Written Statements

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

Tuesday 1 September 2026

CPTPP: Canada

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Blair McDougall)]

From 1 September 2026, the UK’s accession to the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership (CPTPP) enters into force with Canada. Following Canada’s ratification, UK companies can trade with Canada under CPTPP terms for the first time.

This means that the UK’s accession to CPTPP is now in force with all other member countries. British businesses can now access the full benefits of the agreement across all 11 CPTPP parties.

Canada is a close UK partner and fellow G7 member. It was the UK’s largest CPTPP trading partner in the four quarters to the end of Q1 2026, accounting for 23% of all UK trade with CPTPP. Canada was also the world’s 10th largest economy in 2025, with a market of 42 million people and GDP of $2.3 trillion.

Benefits for UK traders and consumers

Entry into force of the UK’s CPTPP accession with Canada means that we have secured access to Canadian tariff rate quotas covering a wide variety of dairy products, including cheese, cream and ice cream. This provides UK farmers and dairy producers with additional tariff-free market access to Canada and opens further opportunities to increase exports.

The agreement will also make short-term business travel to Canada more flexible. UK business visitors will be able to stay for up to six months, with the option to extend.

Alongside this, new digital trade commitments will further support UK businesses by permitting them to store data entirely digitally, rather than having to establish physical facilities in Canada. These commitments will be particularly useful for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) looking to expand into Canada and across CPTPP economies.

By improving access to information, reducing barriers to trade and increasing transparency, CPTPP will also help SMEs take advantage of new opportunities across the bloc.

Additionally, there will be access to new public procurement opportunities by giving businesses in both countries enhanced access to markets not covered under previous agreements. For UK suppliers, this includes opportunities in sectors such as air transport, accounting and financial services.

The UK will continue working with Canada and the other CPTPP members to build on the opportunities it creates for businesses, consumers and economic growth.

I will keep the House updated on future CPTPP developments.

[HCWS296]

Creative Freelance Champions

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Ian Murray)]

The DCMS Secretary of State (Lisa Nandy) has appointed Leila D’Aronville and Lizzie Crump to the role of creative freelance champion, to ensure that the voice of this vital workforce is heard at the heart of policymaking.

Freelancers form the backbone of the UK’s creative economy—providing a significant workforce across sectors from performing arts and film production to design and crafts. They provide the agility and specialised skills that make our creative industries a global success story. However, creative freelancers face unique challenges regarding job security, skill development, and working conditions.

Lizzie Crump and Leila D’Aronville have been appointed, in a job-share working pattern, for a period of 18 months as direct ministerial appointments. Over the first six months, they will identify their priority areas of work, and define a number of set deliverables for their appointment term. They have also joined the Creative Industries Council.

The champions will act as a strategic bridge between the Department, wider Government, industry bodies, and the creative freelance community. Their terms of reference have been published online, with a remit focused on advocacy, representation and building understanding of the freelance workforce. This will mean:

Representation: Working closely with the sector to coherently represent the experiences of creative freelancers within Government, and improve the application of policy initiatives to this group.

Building understanding: Working with relevant Government Departments, arm’s length bodies, and the sector to improve understanding of this section of the workforce, and build awareness of key rights, responsibilities and resources amongst freelancers and their contractors.

The champions will be supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England and the British Film Institute, and will work in partnership with a wide range of organisations from the sector, including unions and sector bodies.

[HCWS294]

Funeral Industry Regulation

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Yvette Cooper)]

I wish to update the House on the Government’s proposals for formal regulation of the funeral sector, announced this summer following the sentencing of criminal funeral director Robert Bush. These proposals will seek to crack down on rogue operators in the funeral sector and ensure better protection for bereaved families.

On 31 July, Bush, of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a total of 67 charges, including the prevention of a lawful and decent burial, fraud, fraudulent trading and theft.

His actions were utterly abhorrent, and my thoughts remain with all the bereaved families in Hull who were so badly let down. Every person in every situation deserves dignity in death, and every bereaved family deserves certainty that their loved ones are being treated with care and respect.

For those families, there can be few things more painful than knowing a loved one was not treated properly after they died. The deceased cannot speak for themselves, which is why clear safeguards, stronger oversight and consistent standards are needed to protect their dignity and give families the reassurance they deserve.

Sadly, this case was just the latest horrendous example in our country of the deceased not being treated with the care and respect they deserved.

Sir Jonathan Michael’s independent inquiry into the horrific crimes of David Fuller in the mortuary of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust showed the need to ensure better standards across all settings that look after our loved ones after they die, including those where some level of regulation is already in place.

