• Reference: 2021/4450
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

I am informed that some councils are having difficulty with the affordable housing requirement on smaller major schemes of around 25 to 80 homes, where a developer proposes to include affordable housing, but is unable to find a Registered Provider interested in acquiring these homes on a scheme of that size. This could mean lower affordable housing delivery, particularly in outer London, and risks undermining your Small Sites policy in the London Plan. Could you investigate this issue with Housing and Land colleagues and explore solutions with affordable housing providers to enable such schemes to come forward?

• Reference: 2021/4449
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

What use are you planning to make of the data from the 2021 Census data when it is released in 2022 to support your housing and planning policies, for example by assessing overcrowding and the need for larger homes?

• Reference: 2021/4448
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

What data do you hold on the total number of shared ownership homes in London, and how this number has grown in recent years? Could you provide any data you hold on this that is not already included in published reports or Government statistics?

• Reference: 2021/4447
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

At the Housing Committee meeting on 20 July 2021, Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, informed us that your retrofit programmes are aiming for EPC Band B. The Government’s standard for retrofitting homes across England is to achieve EPC Band C. Are you concerned that building owners, particularly large landlords, will choose to focus any retrofit funding on homes outside London since the Government standard is easier to achieve, and what are you doing to prevent this?

• Reference: 2021/4446
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Your new funding guidance for the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 does not require trees to be preserved wherever possible in redevelopment or infill plans. How will you avoid giving grants to developers who are planning estate regeneration that includes unnecessary tree loss and do you plan to amend this guidance or introduce new conditions in future funding programmes?

• Reference: 2021/4445
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Through your debt advice services such as Debt Free London and the Advice in Community Settings Programme, have you undertaken any analysis on the sources of debt? Could you tell me what proportion of service users are seeking advice about housing debt compared with other sources of debt, and whether this proportion is increasing?

• Reference: 2021/4444
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Your Leadership 2025 programme, which aims to improve diversity in the housing sector, last updated The Altair Review in 2019. When will it next be updated and are you satisfied that the programme is having its intended effect? If not, what further action will you take to increase the number of staff from BAME backgrounds within the housing industry?

• Reference: 2021/4443
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

The Joseph Rowntree briefing published in September 2021, What’s Causing Structural Racism in Housing?, highlights how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the structural inequalities Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities face in accessing affordable and secure homes. Are you aware of the briefing and, if so, what is your response to the issues it raises relating to London?

• Reference: 2021/4442
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

In your answer to question 2021/3614, you mention resuming the initiative whereby officers visit residents in new GLA-funded homes to hear feedback. What feedback will you be asking your housing team to collate in these visits, and how will you ensure that a representative cross-section of Londoners is interviewed, in the same way that the London Housing Panel is made up of a diverse membership?

• Reference: 2021/4441
• Question by: Siân Berry
• Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Thank you for your answer to my question 2021/4093. By what date do you expect to develop and implement appropriate targets for reducing embodied carbon emissions in construction in London?