The Tenants Protection Act 2010: which came into effect on 1 October 2010, gives rights to private tenants who have to leave their home because it is getting repossessed by their landlord's mortgage lender.

The Act enables tenants to be heard at repossession hearings and gives courts the powers to delay repossession by up to two months. This ensures that tenants have sufficient time to move and have the same rights of notice as other private tenants. The Act also requires the mortgage lender to send a notice to tenants when they are applying to enforce the possession.

To inform mortgage lenders, landlords and tenants of their rights and responsibilities under the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010, my Department has published guidance which can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/5933/1729687.pdf

Enterprise Zones have created over 3,000 jobs since going live in April 2012. They have also generated 105,000 square metres on new commercial floorspace and secured almost £229 million of extra private sector investment.

Enterprise Zone policy is aimed at unlocking development on new sites to create jobs and business growth. We therefore do not monitor jobs safeguarded.

We are aware of 126 new businesses being attracted to Enterprise Zones since April 2012.

This information is not held centrally.

The Government is taking action to stop rogue landlords who cash in from housing illegal immigrants. These measures will send out a strong signal and help reduce unsustainable immigration.

We will avoid burdening the private rented sector with unnecessary red tape and any changes will not adversely affect UK nationals looking to rent.

More information on the proposals will be published for consultation in due course, and the reforms will be subject to scrutiny by Parliament.

The Government estimates that, at any point in time, around one-third of households privately renting are in receipt of housing benefit. This suggests that it continues to be possible for claimants to access the sector. However, private landlords and letting agents operate on a commercial basis and, as for any business, it is reasonable for them to make independent decisions about who they let to.

The English Housing Survey headline report for 2011-12 indicates that almost two-thirds (64%) of households in the social rented sector were in receipt of housing benefit.

Welfare reform will improve work incentives and help more people move into employment. This is good news for landlords as well as the Government. However, we recognise that the move away from managed payments to landlords for working age benefits claimants is a challenge, particularly for the social sector. That is why the Government is committed to developing universal credit in a way that protects landlords’ financial position.

Managed payments to landlords will continue where claimants are deemed to be at risk of non-payment or where arrears build beyond a certain level. Once on managed payments, we will recoup arrears on behalf of the landlord from the claimant’s universal credit and will continue to do so even if the claimant moves to a new address.

We are working with DWP to ensure the right safeguards for landlords and tenants are designed into universal credit through learning from the direct payment demonstration projects.

These safeguards will apply in both the private and social sectors.

In England and Wales, more than 7 million deposits have been protected under the tenancy deposit protection schemes authorised by my Department since their launch in 2007 up to the end of March 2013. During this time there have been 91,802 cases dealt with by the free alternative resolution service offered by each of the schemes. Both parties have to agree to use this service or it is open to either party to choose to have the case heard in court instead. The disputed amount of the deposit is paid back in full, apportioned between the landlord and tenant according to the decision made by an independent adjudicator.

The schemes that operate in Scotland and Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the devolved authorities.

Ministers and officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government are in regular contact with social housing providers across a range of issues.

My Department and the Department for Work and Pensions recognise the importance of protecting the budgets of social housing providers as our welfare reform changes are implemented. This is shown through our close working with a group of social landlords on the direct payment demonstration projects, which are testing the impact of the payment of housing benefit direct to tenants. A key aim of the demonstration projects is to explore how we can best protect social landlords, and tenants themselves, from the risk of increases in rent arrears. We intend to use the evidence gathered from the projects to inform the design of universal credit, including the safeguards needed to protect the financial position of social landlords and prevent tenants from falling into significant debt. We are also co-funding a learning network to capture the lessons from the demonstration projects, and encourage the sharing of best practice and information, to help social landlords prepare for direct payment.

In addition, the removal of the spare room subsidy will be monitored and evaluated over a two year period from April this year, with initial findings available in 2014 and a final report in late 2015. Among other questions, the evaluation will consider the impact of the measure on landlords' finances, by means of small scale primary research with a range of social landlords.

The 2012 Global Accounts of housing providers, published by the Homes and Communities Agency in March, show that tenant arrears have fallen in the last year and the overall financial performance of the sector has improved compared to the year before.

In 2011-12, the most recent year for which data are available, 16,642 social rent and 1,031 affordable rent lettings of newly built or acquired properties were made to tenants whose previous accommodation was not social housing. These data are from the Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales (CORE), which collects data on new social lettings and tenants.

The figure provided for social rent lettings includes data supplied by private registered providers and local authorities. However, not all local authorities are currently covered by CORE. Information about affordable rent lettings includes data supplied by private registered providers only and covers for the period from September 2011, when providers started to sign contracts with the Homes and Communities Agency to deliver affordable rent properties, to the end of March 2012.

Overall, delivery of affordable homes through the Homes and Communities Agency, including affordable home ownerships schemes, resulted in 51,665 new affordable homes in 2011-12. Moreover, in the most recent year, the New Homes Bonus has supported the delivery of almost 61,000 new affordable homes.