Building on the progress already made in responding to the Fuller inquiry—see HCWS26, 15 July 2026—and in the wake of the Robert Bush case, the Government will bring forward comprehensive proposals to ensure respect and dignity for the deceased in every setting, to drive rogue operators out of the funeral industry, and to protect other families from suffering this same heartache.

The Department of Health and Social Care is leading this work alongside the Ministry of Justice and other Government Departments, and will draw up detailed proposals to drive up standards, including proper regulation of the funeral sector. As part of this work, the Law Commission will also undertake a review of the criminal law in relation to the deceased, consider any gaps in existing legal protections and make recommendations on the creation of new offences, if they are needed.

The Government will work closely with bereaved families, funeral providers, faith groups, local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that future policy in this area is proportionate, effective and informed by those with relevant experience. This will ensure families can have confidence that funeral providers are meeting clear, consistent standards, no matter where they live or which provider they choose.

These changes will also reinforce the profound responsibility placed on anyone entrusted with caring for someone after death. The majority of funeral providers live up to that responsibility, and offer compassionate and professional care every day. Nevertheless, stronger oversight, including proper regulation of the sector, will protect families from rogue operators, support good providers and restore confidence in a sector that people must be able to trust in moments of profound grief and loss.

We will keep the House updated as this work progresses, and set out our detailed plans and timetables for the implementation of these new proposals in due course.

[HCWS295]

Ending Rough Sleeping

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Homelessness, Democracy, Communities and Faith (Florence Eshalomi)]

On 19 August, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced the next steps in his national drive to end rough sleeping, backed by £442 million of funding through a new rough sleeping programme.

This will ensure that everyone sleeping rough is offered a route off the streets before Christmas this year, while providing longer-term accommodation and support for people with the most complex and long-term experiences of rough sleeping.

No one should have to sleep rough. Yet too many people remain without the safety and stability of a secure home. This Government are determined to change that, combining urgent action this winter with longer-term investment to tackle rough sleeping and help people rebuild their lives.

Ahead of Christmas, we are funding local areas to expand accommodation provision for people sleeping rough, alongside tailored support to address the issues that contribute to rough sleeping. This may include accommodation, support to access mental health or substance use services, help to access employment or training, help to access or maintain accommodation, or other support tailored to individual circumstances. At the same time, we are investing in settled accommodation and intensive support for people experiencing long-term rough sleeping, helping those with the most complex needs to leave rough sleeping behind permanently. This investment will help deliver more than 1,000 settled homes for people experiencing rough sleeping, alongside the support needed to sustain them.

Funding has been targeted towards areas with the greatest rough sleeping pressures, while giving mayoral strategic authorities and local authorities the flexibility to shape services around local need. This reflects the Government’s commitment to devolving power and resources to local leaders, who are best placed to understand local challenges and shape the responses needed in their communities, and mayoral strategic authorities are expected to manage funding across their area, in partnership with local authorities.

Alongside funding allocations, we have published guidance to help local areas mobilise quickly and deliver a consistent “route off the street” offer this winter. The guidance makes clear the need to ensure adequate and accessible provision for women experiencing rough sleeping, recognising that women are often underrepresented in official statistics and may be at greater risk of violence, abuse and exploitation.

We are also increasing investment in the ending homelessness in communities fund, taking the total funding to £47 million, with £8.1 million additional funding, supporting voluntary, faith and community organisations, which are often the first point of contact for people furthest from mainstream support.

This investment builds on the Government’s wider national plan to end homelessness and sits alongside action to prevent homelessness before it occurs. The £442 million package takes total investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years to more than £4 billion. By combining immediate action this winter with long-term investment in accommodation and intensive support, we are taking a significant step towards ending rough sleeping and helping people build stable lives away from the streets.

[HCWS300]

Restoring Pride in High Streets

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Jim McMahon)]

The condition of high streets, and the health of district, town and city centres, is a litmus test for national renewal. High streets bring people together to eat and drink, shop, access services, explore culture and heritage, or spend time with friends and family. They root a community and when thriving offer pride and quality of life for local people. The high street has a vital role anchoring communities in shared experience and physical togetherness, as well as supporting jobs and local economic growth.

For too long, though, communities have watched their high streets decline around them, with boarded-up shops, vape shops, and rogue businesses replacing the local services people rely on, and gambling businesses disproportionately found in the most deprived areas. This makes high streets unattractive to visit and undesirable to invest in, fuelling a spiral of decline.

