Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether Gypsy and Traveller sites will be included in the next round of Social and Affordable Homes Programme funding.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Traveller sites fall within the scope of the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme, and we welcome bids to deliver new sites.
It is our intention to publish a full prospectus for the Programme in autumn 2025 and open it for bids in the winter.
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, further to her Department's press release of 17 June 2025 entitled Over 500,000 homes to be built through new National Housing Bank, what is her planned timetable for the financial guarantees be allocated; and over what period of time will the houses be constructed.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At the Spending Review, the government confirmed that it is establishing a new National Housing Bank, a subsidiary of Homes England which will be publicly owned and backed with £16 billion of financial capacity to accelerate housebuilding in England. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 18 June 2025 (HCWS712).
My department is currently working with Homes England and HM Treasury to establish the Bank, including developing its investment strategy, and parameters for different debt interventions including financial guarantees. We we will announce further details in due course.
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 she will make it her policy to introduce a national find my councillor facility on gov.uk.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The ‘Find your local councillors’ function on GOV.UK allows users to find out who their local councillors are and how to contact them.
In addition, many councils choose to publish details of their councillors on their own websites.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support small housebuilders to build more homes, and according to what timetable.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Small and medium sized housebuilders are essential to meeting the government's housing ambitions and supporting local economies.
The government is acting to support SME housebuilders by increasing their access to land, providing further financial assistance and easing the burden of regulation. Further details can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 2 June 2025 (HLWS670).
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 information her Department holds on what the average Band D council tax was in parished areas in (a) England, (b) unitary council areas, (b) London, (c) two-tier areas and (d) metropolitan council areas in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department publishes annual council tax level statistics, including town and parish council precepts. Statistics for 2025-26 can be found on gov.uk here. Table 2 shows council tax by class of authority and Table 6 shows the average Band D parish precept for England.
The Band D council tax figures by local authority from 1993-94 to 2025-26 are published on gov.uk here. These show Band D council tax including and excluding parish precepts for all local authorities.
Information on individual parish precepts has been collected by the Department annually since 2010-11.
Data for 2016-17 to 2025-26 are available here: Live tables on Council Tax - GOV.UK. Data for 2010-11 to 2015-16 are available here: Council Tax statistics - GOV.UK.
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 information her Department holds on what the average Band D parish precept was in (a) Wiltshire, (b) Shropshire and (c) Cornwall in each year since 2008-09.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department publishes annual council tax level statistics, including town and parish council precepts. Statistics for 2025-26 can be found on gov.uk here. Table 2 shows council tax by class of authority and Table 6 shows the average Band D parish precept for England.
The Band D council tax figures by local authority from 1993-94 to 2025-26 are published on gov.uk here. These show Band D council tax including and excluding parish precepts for all local authorities.
Information on individual parish precepts has been collected by the Department annually since 2010-11.
Data for 2016-17 to 2025-26 are available here: Live tables on Council Tax - GOV.UK. Data for 2010-11 to 2015-16 are available here: Council Tax statistics - GOV.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 steps her Department is taking to ensure that local councils in Surrey operate on a financially sustainable basis.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department works closely with local authorities and other government departments to understand specific demand and cost pressures facing local government on an ongoing basis. Any council that has concerns about its ability to set or maintain a balanced budget should approach the Department in the first instance, where we will treat all discussions in confidence and with respect.
The Government accepts that Woking Borough Council holds significant unsupported debt that cannot be managed locally in its entirety. We are committed to providing an initial tranche of financial support for debt repayment for Woking in 2026-27, ahead of the implementation of re-organisation in Surrey. Government-appointed Commissioners are in place in both Woking and Spelthorne, and have been engaged in the development of proposals for unitarisation.
The 2025 Spending Review provides over £5 billion of new grant funding over the next three years for local services that communities rely on. This includes £3.4 billion of new grant funding which will be delivered through the Local Government Finance Settlement within financial years 2026-27 to 2028-29.
We will publish the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement later this year, which will inform local authorities of their provisional multi-year allocations.
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 page 95 of the MHCLG annual report and accounts 2024-25, published in July 2025, what the historic issue was to which additional budget cover was sought.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department had identified a group of assets listed as ‘assets under construction’ where the descriptions and associated capitalisation dates indicated they may already have been in use in prior years. This meant the department may have needed to make a correction in its accounts for this missing historic depreciation. This would lead to an additional depreciation charge in the accounts.
To be cautious, we agreed additional budget cover with HMT based on the highest possible cost this might involve. However, after further work was carried out, the actual impact was much smaller than expected. As a result, we did not need to use all the extra budget that had been approved.
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 page 10 of her Department's publication entitled MHCLG annual report and accounts 2024 to 2025, published on 22 July 2025, what metrics are monitored by the Ministerial Delivery Dashboard.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG uses a wide range of metrics and data to monitor and track delivery progress on key departmental priorities as well as support policy development and decision-making.
Metrics are drawn from sources such as national statistics from the ONS and government datasets on GOV.UK. Examples include figures on new housing starts and ONS data on permanent dwellings started; government statistics on homelessness and rough sleeping figures; expectational financial support (EFS) allocations issued to local authorities; and results from both the ‘Community Life’ and ‘Trust in Government’ surveys.
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 she will publish each Electronic Purchasing Card transaction on her department's cards since 4 July 2024, listing the (a) merchant name, (b) date, (c) volume and (d) transaction type for every transaction, including those under £500.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In line with Cabinet Office guidance MHCLG currently publishes details of all spending over £500 using an electronic purchasing card solution (ePCS) on a monthly basis.