Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
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 an assessment of the potential merits of making it his Department's policy to stop local government employees working from home.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the management of their own workforces including decisions about terms and conditions, working practices and how best to deploy staff to achieve value for money. The Government will not micromanage their day-to-day running.
Local authorities will each hold data about their own individual workforces but the Department does not collect this centrally. Sector-wide data is collected by the Office for National Statistics Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey (ONS Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey | Local Government Association).
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the number of local authorities that (a) currently operate four-day working weeks for their employees and (b) are considering implementing four-day working weeks for employees.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the management of their own workforces and the Government will not micromanage them. The Department does not routinely collect this data. However it is the Government’s policy that Local Authorities should not be offering full time pay for part time work as we are concerned it does not offer value for money for taxpayers.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to promote (a) traditional craftsmanship and (b) traditional British architectural styles in the building of new social housing developments.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
National planning policy makes clear that local planning authorities should prepare their own local design guides and design codes in line with the principles set out in national design guidance.
The guidance encourages integration of a mix of tenures and helps local areas to identify what good design means for them and the process for preparing a design code to introduce local design standards for new development.
It highlights the importance of understanding and responding to existing context and the identity or character of a place, including local vernacular architecture and architectural features.
We are in the process of updating national design guidance and will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support the regeneration of town centres buildings in (a) Romford constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Through the Pride in Place Programme, Harold Hill East in Romford will receive up to £20 million over ten years to support local priorities. The government is further enabling regeneration in places including Romford by providing multi-year local government financial settlements which will empower local councils to drive their own regeneration priorities.
This government extended the UKSPF by £900 million in England for 2025-26 and recently
consolidated the Local Regeneration Fund, to streamline funding for places in England. In September 2025, the government launched its overarching Pride in Place programme, providing 208 English places with up to £4.16 billion over 10 years.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many reviews of regulators' decisions have been requested under Regulation 48 of The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023; and how many of these reviews have resulted in the decision being (a) upheld and (b) varied.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As of 17 October 2025, the Building Safety Regulator has reviewed ten decisions. Out of these, four decisions have been overturned and six have been upheld. 20 reviews are currently in progress, and two further reviews have been requested.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
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 4 September 2025 to Question 71829 on Hospitals: Construction, how many dedicated teams there are for special types of building control applications; what type of building control applications each team deals with; and how many staff are in each team.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As of 16th October 2025, a total of 69 members of staff were working on building control within the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), including heads of unit. Excluding heads of unit, the total number of staff is 64 (principal regulatory leads, regulatory leads, case officer managers and case officers) who all work directly on applications.
The BSR has seven teams currently working on new builds, external remediation, internal remediation and refurbishment. These teams are made up of approximately ten full-time equivalent members of staff per team, including principal regulatory leads, regulatory leads, case officer managers and case officers.
Building control approval application data is published monthly, with the most recent publication on 16th October 2025. Building Safety Regulator building control approval application data October 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
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 4 September 2025 to Question 70345 on Buildings: Safety, what his Department's timetable is for publishing the building control approval application data (Apr – Jun 2025).
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As of 16th October 2025, a total of 69 members of staff were working on building control within the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), including heads of unit. Excluding heads of unit, the total number of staff is 64 (principal regulatory leads, regulatory leads, case officer managers and case officers) who all work directly on applications.
The BSR has seven teams currently working on new builds, external remediation, internal remediation and refurbishment. These teams are made up of approximately ten full-time equivalent members of staff per team, including principal regulatory leads, regulatory leads, case officer managers and case officers.
Building control approval application data is published monthly, with the most recent publication on 16th October 2025. Building Safety Regulator building control approval application data October 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many Building Safety Regulator staff work on building control applications.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As of 16th October 2025, a total of 69 members of staff were working on building control within the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), including heads of unit. Excluding heads of unit, the total number of staff is 64 (principal regulatory leads, regulatory leads, case officer managers and case officers) who all work directly on applications.
The BSR has seven teams currently working on new builds, external remediation, internal remediation and refurbishment. These teams are made up of approximately ten full-time equivalent members of staff per team, including principal regulatory leads, regulatory leads, case officer managers and case officers.
Building control approval application data is published monthly, with the most recent publication on 16th October 2025. Building Safety Regulator building control approval application data October 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
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 he has taken to support Christian communities in (a) urban and (b) rural areas in England.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government’s commitment to valuing the contribution which Christians make to society is evident through our engagement with a wide range of churches at national, regional and local levels. MHCLG funds several cohesion initiatives which directly support religiously diverse communities across England, including the Near Neighbours programme which is a delivery arm of the Church of England’s Church Urban Fund. Urban and rural Christian communities may also be the beneficiaries of other programmes across government, including the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme which provides VAT relief for repairs to our historic places of worship, including churches, which are central to both our local and national life.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
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 he has taken to help reduce levels of homelessness among children.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to getting back on track to ending all forms of homelessness across the country. Our cross-Government homelessness strategy will set out the actions needed across central and local government and the homelessness sector to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
The Government is supporting people at risk of and experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping across the country with more than £1 billion funding, a £316 million increase on last year. This includes £84 million new funding announced on 10 October 2025. Councils are able to use this funding to meet the needs of people in their area, and local authority allocations are published on gov.uk.