This decline is not inevitable, nor is fixing these problems outside our control. Better living standards, mixed-use adaptation, raising the bar on quality, and businesses having breathing space are fundamental to reviving high streets. But giving local people a say over the composition and care of their high street, and clamping down on exploitation, can make a vital contribution now and in the future.

This Government are determined to restore pride in our high streets, support legitimate businesses, and give local people a stronger say over what happens in their town centres. That is why we have announced a package of measures to put power back in the hands of local communities, so that they can shape the future of their own high streets.

First, the Government intend to consult on changes to the planning system to account specifically for the rise in vape shops and adult gaming centres, and provide more control at a local level over the number of these opening on our high streets. At present, vape shops sit within the same broad planning use class as shops, cafés and financial services (class E). Changes of use within this use class do not require a planning application. Adult gaming centres are also not clearly defined in the use classes order. This can leave local communities feeling powerless when new premises open in inappropriate locations, including near schools, or where there is already a concentration of similar premises.

Subject to consultation, the Government intend to make vape shops and adult gaming centres standalone planning categories, or what is known as sui generis uses, in planning terms. This would mean a planning application would be required when the use of the land or building changed to that of either a vape shop or an adult gaming centre, where the change amounts to a material change of use. This would give local planning authorities and communities a proper opportunity to consider whether they are appropriate in that location. The consultation will also test how a vape shop should be defined to ensure a wide definition that does not incentivise businesses to try to avoid the rules by presenting themselves as convenience stores, and captures various uses of shops, where the main aim is to sell vaping products.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will also consult on removing the aim to permit rule in the Gambling Act 2005. This rule currently requires licensing authorities to approach gambling premises applications on the basis that they should generally be permitted where the relevant requirements are met. The Government recognise that regulated, responsible gambling businesses make an economic contribution and offer spaces for people to socialise and have fun. However, many councils, MPs and residents have raised concerns about the clustering of gambling premises, particularly adult gaming centres, on high streets, especially in areas already facing economic and social challenges, and too often local authorities seeking to prevent new openings have found their decisions overturned after a costly legal challenge.

Removing the aim to permit rule will build upon the introduction of gambling impact assessments earlier this year, empowering councils to take local concerns into account when considering applications for new gambling premises. This is not about a blanket ban. It is about giving communities and their locally elected representatives a fairer say over whether additional gambling premises are right for their area.

The Government will also take action to strengthen enforcement against rogue businesses linked to organised crime or serious nuisance. Following a targeted consultation earlier this year, we intend to double the maximum length of closure orders from six months to 12 months. This will give police and local authorities more time to investigate premises, pursue prosecutions, and prevent criminal operators from reopening before investigations are complete. Tackling high-street dodgy shops remains a priority for the Government, and this effort is underpinned by £30 million over three years. The new cross-departmental high street organised crime unit in the Home Office is working at pace with national and local partners to ensure a more robust, co-ordinated response to the problem.

Finally, we will work with councils to improve the appearance and design of high streets. Poor-quality shopfronts, oversized signage and unsympathetic alterations can undermine the character and attractiveness of town centres. Over the next six months, the Planning Advisory Service will identify good practice and provide practical support to councils on improving shopfronts, signs and the overall look and feel of local high streets.

These measures form part of the Government’s wider commitment to restore high streets and shift power out of Westminster and back into the hands of local communities. We will set out further detail on our long-term comprehensive approach through the high streets strategy later this year.

[HCWS302]

Revised National Planning Policy Framework: Further Planning Reform

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

This Government have acted with ambition and urgency to tackle the acute and entrenched housing crisis in England, including by means of a bold overhaul of the planning system. In December 2024, we revised the national planning policy framework, reversing the previous Government’s anti-supply changes; implementing a new standard method aligned to our more ambitious national housing target; and releasing more land into the system through a modernised, strategic approach to green-belt land designation and release.

In December 2025, our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Act received Royal Assent, enabling us to speed up and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure. Once we have switched on the Act in its entirety, we estimate that this single piece of legislation could boost GDP by up to £7.5 billion over the next decade.

In the same month the Act received Royal Assent, the Government launched a consultation on a fuller and more definitive overhaul of the NPPF. The wholly restructured framework that was proposed maintained and built upon the initial revisions we made in December 2024, included a range of new measures to support key economic sectors, and incorporated new clear and rules-based national policies for the making of both plans and decisions.

