Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
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 rent review provisions in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 on the valuation methodology of build-to-rent developments where future rental growth assumptions form a material part of valuation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department engages regularly with build to rent operators and other stakeholders from the sector in relation to the reforms that we are making to the private rented sector and will continue to do so to ensure the successful implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
The Impact Assessment for the Act is available here. While this does not model the specific impacts referred to in the hon. Member’s questions, it concludes that the costs of our reforms are estimated to be just £22 per rented property annually (0.2% of mean annual rents).
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what Government-backed loan guarantees or financing facilities currently support lending to the build-to-rent sector.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government‘s £3.5 billion Private Rented Sector Guarantee Scheme (PRSGS) was reopened in March 2025 to new applicants for another three years and makes loan guarantees available for Build-to-Rent operators to support housebuilding
Build to Rent operators are also one of the groups that benefit from finance from our £2 billion Home Building Fund.
We have also announced that the National Housing Bank, backed by up to £16 billion of finance, will be launched in April 2026. Its detailed investment approach will be outlined in due course.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what modelling he has undertaken on the expected number of market rent determination applications following implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department continues to work closely with the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunal Service to ensure that the justice system is well prepared for the implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act, including the potential impact of the Act on the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).
This includes ensuring that suitable arrangements are in place for monitoring data relating to rent increase challenges in the Residential Property Tribunal.
The justice system will be supported with funding to ensure that the courts and tribunals have the resources and capacity they need to handle the workload that implementation of the Act will generate.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether tenancy deposit scheme data will be made available under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The use of data collected by Tenancy Deposit Protection (TDP) schemes is governed by the Housing Act 2004 and the individual data sharing agreements with providers.
Details of the purpose of data collection, and where and how TDP data is shared with other bodies is set out in the TDP privacy notice. This can be found on gov.uk here.
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 does not grant the power to allow further use of TDP data beyond its current uses as set out in the Housing Act 2004, contractual agreements, and privacy notice.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether there was a cost to the public purse for external legal advice relating to the departure of Lord Mandelson as (a) Ambassador and (b) from the Civil Service.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has established processes to seek external legal advice in line with normal practice. The Government does not routinely comment on specific legal advice that it may or may not have received.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 December 2025 to Question 94728 on DEFRA: Redundancy Pay, whether the Chief Secretary to the Treasury approved the exit package of up to £350,000.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Flood Re is a company limited by guarantee. It does not receive any grant funding from the Government. As such, no Government funding has been spent on exit packages at Flood Re.
Under the previous Government, Flood Re was granted an exemption from the civil service pay remit guidance for three years, up to and including the 2026-27 pay year. It has also received pay delegation for a limited number of senior positions over the same period.
Flood Re has confirmed that this payment reflected contractual entitlements. As such, it would not be classed as a special severance payment requiring Chief Secretary to the Treasury approval.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the transparency data, Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP official charity receptions, July to September 2025, updated on 19 December 2025, what was the cost to the public purpose of each of the listed official receptions.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As under previous administrations, details of official receptions are published in quarterly transparency returns on gov.uk.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Pursuant to the answer of 15 December 2025, to Question 96790, on Tim Allan, how Tom Baldwin is classified in the published list of external meetings.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Special Adviser Code of Conduct sets out the categories of meetings, gifts and hospitality that are declared publicly. Any relevant meetings within this category will be published via this process in the normal way.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2025, to Question 92610, on Special Advisers, what were the topics of the presentations.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This was an internal meeting, and the topics of discussion are not a matter of public record.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Cabinet Office publication, Public Appointments made by or of interest to the Prime Minister, of 30 October 2025, what does the inclusion of a regulated public appointment in that list entail for the process of that appointment; and whether the No10 Public Appointments Unit is consulted by the sponsor department on the (a) panel members, (b) longlist, (c) shortlist and (d) proposed final appointment by the sponsor department.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This Government is continuing to ensure the highest standards in the public appointments process.
The process for public appointments is set out on gov.uk, including a transparent list of appointments that by their nature may be of interest to the Prime Minister’s Office.