Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are on target to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government’s Plan for Change includes a hugely ambitious milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes this Parliament. Progress will be measured through the number of net additional dwellings and we will update Parliament in the usual manner.
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 19 January 2026 to Question 104668 on council tax, how county councils which are fire authorities and do not have separate fire precepts are treated for the purposes of that methodology.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The updated distribution for the Local Government Finance Settlement includes a resource adjustment, which takes account of a local authority's ability to raise income locally.
To reflect their differing responsibilities, within the resource adjustment we apply a different tier split to Shire Counties with fire authority responsibilities than we do to Shire Counties without fire authority responsibilities.
More information can be found in the Technical Annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base).
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 criteria his Department uses to decide whether to translate documents and communications into foreign languages.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department provides published content in additional languages where appropriate and on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are currently accessing addiction support services who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in a) Eastbourne b) East Sussex c) Sussex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
NHS England publishes data at a national level on accommodation status for people in contact with mental health services. Using accommodation types associated with homelessness, including rough sleeper, squatting, sofa surfing, staying with friends or family as a short‑term guest, bed and breakfast accommodation to prevent or relieve homelessness, sleeping in a night shelter, hostel to prevent or relieve homelessness, and temporary housing to prevent or relieve homelessness, the dataset at the end of November 2025 shows around 21,429 people fall into these groups out of 2,088,415 people in contact with services nationally (approximately 1.03%).
78% of all service users have an ‘unknown’ recorded accommodation status, meaning the true number experiencing homelessness while accessing mental health services may be higher.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
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 undertook verification of local authorities’ representations which noted insufficient capacity because of the scheduled May 2026 elections.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Representations were received from councils with elections scheduled in May, including from councillors and political groups, and from other councils, interested organisations, Member of Parliament, and members of the public.
The Secretary of State ran a locally led process and it was for councils to make representations and assess their capacity to conduct a safe and smooth transition to new authorities at the same time as holding elections.
In reaching his decisions, the Secretary of State carefully considered all the representations made alongside departmental advice on those representations.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are currently accessing mental health services who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in a) Eastbourne b) East Sussex c) Sussex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Data on substance misuse treatment is available on the ViewIt statistics viewer on National Drugs Treatment Monitoring System website (NDTMS - ViewIt - Adult). This data is only available at an upper tier local authority level, therefore data for East Sussex and West Sussex only have been provided below.
In East Sussex, there were 1,280 new treatment presentations with known housing status during 2024/25. Of these, 345 people were identified as experiencing homelessness, accounting for 27% of the total new presentations. In West Sussex, there were 1,465 new treatment presentations with known housing status during 2024/25. Of these, 350 people were identified as experiencing homelessness, accounting for 24% of the total new presentations.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are currently accessing both mental health and addiction services who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in a) Eastbourne b) East Sussex c) Sussex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
NHS England publishes data at a national level on accommodation status for people in contact with mental health services. Using accommodation types associated with homelessness, including rough sleeper, squatting, sofa surfing, staying with friends or family as a short‑term guest, bed and breakfast accommodation to prevent or relieve homelessness, sleeping in a night shelter, hostel to prevent or relieve homelessness, and temporary housing to prevent or relieve homelessness, the dataset at the end of November 2025 shows around 21,429 people fall into these groups out of 2,088,415 people in contact with services nationally (approximately 1.03%).
78% of all service users have an ‘unknown’ recorded accommodation status, meaning the true number experiencing homelessness while accessing mental health services may be higher.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he received representations on delaying local elections from Labour (a) MPs, (b) councillors and (c) council groups that were separate from formal representations from the local authority.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Representations were received from councils with elections scheduled in May, including from councillors and political groups, and from other councils, interested organisations, Member of Parliament, and members of the public.
The Secretary of State ran a locally led process and it was for councils to make representations and assess their capacity to conduct a safe and smooth transition to new authorities at the same time as holding elections.
In reaching his decisions, the Secretary of State carefully considered all the representations made alongside departmental advice on those representations.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Rt Hon Member for Ashton-under-Lyne has an official car provided.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Rt Hon Member for Ashton-under-Lyne is not provided with an official government car.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the social housing sector in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset and (c) England.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 28 January 2026 (HCWS1283)