Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 19 January 2026 to Question 104668 on council tax, how county councils which are fire authorities and do not have separate fire precepts are treated for the purposes of that methodology.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The updated distribution for the Local Government Finance Settlement includes a resource adjustment, which takes account of a local authority's ability to raise income locally.
To reflect their differing responsibilities, within the resource adjustment we apply a different tier split to Shire Counties with fire authority responsibilities than we do to Shire Counties without fire authority responsibilities.
More information can be found in the Technical Annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base).
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria his Department uses to decide whether to translate documents and communications into foreign languages.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department provides published content in additional languages where appropriate and on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 28 January 2026, to Question 107026, on Asylum: Housing, what criteria was used to select the range of local authorities to engage with on the new model for asylum accommodation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has worked in close partnership with local authorities to develop a new, more sustainable model for asylum accommodation.
A cross-section of local authorities were selected across different geographies and political colours so that a range of perspectives could be considered throughout the development of the new model.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 19 January 2026 to Question 104789 on Council Tax: Tax Yields, whether his Department has unpublished working estimates of the revenue from council tax in England in each year from 2026-27 onwards based on the assumptions in the Spending Review.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department routinely considers a range of council tax data as part of policy development and has published its estimates of the revenue from council tax in England in each year from 2026-27 onwards.
As part of the multi-year Local Government Finance Settlement, the Government has made estimates of changes to Core Spending Power for 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29. This includes estimates of the council tax councils will set for those years. These estimates are set out here. These estimates exclude parish precepts, police and crime commissioner precepts.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 (a) number, (b) total and (c) individual amount of local authority exit payments by authority in 2024-25.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government publishes data on local authority exit payments on an annual basis. It is available on gov.uk here.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Land Registry holds information on the numbers of sales of primary homes by local authority area in 2025.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
HM Land Registry does not collect or hold information that confirms whether a registered property purchase is a primary residence.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what research his Department has undertaken into the reasons for sites with planning permission being (a) stalled and (b) not built out.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In May 2025, the government published a Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out inviting views on further action the government should take to speed up homes being built. It can be found on gov.uk here. The working paper drew on a range of independent research and market studies, including the Letwin Review and the Competition and Markets Authority’s October 2024 market study into housebuilding, exploring stalled sites and build out rates.
Alongside the working paper, we launched a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve the transparency of build rates from new residential developments, which includes proposals to implement provisions in Section 113 of the LURA on the power to decline to determine applications. That consultation can be found on gov.uk here.
We are now analysing the responses to both consultations, and we will set out our next steps in due course.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to introduce planning reforms through primary legislation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Planning and Infrastructure Act received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill , which contains provisions relating to housing and strategic planning, continues its passage through the other place.
Parliament will continue to be updated in the usual way in respect of the government’s planning reform agenda, including any future measures which may require primary legislation.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 20 January 2026 to Question 105220 on MHCLG: Publicity, which suppliers his Department has used for publishing content in foreign languages in the last 12 months.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department does not hold the information in the format requested.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 impact of the Greater London Authority supplementary business rate arising from increases in Rateable Values from the 2026 business rates revaluation on the business rates of medium-size pubs in London in 2026-27.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Greater London Authority currently levies a Business Rates Supplement (BRS) to fund the costs of the Crossrail project (renamed Elizabeth line in 2016). The Mayor of London approved the Crossrail Business Rate Supplement policies for 2026-27 via a formal decision published on 16 January 2026, increasing the rateable value threshold above which the BRS applies from £75,000 to £92,000 from 1 April 2026 in line with average percentage increase in rateable values. In line with the requirements of the Crossrail BRS final prospectus published when the supplement was introduced in 2010-11, the Mayor is required to increase the threshold in line with the average change in rateable values in London at each revaluation. The intent of this threshold increase is to ensure that the total number of ratepayers liable to pay the BRS remains broadly unchanged each year.
On 27 January the government announced that for 2026/27 it was providing a further 15% business rates relief to pubs and live music venues on top of the support already announced at the Budget. Where business rate reliefs are implemented under section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, such as the Pubs and Live Music Venues Relief Scheme, Business Rates Supplements are adjusted to reflect the percentage relief provided by those schemes in line with the requirements of section 13(7) of the Business Rates Supplement Act 2009. It is for the 33 London billing authorities and the Greater London Authority to ensure that the required determinations and resulting adjustments are made to ratepayer bills in respect of BRS liabilities.