Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review planning requirements for converting homes into houses in multiple occupation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local planning authorities already have planning powers to limit the concentration or proliferation of HMOs within their locality. They can remove the national permitted development right for smaller HMOs to protect the local amenity or wellbeing of an area by introducing an ‘Article 4’ direction which, once in place, requires all new HMO proposals to secure planning permission. We keep the powers to regulate HMOs under review.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 provide additional funding to local authorities to support rough sleepers during winter 2025–26; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding for rough sleeping.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant (RSPARG) is providing a total of £185.6 million to local authorities across England in 2025/26. The RSPARG gives local authorities the flexibility to determine the most suitable rough sleeping services required to meet local need, this includes providing support over the winter period.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 prevent developers from leaving (a) play areas, (b) green spaces and (c) other shared communal spaces unfinished or to a substandard level.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local planning authorities (LPAs) already have a wide range of enforcement powers, with strong penalties for non-compliance, which they can use in instances where development has not taken place in accordance with the relevant planning consent.
These enforcement powers include the power to issue a completion notice which requires a developer to complete their development if it is left uncompleted.
It is for LPAs themselves to decide how and when they use their powers depending on the circumstances of each case.
On 25 May, the government published a Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out (which can be found on gov.uk here) inviting views on further action the government should take to speed up homes being built.
On the same day, we launched a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve the transparency of build rates from new residential development, which includes proposals to implement provisions in Section 113 of the LURA on the power to decline to determine applications. The consultation can be found on gov.uk here. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the government intends bring forward the regulations to implement these measures at the earliest practical opportunity with the new build out reporting framework coming into force from 2026.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 ensure that local government bodies adopt (a) common data standards and (b) open Application Programming Interfaces.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG are supporting data standards initiatives to ensure that local government bodies can effectively adopt common data standards and open APIs, to enhance service delivery and interoperability. This includes the Open Referral UK and SAVVI data standards for community services and vulnerable people.
MHCLG’s Digital Planning Programme is working with local planning authorities to adopt common data standards; to provide better access to planning data, improve data quality and to make more data open, to achieve our digital ambitions and make the planning system more efficient. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 includes planning data powers, and MHCLG will be introducing data standards for planning data via secondary legislation.
MHCLG are supported by the Government Digital Service on the API programme, which publishes API technical and data standards for all public sector organisations to follow, including local authorities.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 support local authorities in adopting AI responsibly in service delivery.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government supports the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.
My Department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ tool, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDF’s into data. The tool includes a human verification element, and when launched will be accompanied by guidance to support local authorities.
We also continue to fund the development of AI solutions in collaboration with local planning authorities via our PropTech Innovation Fund. Previous funding rounds saw a number of AI projects balancing innovation with responsible service delivery and implementation of safeguards. The latest round, which closed June 2025, placed ethical and responsible considerations as a priority criterion for assessment, with applications proposing to develop AI solutions required to set out steps towards responsible delivery and regulatory compliance.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what account her strategy to tackle homelessness takes of the findings of the report published by Centrepoint entitled Human costs and lost potential: the real cost of youth homelessness.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.
We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.
The Minister for Homelessness and Democracy has also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.
As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how she plans to prioritise young people in the new cross-departmental strategy to end homelessness.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.
We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.
The Minister for Homelessness and Democracy has also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.
As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the government strategy to end homelessness will include a section on youth homelessness.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.
We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.
The Minister for Homelessness and Democracy has also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.
As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.