Under the leadership of the new Prime Minister, the Government are more focused than ever on building the homes our country needs and delivering good growth in every postcode. Following extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and detailed analysis of the large number of responses to the consultation undertaken between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, we published a new NPPF and the Government response to that consultation on 17 August. Alongside the publication of the new framework, we also took the opportunity to progress complementary reforms to further improve the functioning of the planning system.

National Planning Policy Framework 2026

The new framework published on 17 August sets out national planning policy in a clearer and more comprehensive manner and incorporates a number of substantive reforms designed to boost housing supply and unlock economic growth in the years ahead.

The new decision-making policies in the framework, which have been separated from those relating to plan-making, will make development management more certain, consistent and streamlined; standardise policies that apply across the whole of England; and reduce duplication and avoid unjustified local deviation from national policy in local plans. To ensure that the decision-making policies in the framework had an immediate impact, they took effect on the day of publication—17 August 2026.

Many of the reforms contained in the new NPPF reflect the proposals set out in December last year, but a number of key changes have been made in light of feedback received through the consultation. These include:

Clarifying policies throughout the framework: including setting out more clearly the respective roles of different types of plans and what needs to be considered in decision making—for example, how transport impacts, pollution, heritage, protected landscapes and safety for women and girls should be reflected in planning decisions.

Increasing the ambition of the “default yes” for development around well-connected stations: expanding the scope of the policy to the top 80 travel to work areas by gross value added, as opposed to the top 60 TTWAs proposed in the consultation.

Updating policies to support increased densities: supporting more types of development within the curtilage of residential properties and ensuring that extra floorspace rather than just extra units are supported—giving more flexibility to expand accommodation of all types.

Tailoring minimum densities to maximise overall supply: by adjusting our approach to minimum densities around rail stations and ensuring local areas maximise densities where they can be supported, we have maintained an ambitious approach, while avoiding unviable requirements in areas that cannot support them.

Requiring flexibility when applying parking standards to large retail and similar redevelopment schemes: making it easier to regenerate sites.

Recognising the role of strategic sites: by creating a consistent and distinct category of sites comprising around 1,500 units or more, with policies tailored to support them where relevant.

Revising policy on local standards: by maintaining that quantitative standards in development plans should be limited to matters where local variation is justified and setting out clearly the circumstances in which local standards for energy efficiency and internal layout may be justified.

Providing clearer support for telecommunications development: ensuring schemes can come forward in appropriate locations, including where this can improve connectivity for rail users.

Updating policies which safeguard against the loss of facilities: ensuring that key facilities such as public houses are not lost where that can reasonably be avoided.

Strengthening policy on protected landscapes: reinserting text to make clear that major development should be refused other than in exceptional cases. Landscape and scenic beauty in protected landscapes will also remain protected by statute.

The Government remain committed to tackling childhood obesity, as set out in our “10 Year Health Plan for England”. In response to feedback about its operability, we have removed a reference to “fast food outlets” from the framework, but will explore whether other land use planning approaches, including changes to the use classes order, could be made to address the issues raised by the consultation.

Statutory consultee reforms

Statutory consultees play an important role in the planning process by providing expert advice on matters ranging from transport and heritage to the environment and sport. However, where referrals are unnecessary or advice is delayed, the system can slow decision making and hold back the delivery of homes and growth.

That is why, in November 2025, we launched a consultation on reforms designed to ensure that statutory consultees provide timely, proportionate and relevant advice on planning applications. Following careful consideration of more than 1,600 consultation responses, on 17 August we published a Government response¹ and set out a package of reforms that will streamline consultation requirements while maintaining important safeguards.

The response to the consultation confirms that Sport England will be retained as a statutory consultee, but the range of planning applications on which it must be consulted will be narrowed to ensure its advice is focused on the cases where it adds most value, ensuring it continues to be consulted on development that leads to the loss of playing fields for housing or commercial development, and substantial sports or school development on playing fields.

The statutory consultee status of the Gardens Trust and Theatres Trust is being removed, but a new notification requirement is being introduced to ensure these bodies can continue their important role in the planning process. We are proceeding with the proposals on which we consulted to reform four of the national statutory consultees that receive the highest volume of planning applications: Active Travel England, National Highways, Historic England, and the Mining Remediation Authority.

We are also maintaining the moratorium on new statutory consultees, ensuring that the planning system remains targeted, proportionate and focused on supporting growth. Together, these reforms will reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, help local planning authorities reach decisions more quickly, and ensure statutory consultees can focus their expertise on the proposals that matter most. Regulations will follow in due course to enable implementation of these reforms.

