Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps her Department is taking to support pensioners with the cost of living in Sutton Coldfield.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

We’re committed to helping pensioners with the cost of living and ensuring financial security in retirement. The State Pension is the foundation of income in retirement and will remain so. At Autumn Budget 2025 we announced that, in line with the government’s commitment to the Triple Lock throughout this parliament, over 12 million pensioners will benefit from a 4.8% increase to their basic or new State Pension in April 2026, increasing their income by up to £575 a year. This follows a substantial increase in 2025/26, with those receiving a full new State Pension getting a £360 boost.

The Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee will increase by 4.8% in April 2026, from £227.10 to £238 a week for a single pensioner and from £346.60 to £363.25 a week for a couple, protecting the income of the poorest pensioners. Those in receipt of Pension Credit will also automatically receive the Cold Weather Payment alongside other benefits.

The Winter Fuel Payment will benefit over three quarters of pensioners for the duration of this parliament, targeting help to those on lower and middle incomes while ensuring fairness for pensioners and taxpayers.

To help with ongoing cost of living pressures, the government will remove around £150 on average off household energy bills across Great Britain from April 2026. By ending the Energy Company Obligation, we are taking some of the expensive legacy levies off bills.

We are expanding the Warm Home Discount to around an additional 2.7 million households. This means that from this winter, around 6 million low-income households will receive the £150 support to help with their energy bill costs. The Warm Home Discount regulations expire in 2026, and we will want to consider all options for future bill support beyond this point.

We are also providing support for low-income households through our Warm Homes Plan which will support investment in insulation and low carbon heating – upgrading millions of homes over this Parliament. At the recent Budget, we announced £1.5 billion in new funding to support households facing fuel poverty.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the neighbourhood health centres announced in the Autumn Budget 2025 will be based in the West Midlands.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

At the Autumn Budget, we announced our commitment to deliver 250 neighbourhood health centres (NHCs) through the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme. This will deliver NHCs through a mixture of refurbishments to expand and improve sites over the next three years, along with new-build sites opening in the medium term. The first 120 NHCs are due to be operational by 2030 and will be delivered through public private partnerships and public capital.

Stockland Green Primary Care Centre and Summerfield Primary Care Centre, located in the West Midlands, are some of the first sites that have been chosen to be upgraded as part of the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme.

Nationwide coverage will take time, but we will start in the areas of greatest need where healthy life expectancy is lowest, including rural towns and communities with higher deprivation levels, targeting places where healthy life expectancy is lowest and delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning, which includes planning, securing, and monitoring, general practice services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. Both ICBs and local health systems will be responsible for determining the most appropriate locations for NHCs.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the minimum wage rise on the cost of care home places for (a) those that are self funding and (b) local authorities that fund residents in care homes.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department regularly makes assessments of the cost pressures facing adult social care. These assessments take into account a wide range of factors, including changes to the National Minimum Wage and the impact that may have on local authorities funding residents in care homes.

The Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector in making improvements.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many additional people will be eligible for the Help to Save scheme in the West Midlands from 2028.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government is expanding the Help to Save scheme to Universal Credit claimants who receive either the carer’s element or the child element. This will enable more low-income households to build savings, supported by a government bonus, to improve their financial security.

Whilst no estimate has been made of potential take-up of the scheme on a regional basis, up to an additional 1.5 million households could benefit from the scheme from April 2028.

This is an estimate of the number of non-working households who are estimated to be in receipt of the child element and/ or carer element on Universal Credit in April 2028. It is derived from the DWP’s Policy Simulation Model which is a microsimulation model that is based on data from the Family Resources Survey and DWP benefit forecasts. Eligibility estimates are therefore subject to some uncertainty.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much the Boiler Upgrade Scheme paid out for heat pumps in the West Midlands over the past year.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

In the financial year 2024/25 the Boiler Upgrade Scheme paid out £14.44 million for heat pumps installed in the West Midlands.

Further details on the number of applications by status, region and technology type, broken down by financial year, are provided in table A1.1A here.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will estimate the number of households with a non-working smart meter in the West Midlands.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department collects data on smart meters not operating in smart mode at a national level. The latest statistics on smart meters in operation across GB are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/smart-meters-in-great-britain-quarterly-update-september-2025.

Energy suppliers are obligated to take all reasonable steps to ensure their customers’ smart meters are operating in smart mode. The Department is continuing to work closely with industry and Ofgem to reduce the proportion of smart meters not operating in smart mode, which has been steadily decreasing. Smart meters not operating in smart mode continue to record energy usage accurately but do not send automatic readings to energy suppliers.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the minimum wage increase on the number of entry level positions that could be replaced by artificial intelligence and automation systems.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out how we will address key labour market challenges and spread opportunity in order to fix the foundations of our economy so we can make the most of the opportunities AI presents. The Government is supporting workforce readiness for AI through a range of initiatives.

