)

The Department for Communities and Local Government is currently in the process of reviewing housing regulations as part of the ‘Housing and Construction’ Red Tape Challenge theme. Our proposals are yet to be finalised but will be announced in due course.

This review should be taken in context of the policies and measures announced in November's housing strategy. That strategy outlines how the Government are committed to better environmental standards; more affordable housing; security of tenure; legal protection for tenants and leaseholders; and support for the elderly, vulnerable households and those on low incomes.

We have already taken a series of steps to cut unnecessary red tape, including abolishing home information packs, reducing burdens on short-term holiday lets and removing blanket regulation on houses of multiple occupation that would have reduced choice for tenants, and introduced new freedoms and flexibilities for social landlords via the Localism Act 2011. This review will help inform the scope for further reductions of such unnecessary and disproportionate red tape.