Please see below the figures for Agency staff spend

2020 - £4,203,377.57
2021 - £7,785,868.09
2022 - £2,369,262.08

We have interpreted your reference to agency retainer fees as the fees charged at the commencement of the provision of a search recruitment service; this is only applicable when recruiting for a permanent or fixed term post. Agency retainer fees are not applicable to the contingent labour market.

The department does not separate the costs of agency workers, contingent labour, or associated agency retainer fees in our accounts. A breakdown could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Government provided councils with £310 million in funding for the Homelessness Prevention Grant in 2021/22. They can use this funding flexibly to meet their homelessness and rough sleeping strategies – for example, to offer financial support for people to find a new home, to work with landlords to prevent evictions or to provide temporary accommodation, among other preventative measures.

In October 2021 the Government provided a £65 million top-up to this funding to help councils prevent those with rent arrears from becoming homeless. You can find the breakdown of funding by local authority level at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-prevention-grant-2021-to-2022.

The regional breakdown is as follows:

Local authorities have the freedom to tailor their allocation priorities to meet the need of their local communities, including care leavers. In framing their social housing allocation scheme, they must ensure that reasonable preference (priority) is given to people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds.

Statutory guidance also makes clear that we expect local authorities to make provision for appropriate exceptions to their residency requirements for an allocation of social housing and take proper account of special circumstances, including the needs of care leavers.

The Government’s Rough Sleeping Strategy confirmed £3.2 million funding in 2022/23 will provide targeted support to young people leaving care most at risk of homelessness, including rough sleeping, in 69 local authorities identified as having the greatest concentration of young people at risk. It will also provide on-going support for children’s services and housing teams to improve partnership working.

The Government will also continue investment into the ‘Staying Put’ programme and scale up the number of local areas offering the ‘Staying Close’ programme, which enable young people leaving care to stay with, or in touch with, former foster families and children’s homes for longer – building their resilience as they transition to independent living.

The leaseholder deed of certificate sets out the information that building owners need for the purposes of applying the leaseholder protections. This is set out in the Schedule to the Building Safety (Leaseholder Protections) (Information etc.) (England) Regulations 2022. The certificate can be found here.

The certificate has also been uploaded to the GOV.UK website as part of the Building Safety Leaseholder Protections: Guidance for leaseholders and can be found here.

The plans set out in our White Paper were informed by extensive formal and informal consultation with stakeholders from across the Private Rented Sector (PRS). We have no further plans to formally consult on the White Paper but will continue to undertake wide-ranging engagement with tenants, landlords, local councils and interested groups in the sector

We know that these reforms cannot deliver the change needed without the input of those that live and work in the PRS.

The consultation responses that we published alongside the White Paper can be found at gov.uk

• Housing Court Reform: call for evidence
• Post Implementation Review of the mediation pilot response
• Tenancy Reform Consultation response
• Tenancy Deposit Reform: call for evidence

An EWS1 form is used as a valuation tool to inform lenders of financial risk. The Building Safety Act introduced clarity on liabilities for making buildings safe and financial protections for leaseholders. As a result, on July 15^th the largest mortgage lenders confirmed that, subject to their normal policy requirements, they will be able to lend on any property that is part of a developer or government remediation scheme or properties that are protected by the new statutory protections, as evidenced by a qualifying lease certificate. This statement can be found here.

Qualifying leaseholders will no longer face bills to remediate unsafe cladding systems on their building, removing financial risk. We are working with the industry to quickly operationalise these changes and expect the challenges faced by those struggling to buy and sell, including the need to access EWS1 forms, will be eased.

Leaseholders should complete the deed of certificate in the Leaseholder Information Regulations to demonstrate they own a qualifying lease and benefit from the protections. Further guidance for leaseholders on the leaseholder protections and completing the certificates has been published by the Department here.

We want to make sure that buildings are made safe quickly and proportionately. Over 45 of the largest developers have already signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical, fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over that they had a role in developing or refurbishing.

On 13 July, we published the draft of a contract with developers. The draft contract, once finalised and executed, will turn the commitments made in the pledge into a legally binding agreement.

