Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the percentage of Local Authorities that have an up to date Local Plan and 5 Year Housing Land Supply.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answers given to Question UIN 102025 and 102035 on 12 January 2026.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the percentage of Local Authorities that had an up to date Local Plan and 5 Year Housing Land Supply prior to the 2024 changes to the Standard Method, but no longer do.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answers given to Question UIN 102025 and UIN 102035 on 12 January 2026.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assumptions on (a) longevity, (b) net immigration, (c) average size of household, (d) birth rate and (e) other factors underpin his Department's assessment of future demand for housing for (i) England and (ii) Hampshire beyond 2040.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Rt Hon. member to the answer given to Question UIN 51190 on 19 May 2025.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 he has made of the effect of (a) increasing longevity, (b) net immigration, (c) average size of household and (d) other factors on near-term demand for housing in (i) England and (ii) Hampshire.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Rt Hon. member to the answer given to Question UIN 51190 on 19 May 2025.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, further to WPQ 97762 answered on 15 Dec 2026, what is the (a) minimum and (b) maximum estimate of the (i) cost, and (ii) saving effects on the public purse of proposed local government reorganisation among the proposals he is considering, at their current stage of development for Hampshire in each of the next five years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local Government Reorganisation is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to work together to put local government on a more sustainable footing, creating simpler structures that will deliver the services that local people and businesses need and deserve.
In our invitations to councils, we asked areas to set out in their proposals how they will seek to manage their transition costs up to vesting day in 2028, as well as the projected costs and savings for the new unitary councils. The financial cases for each proposal have been published online by those councils, and are signposted in the government’s consultation documents.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the costs, savings and net impact on the public purse of proposed local government reorganisation for Hampshire in each of the next five years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Plan for Change set out the government’s aim to build empowered, simplified, resilient and sustainable local government that will increase value for money for council taxpayers and enable more funding to be spent on local public services.
The statutory consultation for local government reorganisation in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton is now open, in accordance with the requirements of the legislation, and will close on 11 January. Once this statutory consultation is concluded, Ministers will decide, subject to Parliamentary approval, which, if any, proposal is to be implemented, with or without modification.
In taking these decisions, Ministers will judge proposals in the round against the criteria, including the criteria which specifies that efficiencies should be identified to help improve councils’ finances and make sure that council taxpayers are getting the best possible value for their money.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when she plans to commence the provisions in the Building Safety Act 2022 on the (a) New Homes Ombudsman service and (b) single code of practice for developers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government believes that existing redress mechanisms for those buying a new home are inadequate. We are therefore working with the devolved administrations to implement the statutory UK-wide New Homes Ombudsman (NHO) scheme and an accompanying Code to investigate and resolve complaints and will bring forward the necessary secondary legislation in due course. Once enacted all developers will be required to be a member of the statutory NHO.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the geographic level at which housing targets are set will change in the event of local government reorganisation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Strategic policy making authorities, which are normally district councils (in two tier areas), metropolitan districts councils and unitary authorities, are responsible for planning for local housing needs.
The government intends to legislate to create a universal system of strategic planning throughout England. Once this system is established, it is anticipated that Spatial Development Strategies (SDS) will distribute housing needs across the strategic planning area in line with existing or planned infrastructure.
In all areas, local plans will need to be in general conformity with the SDS.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many full-time equivalent staff were allocated to the Supporting Families Programme in its final full year in her Department; and what grades those staff members were.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
My department allocated 20.6 full time equivalent staff to the Supporting Families Programme in its final full year.
The breakdown of those staff by grade was as follows:
Table-agreed roles | |
Roles in scope following HR scoping exercise | |
| Total |
DD | 1 |
G6 | 2 |
G7 | 8.7 |
SEO | 4 |
HEO | 3.9 |
EO | 1 |
Total | 20.6 |
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Policy Paper entitled Levelling Up and Regeneration: further information, published by his Department on 11 May 2022, what his timescale is for providing further information will be available on the proposed alignment test to replace the duty to co-operate.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The duty to cooperate is widely agreed not to have achieved this objective. Therefore, the duty will be abolished by the current draft of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, and replaced by a more flexible requirement for authorities to align emerging plan proposals with neighbouring planning authorities and other public bodies and infrastructure providers where relevant.
The new policy requirement will be an important element of local plan examinations by a planning inspector, who can form a planning judgement on the proposals put forward.
This policy requirement is still being developed and is intended to be set out in a revised National Planning Policy Framework, which will be subject to further consultation in due course. However, the important difference is that as a policy requirement, shortcomings in alignment can be capable of being rectified by the planning authority or inspector, whereas under the current duty to cooperate, failures result in the failure of the local plan.