theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 5 February 2025 to Question 26838 on Local Government: Debts, whether councils which are (a) in two-tier areas and (b) have high levels of unsustainable debt will have those debts ringfenced during local government restructuring to the council area which originally generated the debt. \p Jim McMahon: It is the responsibility of councils to manage their budgets, and it is standard for councils to borrow and to hold debt, which they will do in the normal course of business. In general, as with previous restructures including those very recently, there is no proposal for council debt to be addressed centrally or written off as part of reorganisation. For areas where there are exceptional circumstances where there has been failure linked to capital practices, proposals should reflect the extent to which the implications of this can be managed locally, including as part of efficiencies possible through reorganisation. We will work in partnership with local areas to work through the implications of this.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Grahame Morris:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reinstating funding to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. \p Alex Norris: This government’s defining mission is growth, and we are determined that our coalfield communities are central to it. That is why we are working in partnership to invest in and empower the nation’s coalfields, so that they can boost growth, and increase living standards.

At the 2024 Autumn Budget we committed to deliver on the promises made to 75 deprived communities from the previous administration’s Long-Term Plan for Towns. The reformed plan will support several coalfield communities including: Kilmarnock, Mansfield, Worksop, Newark-on-Trent, Chesterfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Jarrow, Washington, Leigh, Farnworth, Castleford, Doncaster, Rotherham, Barnsley, Merthyr Tydfil and Wrexham.

We remain committed to the Government's missions to kickstart economic growth, and this will be reflected in the allocation of all further funding. As with all future funding the Government will set out its long-term vision for local growth at the 2025 multi-year spending review.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how her Department enforces breaches of flag flying regulations; and what guidance her Department has produced on enforcement of advertising regulations. \p Matthew Pennycook: Responsibility for the enforcement of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2007, which control the display of adverts including flags, rests with local planning authorities.

It is for authorities to decide when and how they use their enforcement powers.

The department publishes general guidance on the advertisement consent regime which can be found on gov.uk here.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her oral statement on 5 February 2025 on English Devolution and Local Government, Official Report, Column 766, what the upfront costs are of local government reorganisation in each of the next three years. \p Jim McMahon: The upfront costs of local government reorganisation will be a matter for local councils to consider as they develop their proposals for reorganisation. As set out in the English Devolution White Paper, a PWC 2020 report estimated that reorganisation of the then 25 two-tier areas to a single unitary would have a one-off cost of £400 million, with the potential to realise £2.9 billion over five years, with an annual post-implementation net recurring saving of £700 million.

It will be for the new councils to achieve the efficiencies identified in reorganisation proposals and subsequent detailed implementation and transformation plans while delivering high quality and sustainable public services to local residents and businesses. We are working with areas to understand the costs of taking forward proposals and implementation of new unitary structures.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2025 to Question 24230 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Public Appointments, whether her Department has had discussions with the office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments on the reasons for which the Departmental board was unable to meet. \p Alex Norris: The Commissioner for Public Appointments regulates public appointments and provides independent assurance in relation to these. We wrote to the Commissioner on 2 October 2024 to consult him on the appointment of an interim Lead Non-Executive Director to ensure non-executive representation at the departmental board. This is in line with central governance requirements for government departments. We report on the activities of the departmental board as part of our standard annual reporting processes, which include the Annual Report and Accounts.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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James Wild:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to (a) update guidance on the use of Conformité Européenne marking for construction products and (b) expand testing and certification capacity in the UK. \p Alex Norris: (a) The guidance pages on the use of CE marking for construction products are regularly updated. They were most recently updated on 26th of February 2025. You can find the guidance here:

Construction Products Regulation in Great Britain - GOV.UK

Construction Products Regulation in Northern Ireland - GOV.UK

(b)The Construction Products Reform Green Paper (published on 26 February 2025) sets out proposals for system wide reform of the construction products regime, including expanding testing and certification capacity in the UK. Access to this capacity is critical to growth and meeting our commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes during this parliament. Measures to improve conformity assessment capacity include consideration of whether the government should have the ability to recognise conformity assessment activity undertaken outside of the UK, and supporting skills development of conformity assessment bodies (for example, through government-backed training schemes).

The green paper also sets out our ambition to support and encourage innovation in the built environment, and seeks views on the potential to expand public testing capacity.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle parking challenges associated with seasonal tourism surges in West Dorset constituency. \p Alex Norris: Parking is the responsibility of local authorities, and it is for them to determine what is appropriate in their own area.