Housing delivery test

To return to a regular publication timetable and ensure that scores reflect the most up-to-date information on housing delivery, the Government published housing delivery test results for 2024 and 2025 on 17 August.² Alongside these results, the Government also published an updated housing delivery test rule book.³

Mayoral planning powers

The “Rewiring the State” Cabinet statement⁴ published on 31 July 2026 commits the Government to delivering good growth in every part of the United Kingdom, with places able to set their own ambitions and integrate services to meet people’s needs.



In England, this requires a fundamental rewiring of the way our country works, surrendering power that for too long has been held in Westminster and Whitehall, and returning it to people and the places where they live, work and invest. Local leaders know what it will take to drive growth in their areas, creating jobs and attracting investment that speak to the strengths of their region.

An effective planning system is integral to meeting housing need, speeding up infrastructure delivery and enabling our towns and cities to realise their full economic potential. While the Government have an essential role to play in setting the framework of national planning policy, standards and regulation, it is local leaders, including mayors, who should be overseeing the strategic direction of development in their areas.

For over two decades, London has set the long-term frameworks for its housing delivery, infrastructure provision, growth and environmental resilience through a statutory spatial strategy, yet to its detriment most of the rest of England is not covered by a strategic plan. That is why our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 included provision for spatial development strategies—high-level spatial frameworks, aligned with devolution geographies, that identify broad locations for growth and development, and the necessary infrastructure needed to support it.

To ensure mayors have the tools they need to effectively deliver SDSs and drive forward housing and regeneration in their areas, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 gives them new powers over development management. These include powers to call in planning applications of potential strategic importance; to proactively grant planning permission through mayoral development orders; and to raise funds for infrastructure through the introduction of a mayoral community infrastructure levy.

We are determined to activate these mayoral planning powers as quickly as possible and on 24 August we published a consultation on the regulations needed to bring them into force. By early next year, we want the powers that will enable mayors to call in applications of potential strategic importance and to make mayoral development orders to be in place. In using these powers, we expect mayors to work in close partnership with local planning authorities in their areas to deliver the housing, infrastructure and good growth that local communities need and deserve.

¹ https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforms-to-the-statutory-consultee-system/outcome/reforms-to-the-statutory-consultee-system-government-response

² https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-delivery-test-2025-measurement

³ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-delivery-test-measurement-rule-book/housing-delivery-test-measurement-rule-book

⁴ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rewiring-the-state-cabinet-statement

[HCWS298]

Social and Affordable Homes Programme: Council House Building

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

Everyone deserves to live in a decent, safe, secure and affordable home. Yet far too many families in need of one are languishing on local authority waiting lists and almost 180,000 children are growing up in temporary accommodation, including over 100,000 in London. That is why this Government committed in our manifesto to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation, and to supporting councils and housing associations to make a greater contribution to affordable housing.

After years of marginalisation, we are once again asserting the necessity and the value of social rented homes. They are a crucial national asset to be proud of, to invest in, to protect and to maintain. Under the leadership of the new Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham), the Government are also determined not only to build upon the steps that we have already taken to reinvigorate council house building, but to decisively raise our ambition to ensure that we build council houses on a scale not seen in decades.

To kickstart social and affordable house building across the country, we have delivered the biggest boost to grant funding in recent memory through our new 10-year £39 billion social and affordable homes programme. The core strategic objective of the programme is to maximise supply, particularly of social rent homes, with a target to deliver at least 60% of the homes under the programme as social rent, in line with our manifesto commitment to prioritise this tenure.

Taken together with the steps that we have taken to rebuild the sector’s capacity to borrow and invest in new and existing homes and to establish an effective and stable regulatory regime, this unprecedented funding will enable councils, housing associations and other social and affordable housing providers to step up and deliver at scale and pace.

On 25 August we announced initial allocations of funding from the social and affordable homes programme so that we can start to deliver the significant increase in supply that it will facilitate. We also took the opportunity to set out how the programme will evolve over its 10-year lifetime, reflecting the emphasis that the new Prime Minister has placed on increasing council housing delivery and deepening devolution through a major transfer of powers, resources and functions from central Government to elected mayors and local authorities in regions across England.

As a Government, we remain committed to a renewed partnership with the sector. We call on providers of all kinds, developers and local leaders to help us successfully deliver the programme.

Reinvigorating council house building

Direct council delivery of social rent homes has a range of benefits, including democratic accountability, the ability to tailor provision to meet local housing need, and the creation of public assets that generate rental income that is reinvested in local housing to sustain and support communities.

