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, with reference to the Northern Growth Strategy, January 2026, CP1485, paragraph 4 and footnotes 3 and 4, what is the evidential basis for the underlying statistics of the 2.2% productivity growth per year in the largest northern mayoral strategic authorities.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Footnotes 3 and 4 of the Northern Growth Strategy: Case for change outline how the calculation of compound average productivity growth rate in the largest northern Mayoral Strategic Authorities is based on ONS Official Statistics, using subnational estimates for Gross Value Added and hours worked.
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 13 January 2026 to Question 102770 on Waste Disposal: Birmingham, whether the meeting between the Secretary of State and Unite was minuted.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Minutes were taken and in line with normal practice, the minutes will not be published. But the Secretary of State reiterated that the waste dispute is a local issue for Unite and the Council to resolve.
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, whether (a) Judges' Lodgings and (b) other workplace accommodation are within the scope of the proposed overnight visitor levy.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We have published a consultation running until 18 February, so that the public, businesses, and local government can shape the design of the power to introduce a levy that will be devolved to local leaders, including potential exemptions. The scope of the levy, which will cover short‑term overnight stays in commercially let visitor accommodation, will be set out in future legislation.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the devolved institutions on Local Growth Funds.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Ministers and officials in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government regularly engage with counterparts in the devolved governments on matters relating to local and regional economic growth.
Engagement with devolved governments and the Offices for the Nations forms part of the work to develop and implement the Local Growth Fund in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This will ensure the funding fits the needs and circumstances of each nation, is spent on projects that matter to the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and drives productivity and growth across the UK.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of legislating for enhanced financial oversight mechanisms for newly established unitary authorities following Local Government Reorganisation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are responsible for their own financial management, and Local Government Reorganisation does not change this. We monitor the financial health of councils on a regular basis using a range of data as well as through extensive direct engagement. A key element of this is making sure that the public is protected from instances of local authority failure.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 need to introduce a legal requirement to consider access to hospital helipads in any planning application in the vicinity of a hospital.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is currently consulting on a new National Planning Policy Framework that includes clearer, ‘rules based’ policies for decision-making and plan-making.
The proposed new Framework gives substantial weight to the benefits of providing new or improved public service infrastructure, including healthcare facilities of all types.
The consultation also sets out updated policy to make clear that public services should not have unreasonable restrictions placed on their current or permitted operation as a result of development being approved after they were established. This means that development proposals should be capable of being integrated effectively with existing public service activities and infrastructure in their vicinity.
The consultation will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026 and can be found on gov.uk here.
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 104773, on Housing: Construction, what is his proposed timeline for the delivery of the 9,000 homes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Delivery of the up to 9,000 new homes is a matter for the Mayor of London and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation. They have published the Old Oak Masterplan Framework, which includes an Illustrative Masterplan, showing how development could be brought forward comprehensively. We will continue to work with the development corporation as it develops its proposals to ensure the best use of the public sector land to bring forward new housing and regeneration.
Asked by: Gideon Amos (Liberal Democrat - Taunton and Wellington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of residential properties built in Taunton and Wellington constituency in each year from 2009.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department publishes an annual release entitled ‘Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England’, which is the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply. This includes estimates of new homes built in each local authority, in each financial year, to 2024-25 and can be found in Live Table 123 on gov.uk here.
My Department also publishes a quarterly release entitled ‘Housing supply: Indicators of New Supply, England’, which includes more timely estimates of new build starts and completions in England, and in each local authority district. Statistics to the quarter ending September 2025 can be found in Live Table 253a on gov.uk here. This dataset cover new build dwellings only and should be regarded as a leading indicator of overall housing supply.
Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not centrally collected.
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, if he will make it his policy to amend the Housing supply: indicators of new supply statistics to include a rolling statistic on the yearly shortfall in relation to his 1.5 million housing delivery target.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has no current plans to incorporate new indicators into Housing Supply: Indicators of new supply statistical releases.
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 his policy is on establishing (a) shadow unitary councils and (b) preparing councils when undertaking local government restructuring.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My officials are in regular contact with councils to support them to undertake preparatory work to ensure readiness for any transition to new authorities.
Once a decision is taken on which proposals, if any, to implement, the Structural Changes Order will specify the governance arrangements for the new unitary councils in the transition period. Representations will be sought from the councils on the detailed content of the Structural Changes Order including on whether a shadow unitary council or preparing council is appropriate.
For all areas except Surrey, we anticipate elections to new authorities will take place in 2027, with those authorities going live in 2028.