To support this, the majority of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is un-ringfenced recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.

Where authorities raise income from parking services, which are often influenced by increased seasonal visitors, they are able to reinvest this in additional parking capacity as they see fit.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Pippa Heylings:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Local Government Pension Scheme on levels of economic growth in local communities. \p Jim McMahon: The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) already invests approximately 30% of its assets in the UK, as part of its duty to invest to pay pensions. The government believes that the LGPS can make a distinctive contribution to local economic growth building on its local role and networks, through increasing its long-term investment in local communities.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Jayne Kirkham:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that memorandum of understanding agreements with councils for this year’s Shared Prosperity Funding are in place; and whether the deadline for spend will be extended. \p Alex Norris: Officials are working at pace to ensure that memorandum of understanding agreements for delivery of UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) in 2025-26 are distributed to lead local authorities as soon as possible and before the start of the next financial year.

UKSPF funding for the 2022-25 period must be incurred on activity that takes place on or before 31 March 2025. There is no flexibility to extend this expenditure deadline. Any UKSPF, Multiply or Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) underspends at the end of 2024-25 must be repaid to MHCLG.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Rebecca Long Bailey:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of homeless children growing up in temporary accommodation. \p Rushanara Ali: Funding for homelessness services is increasing by £233 million in 2025/26. This will help prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation, taking total spend to nearly £1 billion.

Our £8 million Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots will target 20 local authorities with highest use of bed & breakfast accommodation for homeless families.

We are working with ministers across government, alongside local leaders, to develop a long-term strategy to get back on track to ending homelessness.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Mike Amesbury:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to Q118 of the evidence given by her Department's Permanent Secretary to the Public Accounts Committee on 3 February 2025, HC 362, whether the cladding remediation funding announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 was (a) new or (b) rephased existing funding. \p Alex Norris: The cladding remediation funding announced in the Autumn Budget relates to the allocation required over the spending review period from the Government’s total agreed £5.1 billion contribution and new investment to speed up remediation of social housing.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2025 to Question 23789 on Eden Project: Morecambe, when her Department expects the project to be (a) completed and (b) open to visitors. \p Alex Norris: The final full business case for the Levelling Up Fund (LUF) Round 2 project “Eden Project North” was received by the department on the 23 September 2024. A memorandum of understanding was issued to Lancaster City Council on the 18 November 2024 and signed by the department on the 19 November 2024.

It is expected that this project will have full match funding of £50 million making the total LUF project cost £100 million.

I can confirm that all allocated funding will be available from Quarter one of 2026.

The latest delivery milestones timetable is for each milestones including dates is set out below.

Full design stage – (RIBA 2-4) March 25 - October 26

Initial enabling works during design - August 2025 - November 2025

Main site enabling works commences - March 2026 - July 2026

Main construction commences - March 2026 - July 2028

Main Construction Practical Completion – July 2028 - August 2028

Operational Readiness, Activation and Transition – May 2028 - October 2028
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Alex Ballinger:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department plans to take to increase regulations on property developers to help ensure high standards of development. \p Alex Norris: The Building Regulations are intended to protect people’s safety, health and welfare; they set minimum acceptable standards for new building work including when a building is being designed, constructed, or subject to major re-design and which are enforced through the Building Control process.

Since the Grenfell tragedy, the Building Control process has been strengthened, bringing greater oversight of Building Regulations compliance before, during and on completion of Higher Risk Building work. This will make sure that safety and performance of buildings is considered at the start of the design process and is fit for the building’s lifecycle.

At Planning Gateway 1, fire safety is considered as part of the development planning process; a local planning authority is required to consult the Health and Safety Executive on planning applications for Higher Risk Buildings.

The Building Safety Act 2022 established the Building Safety Regulator, which became the Building Control Authority for all Higher Risk Buildings in England in October 2023 and convenes multi-disciplinary specialist teams to assess building control applications at Gateway 2. Building work on new Higher Risk Buildings can only start after the developer has received Building Control approval from the Regulator.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which Minister in her Department will be responsible for fire services. \p Alex Norris: As with all departmental business, the Secretary of State maintains overall responsibility for the work of the department, and I will support the Secretary of State on fire services.
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Steve Barclay:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the amount that was spent by local authorities on services supporting (a) refugees and (b) people seeking asylum to access healthcare services in the last 12 months. \p Jim McMahon: The department does not hold this information to the level of detail requested. The department releases data on local authority spend through the local authority revenue expenditure and financing statistics, in which line 49 accounts for services or interventions for registered asylum seekers, including:

The department has not yet published data for the 2024/25 financial year. The first revenue outturn release for 2024/25 will be released in September 2025.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance her Department has issued on the application of critical race theory by local public bodies. \p Jim McMahon: No such guidance has been issued by the department since 5 July 2024.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2025 to Question 28148, on Civil Society: Islam, what steps her Department takes to ensure there is consistency across individual teams on policy engagement; and whether policy teams share lists of organisations they have met with. \p Alex Norris: Policy teams routinely confer when making decisions on engagement. We do not maintain and share lists of organisations policy teams have met.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much has been spent by Homes England on diversity, equality and inclusion (a) training and (b) programmes since 5 July 2024. \p Alex Norris: In line with the Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance - GOV.UK which came into effect in May 2024 Homes England has not commissioned any formal diversity, equality and inclusion training activity or training programmes.

The Agency have recently invested £400 to attend the Whitehall & Industry Group (WIG) Diversity & Inclusion conference with a focus on ‘benchmarking and collaborating across all sectors to create inclusive and high-performance workplaces’. Learning from this event will be shared to maximise value and a return on investment.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 24 December to Question 20228 on Civil Society: Islam, for what reason her Department has not engaged with (a) MEND, (b) CAGE, (c) the Muslim Association of Britain and (d) the Muslim Council of Britain. \p Alex Norris: The Government will only engage with organisations when it is in the public interest.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that proposed larger local authorities do not impact economies of scale. \p Jim McMahon: The government’s long-term vision is for simpler structures which put the right powers at the right scale. On the 5 February, I formally invited proposals for local government reorganisation from all the councils in two tier areas and their neighbouring unitary councils.

The invitation letter sets out the criteria against which proposals will be assessed in coming to a decision on implementation. These include the criteria that new unitary structures must be the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks; reflect local identity considerations; and enable stronger community engagement and genuine opportunity for neighbourhood empowerment. As set out in the published criteria for proposals, proposals should be for sensible economic areas, with an appropriate tax base which does not create an undue advantage or disadvantage for one part of the area.

It is for councils to develop robust and sustainable proposals that are in the best interests of their whole area.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 26612 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution, for what reason the decision was taken to amend spend publication thresholds. \p Alex Norris: MHCLG has reviewed its publication of spend data and has brought this in line with Cabinet Office requirements.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the cost to the public purse was of her recent visit to Ethiopia; and by which Department it was paid for. \p Alex Norris: Details of international Ministerial visits are published on a quarterly basis.
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Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure property management companies approved for the Cladding Safety Scheme are carrying out remediation works within a reasonable timeframe. \p Alex Norris: The Cladding Safety Scheme interacts with all applicants, including property management companies. We are a data-led programme and have designed key performance indicators into our system to ensure we can monitor and track progress and escalate applications as required. The system allows RAG ratings for all buildings to ensure that we are able to support and engage buildings experiencing delays or blockers. Where we experience delays with applications, we engage with applications to understand what the key blockers are and we are able to support them with Cladding Safety Scheme tools, such as instructing Client-Side Support for their applications.

We receive regular updates on progress from applicants and a key tenet of the programme is ensuring leaseholders and residents receive regular communications from the applicant so that they are aware of progress. Our key focus is to support applications to ensure progress occurs at pace, to provide leaseholders and residents with the necessary comfort to know that their buildings will be remediated within a reasonable timeframe.
wrans/answers2025-03-03 conversation_365
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2025 to Question 23872 on Councillors: Data protection, for what reason her Department’s plans to deliver the policy on councillor’s home addresses is best achieved by a full Act of Parliament. \p Jim McMahon: Primary legislation is needed to amend the Localism Act 2011 which contains provisions that require councillors to disclose their home address and authorities to disclose them on the public register of interests.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Dame Harriett Baldwin:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has adopted trade union representation requirements in their procurement processes since July 2024. \p Alex Norris: The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government procurement processes apply all applicable legislation and published procurement policy set by the Cabinet Office. MHCLG has regard for the National Procurement Policy Statement which drives procurement to deliver Government Missions. The Social Value Model for procurement includes Fair Work criteria including criteria linked to Fair Working conditions and Trade Union representation.
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Connor Naismith:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the newly built homes her Department is planning will be smaller than (a) three and (b) four bedrooms in the next four years. \p Matthew Pennycook: As set out in Chapter 5 of the National Planning Policy Framework, it is for each local authority to assess the size, types and tenures of new housing needed for different groups in the community, and reflect this in their Local Plans.

