Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to establish a timeline of when the new private rented sector database will be implemented.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government intends to set out detailed implementation plans for the Renters’ Rights Act in the near future.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 78194 on Affordable Housing: Expenditure, where this information can be found in the annual reports and accounts.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Within my Department’s Annual Report and Accounts – which can be found here on page 140, expenditure for the Affordable Homes Programme is set out in ‘Note 4 - Operating Expenditure’ under ‘Notes to the Departmental Accounts’, in addition to being included within MHCLG’s budget and outturn throughout.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many performance reviews were undertaken for staff in (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; in how many cases performance was rated as unsatisfactory or below; how many staff left as a result of such a rating; and what proportion of full-time equivalent staff this represented.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The information requested could only be provided at a disproportionate cost and time to the department.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to amend the (a) Building Safety Act 2022 and (b) Building Regulations to ensure (i) building owners and (ii) nominated building design professionals can access Building Control records when required.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Provisions already exist within section 53 of the Building Act 1984 (as amended by the Building Safety Act 2022) to ensure relevant building control information is made available to both local authorities and those carrying out building work when changing building control body.
When a building control body can no longer provider services, they are required to provide the local authority any information it would have obtained had it been performing building control functions itself, and any additional information reasonably required to enable it to do so within 21 days. The building control body must also provide the person carrying out the work, typically the building owner or their nominated building design professional, any such information and other records necessary to allow another building control body to perform those functions.
The Department is considering how best to invest in building control digitalisation to improve the openness, accessibility, interoperability and reusability of building control data and deliver better outcomes for regulators, developers, built environment professionals and members of the public.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to increase the pension rights of retired firefighters who retired before 2000 on the retained duty system through their modified pension scheme.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has no plans to extend pension rights under the modified scheme to retained firefighters who retired before 2000.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2025 to Question 83816 on Devolution: Cornwall, whether he plans to require Cornwall to (a) join a combined authority with Devon and (b) have a mayor.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Decisions on future devolution beyond the areas on the Devolution Priority Programme, including Cornwall, will be confirmed in due course and will be subject to further local engagement and ministerial decisions.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what correspondence his Department has received from Cumbria Conservatives on the date of the Cumbria mayoral elections; when that correspondence was received; and whether each item of correspondence received a substantive reply.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department received a letter from the Cumbria Conservatives on 23 October 2025. I replied on 4 November 2025.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government) on 7 April (HC40908), what communications representatives of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation have made to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on (1) the Swanscombe Peninsula Site of Special Scientific Interest designation or (2) the presence or absence of distinguished jumping spiders within land owned by the Development Corporation for development, since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, as the sponsor department, has regular discussions with Ebbsfleet Development Corporation on matters relevant to its core objectives including the impact of the Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the factors allowing housing estate developers not to comply with planning requirements to install swift and bat bricks.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are no current planning requirements to install swift and bat bricks. The government has committed to consult on changes which require swift bricks to be incorporated into new buildings unless there are compelling reasons which preclude their use, or which would make them ineffective.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 27 October (HL Deb col 1192), whether the aim to "sort out Hillside" referred to the consequences of the decision of the Supreme Court in Hillside Parks Ltd v Snowdonia National Park Authority [2022] UKSC 30 or the planning status of the hillside location in Aberdyfi; and when they expect the Hillside issue to be resolved.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My remarks to the House set out the Government’s proposed approach to handling the broader implications of the Supreme Court judgement on the use of drop in permissions for the development sector in England, not the specific case in Wales subject to the judgement.