The draft agreement includes the requirement for developers to ensure that, once the necessary remediation work has been performed, a fire risk assessment and/or a fire risk assessment of external walls (depending on the defects originally identified) signing off that the risks have been satisfactorily addressed is issued.

Whilst it is possible there may be some work for which the original developer is not responsible, the expectation is that developers will fix all life critical fire safety defects arising from the original development or refurbishment. Building works will be overseen by a building control body (although this will always be the Building Safety Regulator for higher-risk buildings) and will need to comply with Building Regulations.

Figures for consultancy spend are included each year in the Department's annual report. Details of contracts awarded valued at £10,000 (inc VAT) or more are published on https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. Information on our spending, including consultancy, is published regularly as part of our Transparency information https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dluhc-spending-over-250-march-2022

Consultancy contracts are procured in line with Government procurement rules and are also subject to internal and Cabinet Office assurance through the spending controls process.

The Government believes very strongly that service charges should be transparent and communicated effectively. The way a service charge is organised (for example, what it covers and how it is worked out) is set out in the lease or tenancy agreement. The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is clear that variable service charges, including any increase in costs, must be reasonable, and where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. This applies equally to social housing residents and tenants.  Leaseholders and tenants may challenge the reasonableness of their variable service charges by making an application to the First-Tier tribunal.

The Government's policy statement on rents for social housing (published in February 2019) encourages registered providers of social housing to keep increases for services charges within CPI+1% per annum, to help keep charges affordable.  It also states that tenants should be supplied with clear information on how service charges are set, and in the case of social rent properties, providers are expected to identify service charges separately from the rent charge.

The Regulator of Social Housing's Rent Standard says that registered providers must comply with all the requirements and expectations of the Government's Rent Policy Statement on the setting, increase and decrease of rents and service charges.

Regarding transparency and accountability, the Social Housing Regulation Bill, introduced in the House of Lords on 8 June, will facilitate the implementation of the new, proactive consumer regulation regime. As part of the new regime, landlords will be required to report on a set of Tenant Satisfaction Measures. These are being developed by the Regulator of Social Housing, and will include measures relating to tenant engagement. Landlords will also be required to publish a set of financial metrics, including information on management costs, to allow tenants to hold their landlords to account and ensure they are receiving value for money. The Bill will also facilitate the introduction of an Access to Information scheme, enabling housing association tenants to request information from their landlords relating to the management of their homes.

This set of measures will ensure that residents can access key information regarding their homes and landlords, and will allow residents to have a stronger voice in decisions relating to their homes.

The Government believes very strongly that service charges should be transparent and communicated effectively. The way a service charge is organised (for example, what it covers and how it is worked out) is set out in the lease or tenancy agreement. The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is clear that variable service charges, including any increase in costs, must be reasonable, and where costs relate to work or services, the work or services must be of a reasonable standard. This applies equally to social housing residents and tenants.  Leaseholders and tenants may challenge the reasonableness of their variable service charges by making an application to the First-Tier tribunal.

The Government's policy statement on rents for social housing (published in February 2019) encourages registered providers of social housing to keep increases for services charges within CPI+1% per annum, to help keep charges affordable.  It also states that tenants should be supplied with clear information on how service charges are set, and in the case of social rent properties, providers are expected to identify service charges separately from the rent charge.

The Regulator of Social Housing's Rent Standard says that registered providers must comply with all the requirements and expectations of the Government's Rent Policy Statement on the setting, increase and decrease of rents and service charges.

Regarding transparency and accountability, the Social Housing Regulation Bill, introduced in the House of Lords on 8 June, will facilitate the implementation of the new, proactive consumer regulation regime. As part of the new regime, landlords will be required to report on a set of Tenant Satisfaction Measures. These are being developed by the Regulator of Social Housing, and will include measures relating to tenant engagement. Landlords will also be required to publish a set of financial metrics, including information on management costs, to allow tenants to hold their landlords to account and ensure they are receiving value for money. The Bill will also facilitate the introduction of an Access to Information scheme, enabling housing association tenants to request information from their landlords relating to the management of their homes.

This set of measures will ensure that residents can access key information regarding their homes and landlords, and will allow residents to have a stronger voice in decisions relating to their homes.