Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with National Savings and Investments on the provision of Help to Save services by credit unions.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has not undertaken any recent engagement with National Savings and Investments on this issue.
HMRC Officials are continuing to take forward work on Help to Save reform, including engagement with a range of financial institutions, such as credit unions. This engagement is focused on exploring options for the future delivery approach of the scheme.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the criteria being used to determine where new a) neighbourhood care centres and b) urgent treatment centres are being located in London.
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 and 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.
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. As they are best placed to make such decisions, ICBs also consider how best to provide urgent care, including Urgent Treatment Centres, to ensure patient demand is effectively met.
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, delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out the steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care this winter, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This includes the expansion of co-located Urgent Treatment Centres to allow for the effective streaming of patients, helping to reduce waiting times and overcrowding.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to take steps to help increase access to finance to establish housing cooperatives. .
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Housing co-operatives are an important part of the community-led housing sector which delivers a wide range of benefits including strengthening community participation in local decision-making, engendering community cohesion, achieving high quality design and strengthening the co-operative economy.
My Department is undertaking a research project to identify the most effective way of enabling community-led housing groups, including those seeking to establish housing co-operatives, to access affordable finance at all stages of the development process and over the long term. The outputs of that research are expected in the Spring.
In March, we announced a £20m 10-year social finance investment to provide capital finance for community-led housing, which is expected to directly support the construction of more than 2,500 new homes over the next decade. These housebuilding projects will be led by communities to specifically address local needs in their area.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December strengthened support for community-led housing, including through changes to the size limit on community-led exception sites and a broadening of the definition of organisations able to deliver community-led housing.
The new Social and Affordable Homes Programme seeks to support an increase in the delivery of community-led and rural housing. The flexibility in grant rates provided for under the new programme will help community-led schemes achieve viability and help the sector grow towards its full potential.
The government is also considering opportunities to legislate to establish a legal framework for a co-operative housing tenure, which would help formalise the rights and responsibilities of both co-operatives and their tenants, and make co-operative housing a more attractive option.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to devolve powers to the Mayor of London to adjust taxation rates in London.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
While the Government keeps the tax system under review, the Government has no plans to extend the Mayor’s powers to adjust tax rates in London.
However, the Government is empowering Mayors to introduce a visitor levy on short-term overnight accommodation in their region, to drive economic growth including through support for the local visitor economy. The Government has published a consultation, running until 18 February, so that the public, businesses, and local government can shape the design of the power to introduce a levy that will be devolved to local leaders. Local leaders will decide whether to introduce a levy and how the revenue raised will be used to drive growth in their region.