As such, the size and type of new homes securing approval will depend on policies in the adopted Local Plan, and on the decisions the authority makes about individual planning proposals
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Chris Law:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions her Department has had with projects due to receive funds from the Community Regeneration Fund in Dundee. \p Alex Norris: Officials from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government met with stakeholders from across the public, private and voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors, as well as the Scottish Government, as part of developing the Community Regeneration Partnership in partnership with Dundee City Council. Officials continue to work closely with Dundee City Council to deliver the projects identified.
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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will ensure that building management companies covering new developments have adequate (a) investment funds and (b) fees for continued (i) maintenance and (ii) rejuvenation of public spaces. \p Matthew Pennycook: As part of our manifesto commitment to bring the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ private housing estates to an end, the government intends to consult on options to reduce the prevalence of private management arrangements for new estates which are the root cause of the problems faced by many residential leaseholders.

The government is clear that new housing estates must have a sustainable plan for their long-term maintenance, upkeep and regeneration. The National Design Guide and National Model Design Code, which are both part of the suite of planning practice guidance that supports the National Planning Policy Framework, emphasise that well designed places consider management and maintenance regimes from the early stages of the design process and set them out in a management plan.
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Connor Naismith:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the Land Registry’s backlog. \p Matthew Pennycook: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to Question UIN 23772 on 27 January 2025.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 26476 to Community Development: Radicalism, whether (a) individuals and (b) groups that condone criminal activity are able to submit responses to public consultations. \p Alex Norris: The government does not actively and knowingly consult with any individual or group that condones criminal activity.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 26476 to Community Development: Radicalism, whether (a) Standard 1 and (b) Standard 3 of the Government’s principles of engagement, published on 14 March 2024, remain her policy. \p Alex Norris: The engagement principles have not been further updated since July 2024. The existing principles remain valid.
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Mike Amesbury:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of buildings under the (a) ACM programme, (b) Building Safety Fund, (c) Cladding Safety Scheme, (d) Developer remediation contract and (e) social housing remediation programme had a building assessment carried out by Tri Fire. \p Alex Norris: We publish a monthly Building Safety Remediation data release, covering the ACM programme, Building Safety Fund, Cladding Safety Scheme, Developer Remediation Contract and the social housing remediation programme at Building Safety Remediation - GOV.UK. However, we do not publish data on individual assessors or assessments commissioned by applicants for funding, registered providers of social housing or developers as part of these programmes. Similarly, we do not publish other data that risks identifying individual buildings undergoing remediation.
wrans/answers2025-03-03 conversation_374
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2025 to Question 21621 on Unitary Councils, whether her Department has issued guidance on the (a) number of electoral wards, (b) total number of councillors and (c) residents per councillor in each new unitary council. \p Jim McMahon: My department is working closely with the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) so that they are involved at the appropriate time to ensure fair electoral arrangements across the area of any new unitary local authorities.

The LGBCE’s approach during electoral reviews is that there are no set ratios of the number of electors each councillor should represent. The ratio flows from the number of councillors an authority should have. An authority has a unique set of characteristics which determines this and the LGBCE’s approach is outlined in its electoral review guidance.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the reliability of the Pedestrian Comfort Assessment prepared by Arup used by the Metropolitan Police to withdraw their objection. \p Matthew Pennycook: An appointed Inspector held a public inquiry which heard a range of evidence for and against the proposals in question.

As this case will come before ministers in MHCLG to determine, it would not be appropriate to comment further.

Decisions on planning applications are based on material planning considerations.
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Jack Rankin:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to enhance the fit and proper person test for the (a) owner and (b) manager of a park home site. \p Matthew Pennycook: The fit and proper person test, which applies to a site owner or the person appointed to manage a site, is intended to ensure that those managing park home sites are competent to do so.

Where properly applied by local authorities, the legislation has been shown to be effective.

