Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 bring people into high streets.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is taking several steps to regenerate high streets to make them attractive to businesses, communities and visitors.
The Government has announced communities funding for up to 350 places, including the 75 places named in the Plan for Neighbourhoods in March 2025. The Plan for Neighbourhoods will provide £1.5bn to some of the most left-behind communities in the United Kingdom over ten years – including Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Places will be able to use their £20m to enrich their town centre offering and revive footfall in their high streets.
Additionally, the Government is tackling vacancy with High Street Rental Auctions, giving local authorities the power to auction rental rights of persistently vacant commercial properties. We are also legislating through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill for a new Community Right to Buy, enabling communities to acquire valued assets. These measures will help revive footfall, boost local economies, and empower communities.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on the effectiveness of procedures for opposing local development.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Impact Assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was published 6 May 2025 and can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on (a) levels of access to green spaces and (b) wildlife.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Impact Assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was published 6 May 2025 and can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 ensure new housing developments have adequate (a) infrastructure and (b) public service provision.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 65505 on 14 July 2025.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 levels of immigration on the availability of (a) social housing and (b) private rental housing stock over the next Parliament.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is determined to address the dire inheritance left by its predecessor and restore order to the asylum and immigration systems, delivering lower net migration.
The factors affecting supply and demand in the private rented sector are complex and difficult to disentangle. As well as demographic change, they include house prices, rent levels, taxation policy, interest rates, and the movement of tenants into homeownership and social rented housing. It is not possible to isolate the specific impact of each of these factors.
Eligibility for social housing is already tightly controlled. If a person’s visa means that they cannot access state benefits or local authority housing assistance, they are not eligible for an allocation of social housing. Migrants arriving in the UK on student or work visas are not eligible and nor are those who arrive in the country illegally with no leave to remain.
The most sustainable long-term method to improve housing availability and affordability is to increase the supply of housing. That is why the government’s Plan for Change includes a hugely ambitious milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England in this Parliament.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much their Department has spent on translating documents into languages other than (a) English and (b) other native UK languages in each year since 2023; and what these languages were.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
MHCLG has spent £76,995 on translating documents since 2023.
The languages that documents were translated into are: Amharic, Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Italian, Pashto, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Language service needs and spend are assessed to ensure these services offer good value for money for taxpayers while maintaining high standards of service delivery.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the number of housing estates built since 2010 that still have unadopted roads in (a) Ashfield, (b) Nottinghamshire, (c) the East Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department does not hold data on the number of housing estates that have unadopted roads or the average time for roads in newbuild housing estates to be adopted after construction.
Any decision on whether or not to adopt roads is a matter for the local highway authority. The Department for Transport has published guidance on gov.uk on Highways Adoption: The Adoption of Roads into the Public Highway, which was last updated in August 2022. It sets out the process by which new and existing roads can be adopted by highway authorities so that they become maintainable at public expense.
The government remain committed to protecting residential freeholders on private and mixed-tenure housing estates from unfair charges.
We will consult this year on implementing the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act’s new consumer protection provisions for the up to 1.75m homes that are subject to these charges, and bring these measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter. These include ensuring that homeowners who pay an estate management charge have better access to information they need to understand what they are paying for, the right to challenge the reasonableness at the First-tier Tribunal (in England), and to go to the tribunal to appoint a substitute manager.
The government is also determined to end the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ entirely and we will consult next year on legislative and policy options to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements, which are the root cause of the problems experienced by many residential freeholders.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the average time is for roads in newbuild housing estates to be adopted after their construction.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department does not hold data on the number of housing estates that have unadopted roads or the average time for roads in newbuild housing estates to be adopted after construction.
Any decision on whether or not to adopt roads is a matter for the local highway authority. The Department for Transport has published guidance on gov.uk on Highways Adoption: The Adoption of Roads into the Public Highway, which was last updated in August 2022. It sets out the process by which new and existing roads can be adopted by highway authorities so that they become maintainable at public expense.
The government remain committed to protecting residential freeholders on private and mixed-tenure housing estates from unfair charges.
We will consult this year on implementing the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act’s new consumer protection provisions for the up to 1.75m homes that are subject to these charges, and bring these measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter. These include ensuring that homeowners who pay an estate management charge have better access to information they need to understand what they are paying for, the right to challenge the reasonableness at the First-tier Tribunal (in England), and to go to the tribunal to appoint a substitute manager.
The government is also determined to end the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ entirely and we will consult next year on legislative and policy options to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements, which are the root cause of the problems experienced by many residential freeholders.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 strengthen (a) regulatory and (b) enforcement measures on anti-social behaviour in Houses of Multiple Occupancy.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
All Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) where five or more people from two or more households share facilities, such as a kitchen and/or a bathroom, are subject to mandatory HMO licensing.
Following consultation, local authorities can also introduce additional licensing, where smaller HMOs shared by three or four people from two or more households who share facilities are required to hold a licence.
The government has no current plans to mandate a national licensing scheme for all HMOs.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 introduce legislation to mandate a national licensing scheme for all Houses of Multiple Occupancy.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
All Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) where five or more people from two or more households share facilities, such as a kitchen and/or a bathroom, are subject to mandatory HMO licensing.
Following consultation, local authorities can also introduce additional licensing, where smaller HMOs shared by three or four people from two or more households who share facilities are required to hold a licence.
The government has no current plans to mandate a national licensing scheme for all HMOs.