Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress her Department has made on the long-term housing strategy.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government intends to publish a long-term housing strategy later this year.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to enable social landlords to gain access to building safety remediation funding.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Across England, social landlords can apply to government remediation funds (Building Safety Fund and Cladding Safety Scheme). They can apply for funding equivalent to (1) the amount which the social landlord would otherwise be entitled to pass on to leaseholders; or (2) the full cost of remedial works where paying those costs would render the social landlord financially unviable.
As of 30 April 2025, government has committed £606m to support remediation of social housing through government schemes.
Social landlords face barriers to accelerating remediation, including access to upfront capital. From April 2025, we have increased funding for social landlords applying for government remediation funding so that remedial works can start sooner and we will this year announce a long-term strategy for accelerating social housing remediation.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how often her Department assesses compliance costs associated with local government administration.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The Department regularly engages with authorities across the country to understand the administrative costs councils face, and to work with the sector to reduce these.
The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25. The majority of funding in the Settlement is unringfenced, recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has assessed compliance costs associated with local authority planning approvals.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Ensuring compliance with planning approvals is a matter for local planning authorities. As such, the Department has not made an assessment of the costs involved.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 adopted trade union representation requirements in procurement processes since July 2024.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 33868 on 3 March 2025.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions her Department has had with Isle of Wight Council on (a) local government reorganisation and (b) devolution.
Answered by Jim McMahon
At the start of February I was pleased to confirm Hampshire and the Solent’s place on the Devolution Priority Programme. Since then both I and Baroness Taylor have met with leaders from the Isle of Wight Council and their neighbours to discuss both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timescale. The council is also invited to formally respond to the consultation Government is currently running in the area, seeking views on Mayoral devolution. My officials have engaged regularly with their counterparts in local government in the region.
With regards to reorganisation, on 5 February, I invited unitary proposals from all councils in two-tier areas and their neighbouring small unitaries. All councils in Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight have been invited to submit an interim plan by 21 March and any final proposal(s) by 26 September. Departmental officials have recently met with officers from all councils in the area, including the Isle of Wight to discuss to discuss the process for reorganisation set out in the statutory invitation letter and next steps.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 had discussions with local authorities on the potential implications for their policies of the inheritance tax changes to agricultural land and property made at the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Jim McMahon
Ministers and officials in the department engage regularly with counterparts in local government on a range of issues. Details of ministerial meeting with external organisations are published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many (a) internal policy reviews, (b) independent reviews, (c) external reviews, (d) taskforces, (e) public consultations, (f) investigations and (g) other reviews their Department launched between 5 July 2024 and 5 January 2025; what the titles were of those reviews; and how many of those reviews have been (i) completed and (ii) published.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has outlined its ambitions through the Plan for Change, which sets out an ambitious set of milestones - across the missions - for this Parliament. As the House would expect, Government continually reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer. Public reviews and consultations will be available on GOV.UK as they are published.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to make local councils aware of the High Street Rental Auctions scheme.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government continues to work with local councils to support the implementation of the High Street Rental Auction powers.
In November I wrote to the leaders and chief executives of every local authority in England notifying them of the commencement date for the powers and inviting them to be early adopters. We have since announced three initial early adopter areas (Bassetlaw, Darlington and Mansfield) and are supporting them closely, along with other councils actively developing plans for using the powers.
The department has hosted a national showcase event and five webinars raising awareness, promoting the funding support and toolkits available to local authorities to assist delivery. On 2 December, the department published technical guidance and prospectuses explaining what funding is available and how councils can apply.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to (a) help prevent land banking by developers and (b) ensure that land earmarked for housing development is used to increase the supply of affordable housing.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government wants to see homes built faster and we recognise the frustrations that stalled or delayed sites can cause to communities.
Once housebuilders have been granted permission for residential development, meeting local housing needs and preferences, we expect to see them built out as quickly as possible.
Local planning authorities already have powers to issue a completion notice to require a developer to complete their development if it is stalled. If they fail to do so, the planning permission for the development will lapse.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December includes policies designed to support increased build out rates, including the promotion of mixed tenure development.
In addition, our New Homes Accelerator aims to unblock and accelerate the delivery of housing developments that have for various reasons become delayed, or which are not progressing as quickly as they could be.
To enhance transparency and accountability in respect of build out rates, the government intend to take steps to implement build out reporting following technical consultation.
We also intend to provide local planning authorities with powers to decline to determine planning applications submitted by developers who have failed to implement previous permissions.