It is also the case that the last time we built social housing on the scale that is now required, councils were the driving force, delivering tens of thousands of social homes each year until building rates fell off dramatically from the early 1980s onwards as a result of the constraints and restrictions created by the introduction of the right-to-buy scheme.

Housing associations and other providers will continue to play a key role in the delivery of social and affordable homes, and we want to encourage greater partnership working between councils and housing associations, but we are also determined to enable councils themselves to once again build at scale. We know that hundreds of councils share our ambition to secure the future of council housing.

The Government have taken a number of steps over the past two years to reinvigorate council house building. These include fundamental reform of the right-to-buy scheme; enabling councils to retain 100% of receipts from right-to-buy sales; a 10-year social housing rent settlement at CPI+1%; social rent convergence; the extension of the preferential Public Works Loan Board borrowing rates until the end of March 2027; an increase to the threshold for when a council must open an HRA from 200 to 1,000 homes; and funding to increase skills and capacity within councils to build. These changes are already bearing fruit with councils in 2024-25, delivering the highest number of social homes since the current reporting period began in 1991-92.

However, we need to go much further. As a first step, we will make sure that councils are able to access more of the funding available through the social and affordable homes programme. As we do so, we are urging councils to make timely and effective use of right-to-buy receipts, which can now be combined with grant secured through the programme, and unspent section 106 affordable housing contributions. Every pound that can be used for council house building is a step closer to more safe, secure and affordable homes for families across the country.

As a Government, we will continue to explore further ways we might support councils to expand their stock of social homes, including low-cost borrowing options, and to make use of existing powers such as those that enable the removal of “hope value” from the assessment of compensation in compulsory purchase cases where the public interest justifies this. We will be engaging intensively with councils over the coming months to explore these and any other constraints to building at scale.

Investment to strategic partners

As part of the initial social and affordable homes programme funding allocations announced on 25 August, we confirmed the first strategic partnerships designed to support providers who have asked for greater certainty of funding for the duration of the programme and are in a position to quickly begin delivering large numbers of new social and affordable homes.

In response to the opening of bidding, we saw an extremely large number of applications and unprecedented appetite for support on the part of providers. We thank everyone who applied for responding to our call to arms and submitting ambitious bids.

From an extremely competitive field, funding has been awarded to the highest quality bids as assessed by Homes England. This means that across England—excluding London—33 providers will receive funding totalling £9.58 billion to invest in new social and affordable housing. Nearly two thirds of the homes built by strategic partners through the programme will be for social rent.

For the first time ever, three councils will also be awarded strategic partnership status with Homes England—Cambridge city council, Eastleigh borough council and Newcastle city council—demonstrating how councils are stepping up to meet our bold ambitions.

The total funding of £9.58 billion includes an estimated £2.45 billion for delivery in six established mayoral strategic authority areas outside London, supporting the individual priorities of mayors who set the strategic direction of the programme in their areas.

Investment through continuous market engagement

The £9.58 billion of funding allocated through strategic partnerships will deliver tens of thousands of social and affordable homes across the country in the coming years, but with £39 billion of funding available over the lifetime of the programme there is over £16 billion of funding outside London and around £5 billion in London still yet to allocate. This includes funding in each year of this spending review period—2026 to 2030—and significant sums in the second half of the programme.

In allocating this funding, the Government intend to prioritise social rent homes, and in particular council homes so that we can achieve the Prime Minister’s ambition to deliver the biggest council house building programme since the post-war boom ended in the early 1980s. That said, funding will also be available for other providers, and we call on partners to come forward with strong bids in respect of specific sites.

In calling on councils to come forward with bids for new council homes, we will look to raise the cap on funding for acquisitions so that councils can buy more homes while they increase their capacity and capability to deliver homes directly. We are also reinvigorating our existing skills and capacity programme, re-branding it “Capacity to Build” and providing it with an extra £46 million to be invested over the next three years to give councils access to the skills and support they need to deliver ambitious house building plans. In the later years of the social and affordable homes programme, marked by a deepening of devolution and significantly more unallocated funding, we will look to ramp up rates of council house building even further.

London

In the early years of the programme, London will receive 30% of the funding, and up to £11.7 billion overall across the lifetime of the programme. As such, we have confirmed that the Greater London Authority intends to offer allocations of at least £6 billion to providers of social and affordable housing operating in the capital to support house building efforts there and address the city’s acute need for new social rented homes.

London is already showing what can be achieved through fuller devolution when it comes to council house building. With half of all council homes built in 2024-25 coming forward in London, we expect over half of all the delivery in London through this funding to come from councils.