When recommending National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, the Low Pay Commission considers a range of factors influencing the labour market. These include the cost of living, inflation forecasts for April 2026 to April 2027, and the broader economic impact on employment, business competitiveness, and overall market conditions-including developments in technology and artificial intelligence. We are confident that the minimum wage rates will not have a significant impact on employment levels.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will estimate the number of houses in Sutton Coldfield which will incur council tax surcharges from 2028.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The High Value Council Tax Surcharge (HVCTS) will apply to owners of properties worth £2 million or above, ensuring those with the most valuable properties pay their fair share. The HVCTS will affect fewer than 1% of all properties across England.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve public transport connections in the West Midlands.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The West Midlands Combined Authority will receive almost £2.4bn in Transport for City Region (TCR) funding up to 31/32.

Enabling Mayors in recipient areas to deliver schemes that align with local priorities, the TCR programme provides unprecedented, multi-year, consolidated funding settlements to enhance the local transport networks of some of England’s largest city regions, including investment in public and sustainable transport infrastructure, to help to drive growth and productivity. It is for the Combined Authority to determine how this funding is allocated across the city region in line with local priorities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of neonatal nurses in University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.

We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the number of houses in Sutton Coldfield constituency which will incur council tax surcharges from 2028.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

I refer the member to the answer given to UIN 94638 on 26 November 2025.

The Government has not estimated the number of homes in Sutton Coldfield that will be liable for the new HVCTS.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with Birmingham City Council on (a) pollution and (b) decreasing biodiversity in Sutton Park.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Sutton Park is both a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a National Nature Reserve.

Natural England (NE) has an ongoing constructive dialogue with Birmingham City Council (BCC), which manages the park, about its management of the park’s important biodiversity. This follows a decline in the condition of the park’s woodland and heathland habitats detected as part of NE’s SSSI monitoring programme.

NE and the Forestry Commission (FC) are advising BCC on improving the management of those habitats. NE is also exploring with BCC opportunities for managing the increased recreational pressure on the park, while also supporting growth of housing in the vicinity of the park.

NE is also engaged with Severn Trent Water on how sewage infrastructure failures can be avoided and any impacts addressed on the wetland and open water areas in Sutton Park. This work forms part of the water company’s five-year Asset Management Programmes agreed with Ofwat.

Actions to improve the site are set out in the West Midlands Combined Authority Local Nature Recovery Strategy. NE will be working with the responsible authority, FC and the Environment Agency to support delivery of those actions.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the potential savings to the public purse of the closure of the online filing service to support small businesses with simple tax affairs.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

I understand the impact the closure of this service for filing company accounts and tax returns may have on small, unrepresented businesses.

The service is closing because Companies House is modernising its accounts filing requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, passed by the previous government. The current service does not meet these new standards.

The Act forms part of wider reforms designed to strengthen corporate transparency and give Companies House greater powers to tackle economic crime and support economic growth.

The closure of the service, which is outdated and incompatible with modern requirements, will also allow HMRC to introduce measures to prevent abuse of the tax system and help close the small business tax gap, which was estimated to be £14.7 billion in the 2023/24 tax year.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with small business owners on the closure of the online filing service to support small, unrepresented businesses with simple tax affairs.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

I understand the impact the closure of this service for filing company accounts and tax returns may have on small, unrepresented businesses.

The service is closing because Companies House is modernising its accounts filing requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, passed by the previous government. The current service does not meet these new standards.

The Act forms part of wider reforms designed to strengthen corporate transparency and give Companies House greater powers to tackle economic crime and support economic growth.

Government officials meet regularly with business groups and representatives to discuss issues affecting small businesses. HMRC has engaged directly with users of the service and with representative bodies. They continue to work with Companies House and software providers to support a smooth transition.

HMRC announced the closure of the service in February 2025, giving more than a year for those affected to make other arrangements. At the same time HMRC wrote to those impacted with support on how to transition. HMRC and Companies House will continue to ensure appropriate support is in place for small businesses during the transition.

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 he has had with Birmingham City Council on the devolution of the management of Sutton Park to the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Ministers meet regularly with external stakeholders. Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly on GOV.UK.

MHCLG is working closely with Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council on the Pride in Place Programme. Through this process, it has been made clear that Sutton Park is a vital and valued local asset. We will continue to work closely with both the Town Council and Birmingham City Council to support the delivery of the programme over the coming years.

Found: Letter dated 04/12/2025 from Louise Sandher-Jones MP to Andrew Mitchell MP regarding a parliamentary