Housing and planning

This Insight explores the response from tenant and landlord bodies as the ban on hearing housing possession cases in courts in England and Wales ends.

This briefing paper explains measures taken by the Government during the coronavirus outbreak to assist households to retain their homes and enable local authorities to tackle the specific challenges faced by rough sleepers. The paper covers lifting of the ban on evictions from 20 September In England and Wales and the introduction of extended notice periods. The paper is being updated regularly to take account of new developments.

This Commons Library paper discusses the reforms to taxation of sales of residential property that have been made in recent years, before looking at earlier debates about the way house sales have been taxed.

The Fire Safety Bill amends the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and is expected to result in greater clarity over responsibility for fire safety in buildings containing more than one home. Remaining stages of the Bill are scheduled to take place in the Commons on 7 September 2020.

This briefing paper explains the duty on private landlords to protect tenants’ deposits and summarises how the schemes operate. The Government has legislated to cap security deposits in England and is considering whether improvements can be made to the tenancy deposit protection process to benefit both tenants and landlords.

This note sets out the background to the Government's policy on freeports.

This House of Commons Library Briefing Paper provides information on the implementation of local Council Tax Reduction Schemes since 1 April 2013. These local support schemes have replaced the national scheme of Council Tax Benefit.

A ban on hearing housing possession cases in courts in England and Wales which was due to be lifted has been extended until 20 September 2020.

The Planning for the Future white paper published in August 2020, setting out the Government's proposals for "once in a generation" reform of England's planning system, has proved controversial. This briefing from the House of Commons Library examines those proposals and the other planning changes already made during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This briefing paper considers the building control regime and customers’ means of redress when faced with defects in newly built housing. It summarises the findings of the All-Party Parliamentary Group's 2016 inquiry and recommended actions and explains the Government and industry response.

This briefing paper explains the funding position and considers evidence on how Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are allocated by local authorities. DHPs are applied to help with shortfalls between Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit and the rent due in certain circumstances.

This briefing considers the approach to housing, energy efficiency and net zero, providing an overview of Government policy and parliamentary comment on the issue.

This note provides an overview of City Deals, with details on the 31 that have been successfully negotiated since July 2012.