Devolution

We have seen in London what can be achieved when local leaders have the powers, capability and long-term certainty to shape housing investment. We want more mayors to have the opportunity to reach that position.

We therefore intend to ensure that as the programme progresses more funding will flow directly to established mayoral strategic authority areas outside London, building on the strategic direction they have set to ensure that decisions about social and affordable housing investment are made locally. As mayors are given more power over grant-funded delivery, the Government will work closely with them to maximise council housing delivery.

To pave the way for this future transfer, we want to support and empower mayors to quickly increase the capacity and capability of their authorities to deliver housing and regeneration schemes. As such, dedicated delivery expertise will be made available to individual established mayoral strategic authority areas as part of the Government’s commitment to establish joint delivery units between mayors and Homes England.

The approach we take to the programme will be consistent with the commitments made in the Cabinet statement on rewiring the state, including in respect of funding mayors through retained taxation rather than grant.

Supporting job creation through investment in social housing delivery

Alongside its social and wider benefits, the programme supports economic growth via job creation. Every home built through grant funding provided through the programme will support jobs directly and indirectly through construction and supply chains.

We want to maximise the impact of the programme on the employment market and wider economy. For partners delivering through the programme, we ask all providers to consider what more you can do to support young people into employment, creating clear opportunities through the investment being provided.

The Government have been driving innovative training programmes, including directly in the house building sector, through skills development in modern methods of construction. We will continue to explore how we can build on the progress made to date to support young people into employment, focused on addressing skills shortages and training.

Facilitating the delivery of section 106 homes

Section 106 agreements are, and will remain, an essential mechanism for delivering social and affordable housing. They account not only for a significant proportion of affordable home completions, but for a significant share of total new home delivery. Without them, the development pipeline as a whole is at risk of contracting sharply.

In addition to delivering grant funded homes, we need all partners to maximise homes built through section 106. To speed up the process of drafting and concluding new section 106 agreements, we have launched a consultation on a standard section 106 template for medium sites which would be expected to become the default for applications in the future.

We also published the national section 106 affordable housing engagement guidance. This guidance has been developed jointly by the National Housing Federation, the Home Builders Federation, the Chartered Institute of Housing and the Local Government Association, with their members, and we thank all those who have contributed to its development. The guidance establishes a shared framework for section 106 delivery and sets out the principles of effective engagement between developers, registered providers and local planning authorities. The Government strongly encourage partners across the sector to make full use of it.

[HCWS299]

Criminal Justice Reform

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Norris)]

This Government inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse. In July 2024, men’s prisons were operating at 99% capacity. At one point, there were fewer than 100 places available across the male estate. Without intervention, we risked running out of prison places, leaving courts unable to sentence offenders and police unable to make arrests.

This Government have acted to increase capacity and to reform sentencing. We have committed to delivering 14,000 prison places by 2031 and have already delivered 3,200. The last Government added just circa 500 net places in their time in office. We have also accelerated the removal of foreign national offenders, returning around 11,700 to their countries of origin. However, the adult male prison estate is once again operating at more than 98% capacity.

It is within this context that we launched the independent sentencing review in October 2024 and subsequently passed the Sentencing Act 2026, to place the prison system on a more sustainable footing and ensure that there is always space available for the most dangerous offenders. The Act also aimed to avoid the chaotic emergency release schemes carried out with little scrutiny or warning by the Conservatives.

The Government have listened to the concerns raised, paused implementation of the progression model and conducted an urgent review. I can now confirm that, in addition to the dangerous offenders already ineligible for the progression model, this Government will exclude rape and serious child sex offences from eligibility for changes to release dates under the Sentencing Act. Unlawful killings including manslaughter, causing or allowing the death of a child, and death by dangerous driving will also be excluded, as well as indecent assault, ensuring that more historical child sex offences prosecuted under older laws are treated consistently with equivalent offences today. This means hundreds more dangerous criminals staying behind bars for longer, including those who killed PC Andrew Harper in the line of duty.

We recognise the significant effect that changes to release dates can have on victims. We will ensure those in the victim contact scheme who are affected by these new exclusions are informed if there are any changes to the release date of the offender in their case. I have also instructed my officials to attempt to contact victims not in that scheme to provide information should they wish this. We are also boosting support to victims with a £18.9 million funding package for local emotional and practical support.

