Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 10 November 2025 to Question 87207 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether considers Thurrock's financial circumstances to be sufficiently strong justification for cancelling the 2026 elections; and whether he considers those circumstances to be equivalent to Surrey's.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On the handling of Thurrock Council’s debt, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 77936 on 13 October 2025.
Our starting point remains for all elections in 2026 to go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise.
The elections in May 2026 to the new councils of East Surrey and West Surrey will replace scheduled council elections, subject to Parliament. Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock are on a different timeline and I have today updated the House on the consultation on their proposals for unitary councils. We anticipate elections to any new councils in May 2027, with a ‘go live’ date for new authorities of April 2028. We are not cancelling elections in Thurrock in May 2026.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 10 Novembr 2025 to Question 87207 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether his Department would consider another request to cancel elections on the basis of delivering (a) devolution and (b) reorganisation to be sufficiently strong justification for cancelling local elections in 2026.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government.
In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with refence to his Department's oral statement of 5 February 2025 on English Devolution and Local Government, Official Report, col 767, whether it remains his Department's policy that it does not hold elections to bodies that will not exist.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government.
In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 10 November to Question 87207 on Local Government: Reorganisation, what democratic safeguards his Department will introduce to ensure that voters are not denied the chance to vote in the 2026 local elections due to their councillors requesting another cancellation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government.
In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 has received requests from (a) Thurrock, (b) Essex, (c) Basildon and (d) any other Essex council to cancel the 2026 local elections.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government.
In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many (a) social rent, (b) affordable rent, and (c) shared ownership homes have been provided through the Social and Affordable Homes Programme since its inception.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Bidding for the Programme in question has not yet opened.
On 7 November 2025, my Department published a policy statement on the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) which can be found on gov.uk here. This was accompanied by detailed guidance for prospective bidders published by Homes England and the Greater London Authority.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 contribution of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme to meeting national housing need.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Bidding for the Programme in question has not yet opened.
On 7 November 2025, my Department published a policy statement on the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) which can be found on gov.uk here. This was accompanied by detailed guidance for prospective bidders published by Homes England and the Greater London Authority.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding under the Social and Affordable Homes Programme has been (a) allocated and (b) spent.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Bidding for the Programme in question has not yet opened.
On 7 November 2025, my Department published a policy statement on the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) which can be found on gov.uk here. This was accompanied by detailed guidance for prospective bidders published by Homes England and the Greater London Authority.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of residential development projects had a main developer which was classified as an SME in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This information is not recorded by my Department.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 20 October 2025 to Question 81148 on Leasehold: Ground Rent and to the Answer of 15 September 2025 to Question 74455 on Ground Rent: Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) identify developments where mortgage lenders are refusing to lend due to rent escalation clauses and (b) require freeholders to offer deeds of variation where leases are already inhibited by such clauses.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Some of the most problematic ground rent terms involving clauses doubling more quickly than every 20 years have already been subject to enforcement action by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as unfair contractual terms. If leaseholders find developers and freeholders are failing to meet these binding commitments to remove ground increases and repay past ground rent increases, they should contact the CMA directly.
The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details in due course.