Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with local government representatives on mandating the use of British made bricks in house building programmes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is working with industry to ensure the housebuilding sector has access to the construction materials needed to build 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this parliament.
We expect suppliers to increase capacity to meet demand, and we have seen deliveries of bricks in England, Scotland and Wales increase by 10% in the year to April 2025.
Added to that, construction materials prices are stable, rising only 1% between January 2024 and January 2025, far below the rate of inflation for the wider UK economy.
We are engaging with the wider sector to support the use of British-made bricks, but there are currently no plans to mandate their use.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 take steps to increase the use of British made bricks in house building projects using government finance in whole or in part.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is working with industry to ensure the housebuilding sector has access to the construction materials needed to build 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this parliament.
We expect suppliers to increase capacity to meet demand, and we have seen deliveries of bricks in England, Scotland and Wales increase by 10% in the year to April 2025.
Added to that, construction materials prices are stable, rising only 1% between January 2024 and January 2025, far below the rate of inflation for the wider UK economy.
We are engaging with the wider sector to support the use of British-made bricks, but there are currently no plans to mandate their use.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the steps necessary to protect communities from any potential increase in the likelihood of wildfires taking place in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme, (b) Staffordshire and (c) England as a result of a warming planet.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises that the impact of climate change is likely to increase and intensify fire incidents in England and Wales - further impacting fire and rescue service’s (FRS) resources, capacity, and strategical response.
As the lead government department for wildfire, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) maintains regular engagement with other government departments including the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and Cabinet Office on this national risk. This is alongside the department’s work with national bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council and England and Wales Wildfire Forum to monitor and review sector led improvements and mitigations.
Since 2024 we have also funded a National Resilience Wildfire Advisor to assess what additional wildfire national capabilities might be needed to increase resilience to the wildfire risk and to ensure coordination of approaches across the sector.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent progress her Department has made with developers to ensure unsafe buildings in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire are remediated quickly.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
54 developers have signed the developer remediation contract with government. MHCLG publishes quarterly updates on progress that developers are making.
As at 30 June 2025, those developers had identified 1,892 buildings with life-critical fire safety defects that they are obligated directly to remediate. Developers had started or completed work on 47% of those buildings.
On 2 December 2024, MHCLG published a joint plan with developers to accelerate developer-led remediation and improve resident experience. 39 developers (accounting for over 95% of buildings to be remediated by developers) have signed up to the joint plan. In doing so, those developers committed to ambitious stretch targets to finish assessing all their buildings by July 2025, and to start or complete remedial works on 80% of relevant buildings by July 2026 and on all relevant buildings by July 2027.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that Homes England will take a strategic approach to affordable rural housing delivery by embedding the needs of the countryside at all levels of the agency.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 2 July (HCWS771).
We are giving further consideration to how policy can better promote rural affordable housing as part of our work to produce a set of national policies for decision making this year.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to protect nature through her Department's housebuilding programme.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 is clear about the importance of protecting and enhancing biodiversity where it is affected by development and includes stringent protections for nationally designated sites and irreplaceable habitats.
The implementation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies and Biodiversity Net Gain are helping to highlight opportunities to improve nature in conjunction with development, and to secure tangible contributions to biodiversity enhancements.
The Nature Restoration Fund, introduced by the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, will provide further benefits where development could affect protected habitats and species, by enabling strategic improvements.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential contribution of Invest Staffordshire to her Department’s delivery of her priorities for (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Invest Staffordshire was launched at UKREIIF in May 2025. It aims to promote key strategic investment sites and economic opportunities in Staffordshire. We hope to see it play an important role in promoting economic growth, attracting private sector investment, and supporting local businesses to scale and innovate.
The Department values this partnership and remains committed to supporting initiatives that deliver real, lasting benefits for residents and businesses across the region.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions she has had with the National Fire Chiefs Council on the adequacy of mental health and wellbeing support for firefighters in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme, (b) Staffordshire and (c) England.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Government supports the work that the National Fire Chiefs Council is doing through its Wellbeing Board to assist services to drive positive improvements in mental health provision for their workforce. It is for fire and rescue authorities to work with their individual service to ensure that the right support is in place to meet local needs and circumstances. The Government does not assess the needs of individual or services or at national level.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps she has taken to reduce the number of children living in temporary accommodation in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
Homelessness levels are far too high, and this can have a devastating impact on those affected. The Government is looking at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to deliver the long-term solutions to get us back on track to ending homelessness.
The Government are already taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness. We have increased funding for homelessness services across England by £233 million to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26. This will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation. Allocations, including those for Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire, have been published on gov.uk.
The Government is also tackling the root causes of homelessness, including the delivery of the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 tackle the causes of homelessness in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
Homelessness levels are far too high, and this can have a devastating impact on those affected. The Government is looking at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to deliver the long-term solutions to get us back on track to ending homelessness.
The Government are already taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness. We have increased funding for homelessness services across England by £233 million to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26. This will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation. Allocations, including those for Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire, have been published on gov.uk.
The Government is also tackling the root causes of homelessness, including the delivery of the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament.