We recognise that the process for buying and selling homes in England and Wales can be frustrating. In our response to the Call for Evidence for improving the home buying and selling process, we set out actions we will take to make the process more efficient and less costly.<\/p>
One part of this work is encouraging the adoption of voluntary reservation agreements. These would see buyers and sellers committing to the sale once an offer has been accepted and may include both sides making a financial commitment which would be surrendered to the other side if the party withdraws without good reason. These agreements will provide more certainty for both sides as the sale moves forward to completion; reducing the risk of parties withdrawing from transactions. In the event a party does withdraw the other side may get some financial compensation to cover their costs.<\/p>
In order to be widely taken up, reservation agreements need to be attractive to buyers and sellers, and promoted by estate agents and legal representatives. Following behavioural insight research, work is now continuing to develop the agreements to make them an effective tool in improving the efficiency of home buying and selling and we hope to be able to evaluate their effectiveness next year.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4075", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Christopher Pincher"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Tamworth"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Christopher Pincher"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2021-12-09", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2021-12-09T16:09:08.433Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "211"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Levelling Up, Housing and Communities"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Levelling Up, Housing and Communities"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2021-12-01", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Housing: Sales"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a limit on the level of legal fees that can be imposed upon a homeowner trying to sell their home in the event that the buyer pulls out late in that process.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4667", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mike Amesbury"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Weaver Vale"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mike Amesbury"} ], "uin" : "85368"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1383873", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Home Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1383873/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
The Home Office Homicide Index shows that between 2012/13 and 2019/20 there were 1,005 female victims (aged 16 and over) of homicide where the suspect was male.<\/p>
The Government takes women\u2019s safety very seriously and is determined to tackle crimes which disproportionately affect women and girls.<\/p>
We have published a new Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy and will be publishing a complementary Domestic Abuse Strategy in the New Year. The new strategies will help transform the response to these crimes, from prevention and raising awareness, support to victims and survivors, to ensuring perpetrators are brought to justice.<\/p>
As part of the new VAWG Strategy commitments, work is underway to launch a national communications campaign in the New Year, which will focus on targeting perpetrators, educating young people about healthy relationships and ensuring victims can access support.<\/p>
We are doing a considerable amount of work on domestic homicides which is a horrific crime that disproportionately impacts females. Homicide Index data for 2017/18 to 2019/20 show that 76% of victims of domestic homicide were female. The Home Office worked with the National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council\u2019s domestic abuse and homicide leads to fund a rapid review pilot at the start of the first lockdown to track domestic homicides and enable the police to respond to spikes.<\/p>
We firmly believe that tackling perpetrators of abuse is key to reducing domestic homicides. In 2020/21, the Chancellor announced £10 million in funding for DA perpetrator programmes, which was the first fund of its kind. This year the funding has increased to £25 million, more than doubling the funding for addressing perpetrators of domestic abuse. Of this, over £18 million has been provided to local areas to introduce new perpetrator programmes this year.<\/p>
In addition to this, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) must be considered for all deaths involving a person over the age of 16 where domestic abuse has, or appears to have been a factor. We have undertaken to create a central repository for all DHRs which will allow us to better understand the patterns and trends of domestic homicides.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4668", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Rachel Maclean"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Redditch"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Rachel Maclean"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2021-12-09", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2021-12-09T17:02:48.957Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2021-12-01", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Homicide: Females"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of women killed by men since 2012; and what steps her Department is taking to prevent women being killed through men's violence.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4667", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mike Amesbury"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Weaver Vale"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mike Amesbury"} ], "uin" : "85369"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }