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 estimate she has made of the level of demand for skilled carpenters in the housebuilding sector over the next five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 32067 on 3 March 2025.
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 recent assessment she has made of the [potential impact of ground rents on the affordability of leasehold homes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details on our detailed plans for existing ground rents in due course.
Data on ground rents is collected as part of the English Housing Survey and published in the leasehold experience fact sheet. The latest publication found that 77% of leaseholders currently pay a ground rent with an average ground rent of £304. This publication includes information on ground rents by region.
High ground rents which escalate rapidly create affordability issues both directly through the increased cost leaseholders face by also by making it harder for leaseholders to mortgage or sell their properties. In a 2023 survey undertaken by Propertymark, a leading membership body for property agents, 78 per cent of their members reported that a leasehold property with an escalating ground rent will struggle to sell, even if priced correctly.
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 estimate she has made of the number of leaseholders currently paying ground rents above £250 per year.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details on our detailed plans for existing ground rents in due course.
Data on ground rents is collected as part of the English Housing Survey and published in the leasehold experience fact sheet. The latest publication found that 77% of leaseholders currently pay a ground rent with an average ground rent of £304. This publication includes information on ground rents by region.
High ground rents which escalate rapidly create affordability issues both directly through the increased cost leaseholders face by also by making it harder for leaseholders to mortgage or sell their properties. In a 2023 survey undertaken by Propertymark, a leading membership body for property agents, 78 per cent of their members reported that a leasehold property with an escalating ground rent will struggle to sell, even if priced correctly.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent the (a) sale and (b) production of skimming devices used fraudulently steal card details.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Home Office announced that an expanded fraud strategy will be published later this year, as part of the government’s Plan for Change, with a key focus of the strategy being combatting tech-enabled fraud.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 help tackle regional variations in the uptake of the Advice and Guidance scheme; and what support is being provided to regions with lower adoption rates.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, outlines actions to significantly increase the use of Advice and Guidance (A&G), including reducing geographic variation. This includes the introduction of funding from April 2025 for general practitioners to recognise the importance of their role in ensuring patient care takes place in the most appropriate setting, as well as developing supporting resources such as an A&G toolkit with guidance for commissioners, referrers and secondary care clinical teams.
The Department and NHS England closely monitor progress on A&G volumes, and there are robust mechanisms for system oversight and reporting. This includes the operational delivery framework for integrated care boards. The framework sets out a roadmap to help services develop their ability expand and improve their use of A&G across seven themes and with a set of minimum standards for best practice. This is helping NHS England work with local teams to address known barriers causing variation of uptake in A&G, including use of digital platforms, improving the quality of A&G, and workforce planning, training and development.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has has made of the potential impact hospital specialists providing advice through the Advice and Guidance scheme on their workload; and whether additional (a) resources and (b) staffing have been provided to specialist departments to manage this increased demand for consultation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Advice and Guidance (A&G) is a proven method of reducing unnecessary referrals into elective care, by diverting potential referrals where specialist advice determines that the most appropriate setting for care is in primary or community settings. Unnecessary referrals can waste valuable clinical time assessing and or treating patients in secondary care who could be cared for in the community. Allocating existing resources and staff time to handling A&G requests reduces demand for first outpatient appointments where a referral to secondary care is not considered necessary, so where referrals are made, they are a good use of patient and clinician time and result in the most appropriate treatment.
NHS England is leading a programme of work to improve clinical job planning to support trusts to provide high quality and timely A&G responses back to general practitioners alongside their existing work with patients. There are also robust mechanisms for system oversight and reporting on A&G, including the operational delivery framework for integrated care boards to identify and help resolve local operational barriers to delivering increased A&G volumes.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made provision for the ability of the Independent Football Regulator to require an owner to divest from a club to be subject to (a) Ministerial oversight and (b) parliamentary scrutiny.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Football Governance Act establishes an operationally independent regulator. The Act does not provide for any ongoing ministerial or parliamentary role in the IFR’s ownership tests. This is to stop undue political interference in football.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Independent Football Regulator will have the power to retrospectively investigate incumbent owners or directors in instances where new information comes to light after their appointment.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) will have the ability to test incumbent owners and officers where it has grounds for concern over their suitability. If an incumbent owner or officer is found to be unsuitable, the IFR has a strong suite of powers to remove them. This approach reduces unnecessary burdens on suitable owners and proportionately targets testing where there is a risk of harm to clubs.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Independent Football Regulator will be required to publish an annual report detailing the number of (a) individuals and (b) entities it assessed under the ownership and directorship tests.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Section 14 of the Football Governance Act requires the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) to publish an annual report, to include a summary of activities undertaken that year. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport can direct the IFR to include specific information.
Details of the exact content of the IFR’s annual report are being considered by the organisation and are not yet finalised.
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 her Department has made of the effectiveness of the National Planning Policy Framework in delivering sustainable drainage.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 44742 on 22 April 2025.