The Government have a duty to ensure that sufficient prison places remain available. We have therefore fast-tracked plans to create additional headroom in the custodial estate, including creating new cells in existing prisons, accelerating current prison build programmes, and investing in new land for prisons. The largest prison building programme since the Victorian era will be accelerated through a £110 million investment. Under this Government, we’re spending more than three times as much on building new prisons as was spent over the previous seven years.

We must also continue to free up prison space wherever it is safe and appropriate to do so. The Government have increased removals of foreign national offenders in our first two years by 41% compared with the last two years of the previous Government. In September 2025 we expanded the early removal scheme, and early next year we will go further, implementing the power in the Sentencing Act allowing eligible foreign national offenders serving determinate sentences to be removed immediately following sentencing. As with the progression model, the most dangerous offenders will be required to serve their sentence in line with current arrangements and all offenders removed under the scheme will be barred from returning to the United Kingdom for life.

Alongside these measures, this Government are acting on inequities in the justice system and plans to bring a definitive end to indeterminate imprisonment for public protection sentences, or IPPs, for those still serving them. Although IPP sentences were abolished in 2012, a number of prisoners sentenced under the previous framework remain in custody. Of those who have never been released, 99% are beyond the tariff imposed by the court, and 80% have served 10 years or more beyond it. Tragically, with no end of their sentence in sight, some IPP prisoners have taken their own lives.

The numbers of IPP offenders have been reducing, but the Prime Minister and I want to go further. We will soon bring forward legislation to end the IPP sentence once and for all, by the end of this Parliament. These are complex cases, and some IPP offenders have committed serious crimes. Public safety will always be the top priority, and we must balance that with fairness. It will take time to get this right, but work will begin immediately and will be on a cross-party basis.

This Government will also consider how to improve outcomes for women and young offenders, recognising that these groups often have specific and complex needs. We want to reduce the number of women in prison where it is safe and appropriate to do so. We are exploring options to reduce the number of pregnant women and mothers of young children in custody, alongside a cross-Government agenda of reform to address the drivers of women’s offending.

In the long term, we will continue efforts to also reduce the number of children in custody, prioritising public protection throughout. In the shorter term, to help relieve some of the adult prison capacity challenges, we have made the decision to hold 18-year-olds for longer—on a careful case-by-case basis—in the youth estate. This will be an interim arrangement, subject to regular reviews, that we will look to end as soon as possible. For youth offenders, I am announcing £4.5 million of investment for robust community alternatives to locking children up.

We recognise that criminal justice reform cannot be delivered through prisons or sentencing policy alone. This is a system-wide challenge and requires action across policing, the Crown Prosecution Service, courts, probation and prisons, and support across Whitehall and beyond.

These measures strike a balance between maintaining sustainable prison capacity, protecting the public and doing right by victims. We will continue to build capacity and reform the system for the long term, while making sure it commands the confidence of the British people.

[HCWS301]

Bus Fare Cap

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Simon Lightwood)]

My noble Friend the Minister of State for Transport (Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill) made the following ministerial statement on 22 July 2026:

I wish to inform the House that the Government are today announcing single bus tickets will be capped at £2 in England outside London from 1 January until 31 December 2027. This measure will mean millions of passengers could save up to a third off a single journey, helping with the cost of everyday travel and supporting access to work, education, healthcare and leisure.

The new £2 cap is backed by £400 million of extra Government funding. This action to ease the cost of living is being funded by savings from reprioritising the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s budget, including by switching funding for international climate from grants to loans.

The scheme will replace the existing £3 fare cap and ensure that eligible single bus fares on participating services cost no more than £2. It will particularly benefit passengers making longer-distance journeys, including those in rural and coastal communities, where fares can often be significantly higher.

Today’s announcement sits alongside the Government’s wider investment in buses. Earlier this year, we announced over £100 million of additional support for the bus sector, including free bus travel for children aged five to 15 on participating services in August as part of the Great British summer savings scheme. This investment also includes funding for local transport authorities and bus operators to address rising costs in the sector, helping to maintain services and keep fares affordable. We have today confirmed the individual allocations local transport authorities will receive.

The Government recognise that affordable fares are only one part of delivering better bus services. We have already committed more than £3 billion for buses over the next three years, alongside significant reforms through the Bus Services Act 2025. These reforms give local transport authorities greater powers and flexibility to shape bus services around the needs of their communities, whether through franchising, enhanced partnerships or other locally led approaches.

This Government are committed to ensuring that buses remain affordable, reliable and accessible. By reducing fares, supporting local transport authorities and providing long-term funding certainty, we are helping people stay connected to opportunities, supporting local economies and laying the foundations for stronger bus networks across the country.

[HCWS297]