Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support and encouragement the Government is giving to local authorities to fast-track planning applications for developments on brownfield sites.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that substantial weight should be given to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements to meet the need for homes and other uses.
The revised Framework published on 12 December 2024 broadened the definition of brownfield land, set a strengthened expectation that applications on brownfield land will be approved, and made clear that plans should promote an uplift in density in urban areas. The definition in question can be found in the NPPF glossary on gov.uk here.
The government is currently consulting on a new National Planning Policy Framework that includes clearer, ‘rules based’ policies for decision-making and plan-making. For further details about the proposed changes to national planning policy and wider funding and support, I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 16 December 2025 (HCWS1187). The consultation can be found on gov.uk here and will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to allocate funding to the Great South West Partnership after April 2026.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Following a four week public consultation, in March 2025 the government announced its intention to end funding for Pan-Regional Partnerships, with an exceptional, time-limited award of £281,250 for the Great South West Pan-Regional Partnership for the 2025/26 financial year.
Pan-Regional Partnerships, including the Great South West, have made a valuable contribution, supporting collaboration between local authorities and government and taking forward a breadth of work on shared growth opportunities. However, as our English Devolution White Paper sets out, we are now moving to a different model of regional collaboration, where we are keen to support new models driven by local leaders.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of changing the English indices of deprivation to include rurality as a factor.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The most recent iteration of the English Indices of Deprivation was published in September 2019 and all data tables and resources are available online here - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2019
The department is currently working on an update and confirmed recently that the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 will be published within a provisional October/November 2025 timeframe. This has been published on GOV.UK.
As part of this work, DEFRA has contributed funding to investigate rural deprivation. This collaborative project is considering what deprivation in rural areas is, data sources and methods to help quantify it and more formal guidance on the use of the Indices and their application to rural areas. A report on rural deprivation will form part of the updated English Indices of Deprivation release.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 that supported housing demand is met.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer given to Questions UIN 69642 on 4 September 2025.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 plans to legally redefine the term affordable housing to be linked to social rent.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
To reflect this government’s priorities, the revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 places greater emphasis on the delivery of Social Rent homes and includes a separate definition of Social Rent so that it is not referred to as just one of a number of types of affordable housing for rent.
The government continues to consider what further steps we can take to honour our commitment to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 help increase social housing supply through the Spending Review.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government will set out set details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 reduce the cost of temporary accommodation for local authorities through the Spending Review.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
At phase 1 of the Spending Review the Government announced a £233 million increase for homelessness services, taking total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26. This includes the largest-ever investment in prevention services, enabling councils to intervene earlier with targeted support, preventing homelessness before it happens and reducing reliance on expensive, ill-equipped temporary accommodation.
As part of this investment, the Government is working with 20 local authorities with the highest levels of B&B use for temporary accommodation through a new programme of Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots. The £8 million programme will test innovative approaches and kickstart new initiatives to reduce the reliance upon the most expensive and least suitable forms of temporary accommodation.
Future funding for homelessness services is subject to the outcome of phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of restricting permitted development rights for (a) caravans and (b) temporary installations on agricultural land to cases where planning permission has been granted for a dwelling.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government continues to keep permitted development rights under review.