We will continue to monitor its operation and consider whether any changes are required.
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Mike Amesbury:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraphs 58 to 60 of the the Housing Communities and Local Government Committee's 2nd Report of the 2019-2021 session on Cladding: Progress of remediation, published on 12 June 2020, HC 172,  what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using Compulsory Purchase Order powers to take direct ownership of the freehold of any building where the owner is failing to undertake remedial works in a timely way. \p Alex Norris: We are committed to ensuring that buildings with defective cladding are remediated as quickly as possible. As set out in our Remediation Acceleration Plan on 2 December 2024, the department is pursuing a wide range of measures to progress remediation, including funding the resourcing of building safety teams in local authorities and providing them with access to specialised teams such as the Joint Inspection Team.

We do not believe that a widespread use of Compulsory Purchase Orders would be an appropriate or proportionate response. Many building owners and developers are taking their responsibilities seriously to remediate historical fire safety defects at their property and remediation has completed in over a third (39%) of all 2,943 identified 18m+ buildings and started (or completed) in over a half (56%) of identified 18m+ buildings. Furthermore, by the end of October 2024 regulators have increased their inspections and use of enforcement notices by 95% and 88%, respectively, compared to prior to the department funding of £14 million in November 2022. The department’s support to local authorities has led to action involving 523 high rise or mid-rise buildings as of 27 January 2025.
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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to introduce a community right to buy for (a) social landlords and (b) community-led housing organisations. \p Matthew Pennycook: Through the English Devolution Bill, we will introduce a ‘right to buy’ to empower local people to bring community assets, such as shops, pubs and community centres, into community ownership. There are no plans for this to apply to social or community-led housing.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Anna Gelderd:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to introduce a statutory requirement for swift bricks in future building regulations. \p Alex Norris: The focus of building regulations is health, safety and wellbeing. In general, where wildlife is referenced in building regulations, it is because there is a direct relevance to ensuring structural integrity.

Expanding the scope of building regulations would place an additional burden on the people and processes of a regulatory regime which is already dealing with the increased demands of the Building Safety Act whilst supporting a housebuilding target of 1.5 million homes. We therefore consider that measures for nature conservation are better promoted and encouraged, rather than mandated through building regulations.

The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 included several changes designed to enhance and protect the environment. For example, it expects developments to provide net gains for biodiversity, including through incorporating features which support priority or threatened species such as swifts, bats and hedgehogs.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Mike Amesbury:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to Q52 of the evidence given by her Department's Director General for Buildings and Resilience to the Public Accounts Committee on 3 February 2025, HC 362, what discussions she has had with representatives from the insurance industry on (a) the standard of remediation that would prevent damage to the core fabric of a building and (b) whether the PAS 9980 standard has been extended beyond life safety risk to include protection of property. \p Alex Norris: Officials in my department engage regularly with the insurance industry.

The insurance industry has the opportunity to feed into the PAS 9980 review currently being conducted by the British Standards Institution (BSI).
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-03 conversation_381

Mike Amesbury:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference Q49 of the evidence given by her Department's Director for Remediation Policy to the Public Accounts Committee on 3 February 2025, HC 362, what estimate she has made of the number of buildings for which her Department has forced a developer to comply with a scope of remedial works using mechanisms in the developer remediation contract. \p Alex Norris: The developer remediation contract and the associated Responsible Actors Scheme includes provisions to make sure that signatory developers comply with their obligation to carry out remedial works that comply with the standard set out in the contract.

The Ministry regularly commissions independent audits of assessments obtained by developers. Where a developer's assessment or remedial works do not meet the required standard, the developer is obligated to go back and address any issues at its own expense.

If a developer fails to comply with its obligations and fails to take sufficient action to come back into compliance, the developer may be found to be in breach of contract and where applicable may have planning and building control prohibitions imposed on it. While using those prohibitions has not proved necessary to date, the Ministry is ready to do so if needed.

Developers and freeholders often agree a works contract without intervention from the Ministry. In cases where developers and freeholders disagree over the scope of works, we expect the developer to pursue reasonable endeavours to resolve the dispute. In order to support such efforts, we intend shortly to publish guidance on one such dispute-resolution mechanism. Where appropriate, the Ministry may also broker discussions between disputing parties to resolve the impasse so that people's homes can be made safe as quickly as possible.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-03 conversation_382

Mike Amesbury:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the differences between the definition of connected buildings which are regulated as (a) one higher-risk building during design and construction phases under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and (b) two or more separate buildings during the occupation phase under the Building Safety Act 2022 on costs for leaseholders. \p Alex Norris: The Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023 define higher-risk 'buildings' differently in the design and construction phase and once a building is occupied, with each phase being distinctly different and having its own requirements. When a new higher-risk building is being constructed, the entire overall structure is considered a single building. Once constructed, if a section of the overall structure is sufficiently independent from connected parts of the building, the relevant requirements will apply only to that part. This provides for a more flexible and proportionate approach and means that where a high-rise residential block is connected to a non-residential or low-rise block, the relevant duties need only be met for the high-rise block.

