Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 methodological changes to the classification of certain types of accommodation between the 2011 and 2021 censuses by the Office for National Statistics on local authorities' Housing Delivery Test results.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The established methodology for official statistics on housing supply utilises the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) census to improve the quality and reliability of these statistics. The census dwelling count is subject to intensive validation processes and address matching and provides the baseline for the net additional dwellings statistics.
A comparison of total dwelling stock counts between the 2021 and 2011 censuses led to adjustments to some of the net additional dwellings figures, which are used as the basis for the Housing Delivery Test (HDT).
This only affected the 2020/21 delivery year in the latest HDT 2023 statistics.
Following discussions with the ONS and with some relevant local authorities, we believe that in limited and specific cases these census adjusted figures are not appropriate to use for the purposes of the HDT. We are therefore in contact with relevant local authorities and have issued recalculations where needed.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when her Department will publish the response to the consultation entitled Enabling remote attendance and proxy voting at local authority meetings, which closed on 19 December 2024.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Our consultation on remote attendance and proxy voting closed on 19 December, and results will be published in due course. The consultation aimed to consider how to support the local government sector to modernise democratic engagement and remove unnecessary barriers to participation.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 made an assessment of the benefit of including the Garden Trust as a statutory consultee to planning decisions.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Gardens Trust is currently a statutory consultee on “development likely to affect all registered gardens or parks”.
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 10 March 2025 (HCWS510).
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 merits of (a) increasing protections for sellers in conveyancing processes, in the context of levels of protections in (i) Scotland and (ii) Australia where bids to buy houses are binding once accepted and (b) requiring sellers to provide a full legal pack.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Hon Member to (a) the answer given to Question UIN PQ 32038 on 28 February 2025, and (b) the answer given to Question UIN PQ 18947 on 20 December 2024.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 merits of providing local authorities with the ability to use automatic number-plate recognition in car parks to help (a) increase the efficiency of payment collection, (b) improve enforcement and (c) reduce risks to civil enforcement officers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 17350 on 12 December 2024.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 merits of a long-term funding strategy for Internal Drainage Boards.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 43491 on 10 April 2025.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when she plans to announce the allocation by local authority of the £5 million Internal Drainage Board support grant for 2025/26.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 43491 on 10 April 2025.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 implications for her policies of recommendations of the National Audit Office's report entitled Local Government Financial Sustainability, published on 28 February 2025.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government recognises many of the themes identified by the National Audit Office in their recently published report entitled Local Government Financial Sustainability.
I refer the hon. Member to the written statement made by my rt. hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne on 3 February 2025 (HCWS413), which sets out the action the government is taking through the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement to bring long-term stability and certainty to the local government sector.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to implement the recommendations of the report by the Electoral Commission entitled Voter ID at the 2024 UK general election, published on 10 September 2024, prior to the May 2025 local elections.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has recently published our response to the Electoral Commission’s reports on the 2024 General Election, and this is available here: Electoral Commission’s reports on the 2024 elections: government response - GOV.UK.
As set out in that response, we will not be making any further changes to the voter identification policy ahead of the May 2025 local elections.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when local elections will be held for (a) areas submitting reorganisation proposals by May 2025, (b) Devolution Priority Programme areas (DPP) submitting proposals by September 2025, (c) postponed shadow unitary elections and (d) postponed mayoral elections.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
For both (a) and (b) the postponed May 2025 elections will take place in May 2026 alongside the scheduled district councils in the area.
In addition, (a) For areas submitting reorganisation proposals by May 2025, the most ambitious timeline is likely to lead to shadow elections in 2026; (b) for Devolution Priority Programme areas (DPP) submitting proposals by September 2025, we anticipate mayoral elections in 2026.
(c) no shadow unitary elections have yet been scheduled;
(d) no mayoral elections have been postponed.