Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 30 June 2025 to Question 61222 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Public Expenditure, how many lines of activity in his Department were considered as part of the zero based review.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At Spending Review 2025, the government conducted the first zero-based review (ZBR) of department budgets in 18 years, with every line of spending scrutinised to ensure value for money.
Through the zero-based review, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government carried out a line-by-line review of its current budgets. The review involved differing levels of granularity depending on the type and size of expenditure under review.
To ensure consistency in approach, cross-government guidance set expectations for the level of granularity each review should consider, recommending that departments review all spending within individual programme expenditure – at a minimum reflecting any lines of spending in excess of £1m per annum.
Savings identified through this process will support delivery of the government's commitment for all departments to deliver at least 5% savings and efficiencies by 2028-29.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 encourage investment in high streets.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to leveraging investment in our high streets. Through the Pride in Place programme, we are investing up to £5 billion to back regeneration in the places that need it most, including funding to unlock high street renewal.
We are committed to supporting more strategic investment in town centres by enabling property owner BIDs to operate across England.
We are also empowering local leaders through devolution to develop strategic, place-based investment plans, leveraging their deep regional insight for more targeted and effective investment.
Together, these approaches reflect a broader commitment to ensure high streets flourish and town centres remain vibrant, attractive places to live, work, and visit.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 17 June 2025 to Question 59412 on Government Departments: Reviews, if her Department will publish the line by line review of its spending conducted for the Spending Review 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is committed making savings and efficiencies, with SR funding allocations agreed on this basis.
These funding allocations – informed by the findings of the ZBR – are the first step in a wider plan to finalise budgets for different projects and programmes, with any necessary savings decided through that process. The savings taken forward will be subject to the normal rigorous business planning processes, and in-year financial management.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to section 2.1 of her Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, what progress she has made on the development of the model to support the sustainable funding of statutory consultees.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
A new clause (NC39) was tabled by my Department as an amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and has been incorporated into it in PBL Committee.
This will allow the government to set a surcharge on planning fees to fund the costs incurred by key statutory consultees in England of advising on planning applications.
Details of its operation will be set out in regulations, following consultation.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has received any representations on fire safety guidance and the time within which care homes should aim to evacuate residents from protected areas.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Fire Risk Assessment: Residential Care guide is being updated as part of a major work programme to update all fire safety guidance under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and will address evacuation times in premises such as care homes. This work is currently expected to run over the next couple of years given the number of guides in development, the detailed policy work required and the differing expert views regarding care home evacuation times.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to (a) update guidance on the use of Conformité Européenne marking for construction products and (b) expand testing and certification capacity in the UK.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
(a) The guidance pages on the use of CE marking for construction products are regularly updated. They were most recently updated on 26th of February 2025. You can find the guidance here:
Construction Products Regulation in Great Britain - GOV.UK
Construction Products Regulation in Northern Ireland - GOV.UK
(b)The Construction Products Reform Green Paper (published on 26 February 2025) sets out proposals for system wide reform of the construction products regime, including expanding testing and certification capacity in the UK. Access to this capacity is critical to growth and meeting our commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes during this parliament. Measures to improve conformity assessment capacity include consideration of whether the government should have the ability to recognise conformity assessment activity undertaken outside of the UK, and supporting skills development of conformity assessment bodies (for example, through government-backed training schemes).
The green paper also sets out our ambition to support and encourage innovation in the built environment, and seeks views on the potential to expand public testing capacity.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department is taking steps to promote the use of timber framing in construction.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes in this Parliament. Greater adoption of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), including timber frame, will be crucial to achieving this. We will set out further details as part of the Long-Term Housing Strategy.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions ministers in her Department had with the hon. Members for (a) Norwich South, (b) Norwich North, (c) South West Norfolk, (d) North West Norfolk, (e) Mid Norfolk, (f) Broadland and Fakenham, (g) North Norfolk, (h) Great Yarmouth, (i) Norfolk and Waveney and (j) Waveney Valley constituency before announcing that it would not be proceeding with the mayoral devolution deal with Norfolk.
Answered by Jim McMahon
This Government has recently announced that it will not be proceeding with the existing devolution deal with Norfolk County Council which was agreed with the previous government in December 2022.
This Government strongly believes that the benefits of devolution are best achieved through the establishment of combined institutions with a directly elected leader. Mayors should have a unique role in an institution which allows them to focus fully on their devolved strategic responsibilities, working hand in glove with council leaders who will vitally also focus on the delivery of the essential services for which they are responsible.
Conflating these two responsibilities into the same individual and institution, as is the case under the mayoral Single Local Authority model of devolution, would risk the optimal delivery of both and is not in line with the direction of travel we are setting out ahead of the English Devolution Bill.
I met with the Leader of Norfolk County Council and the Leader Suffolk County Council on 7 October to discuss next steps for devolution in the area.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of her decision not to proceed with the mayoral devolution deal on (a) economic growth, (b) brownfield housing development and (c) adult skills provision in Norfolk.
Answered by Jim McMahon
This Government has recently announced that it will not be proceeding with the existing devolution deal with Norfolk County Council which was agreed with the previous government in December 2022.
This Government strongly believes that the benefits of devolution are best achieved through the establishment of combined institutions with a directly elected leader. Mayors should have a unique role in an institution which allows them to focus fully on their devolved strategic responsibilities, working hand in glove with council leaders who will vitally also focus on the delivery of the essential services for which they are responsible.
Conflating these two responsibilities into the same individual and institution, as is the case under the mayoral Single Local Authority model of devolution, would risk the optimal delivery of both and is not in line with the direction of travel we are setting out ahead of the English Devolution Bill.
I met with the Leader of Norfolk County Council and the Leader Suffolk County Council on 7 October to discuss next steps for devolution in the area.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 Written Ministerial Statement of 24 January 2024 on Local Government Finance Update, HCWS206, when he plans to announce the allocation of funding for local authorities with the highest internal drainage board levies.
Answered by Simon Hoare
On 24 January the Government announced that having listened to authorities who continue to face sustained increases in their internal drainage board (IDB) special levies, we would again provide £3 million outside of the 24/25 Local Government Finance Settlement to support those experiencing the biggest pressures. We will confirm the distribution of this funding shortly, when data on projected special levies becomes available.
Separately, at the National Farmers Union Conference in February the Prime Minister and Defra Ministers announced a new one-off grant, up to £75 million, for IDBs in 2024/25. This fund will help IDBs recover from the recent flooding and contribute towards modernising IDB infrastructure, to lower costs and increase resilience to climate change.