During the design and construction phase of the higher-risk regime, the building is neither occupied nor subject to the requirements under Part 4 of the Building Safety Act 2022, meaning there are no costs to leaseholders during this phase.

In occupied higher-risk buildings, accountable persons may pass on costs they incur in meeting their ongoing obligations under the Building Safety Act in managing, assessing and identifying building safety risks to leaseholders via the service charge. The Government considers the building safety requirements vital for properly managing fire and structural risks in higher-risk buildings, helping to prevent tragedies like the Grenfell Tower fire from happening again.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Tom Morrison:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what parameters her Department uses to determine whether to activate the Flood Recovery Framework. \p Alex Norris: My thoughts are with all householders and business owners impacted by flooding which is a devastating experience for those affected.

Government recovery support in the aftermath of flooding is only provided in exceptional circumstances. Activation of the Flood Recovery Framework is at the joint discretion of Ministers in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Growth, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who own and administrate the various schemes in the Framework. There are no fixed thresholds for activation.  When making the decision each event is considered on its own merits looking at factors including how widespread the event is, the significance and scale of impacts, comparison to previous events / activations and the severity of the on-going situation. These factors combined help to determine if an event can be considered exceptional. For comparison, when the Framework was last activated following Storms Babet in October 2023 and Henk in January 2024, together over 8,500 homes and businesses were impacted across England.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-03 conversation_384

Chris Coghlan:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's document entitled Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system, published on 12 December 2024, whether the new planning reforms require private infrastructure providers to submit business plans for strategic Community Infrastructure Levies that align with local plans. \p Matthew Pennycook: The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December does not require that private infrastructure providers submit business plans for strategic Community Infrastructure Levies that align with local plans.

The Framework states that, to ensure faster delivery of public service infrastructure, local planning authorities should work proactively and positively with promoters, delivery partners and statutory bodies to plan for required facilities and resolve key planning issues before applications are submitted.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-03 conversation_385

Jess Asato:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has plans to halve the number of non-decent homes in the (a) social and (b) private sector by 2030. \p Matthew Pennycook: The government will consult this year on a reformed Decent Homes Standard for the social and private rented sectors.

The Deputy Prime Minister is part of the ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce, which is aiming to publish a Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025. As part of the development of the strategy, the Taskforce is considering the impacts of living in poor quality housing.

People in need may be able to get help for essential furniture from their local council through the ‘Household Support Fund’ and other services available locally.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Paula Barker:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Planning overhaul to reach 1.5 million new homes, published on 12 December 2024, what assessment her Department has made on the adequacy of capacity within the construction sector to deliver that target. \p Matthew Pennycook: The government recognises the need to expand and upskill the construction workforce to meet our ambitious Plan for Change milestone of delivering 1.5 million homes in this Parliament.

We are working with industry to boost skills and support employers. We have announced a £140 million package of industry investment that will deliver 5,000 more apprenticeship places as well as apprenticeship reforms that will enable up to 10,000 more apprentices to qualify per year, including in construction.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

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Paula Barker:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of capacity to build new social housing at (a) pace and (b) scale. \p Matthew Pennycook: The government recognise that Registered Providers need support to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply.

We have consulted on a new five-year social housing rent settlement, to give Registered Providers the certainty they need to invest in new social and affordable housing.

We have also announced that councils will be allowed to keep 100% of the receipts generated by Right to Buy sales, so that they are better able to build and buy new homes.

We will set out set details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-03)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-03 conversation_388

Ben Maguire:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether planned leasehold reforms will include (a) protection for owners of park homes and (b) control of charges and commissions payable when a site owner wishes to sell and leave a site. \p Matthew Pennycook: The government’s planned reforms to the leasehold sector will not apply to park homes, which are legally defined as caravans.

The contractual terms between a site owner and a park home resident for stationing a home on a pitch are set out in the Mobile Homes Act 1983. Park home owners do not have leases for their homes or the pitch on which the home sits.

The government recognises that there are longstanding concerns about the requirement to pay site owners a commission upon sale of a park home. We will set out plans in due course to seek further evidence from the sector on the rationale for the commission.