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 recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the level of public toilets on the public.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In keeping with our commitment to funding simplification, the Government has no current plans to introduce a statutory duty or ringfenced funding relating to toilet provision.
Local authorities are responsible for assessing and managing toilet provision and are best placed to do so due to their ability to account for local needs. However, we recognise the importance of toilet provision and have taken steps to support local leaders. At the 2025 Spending Review, we committed over £5 billion in new grant funding over the next three years for essential local services such as toilets. In addition, we continue to provide 100% mandatory business rates relief for separately assessed public toilets. No specific assessment on the level of provision of public toilets has been made.
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 he plans to create and implement a duty on every council to develop a public toilet strategy.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In keeping with our commitment to funding simplification, the Government has no current plans to introduce a statutory duty or ringfenced funding relating to toilet provision.
Local authorities are responsible for assessing and managing toilet provision and are best placed to do so due to their ability to account for local needs. However, we recognise the importance of toilet provision and have taken steps to support local leaders. At the 2025 Spending Review, we committed over £5 billion in new grant funding over the next three years for essential local services such as toilets. In addition, we continue to provide 100% mandatory business rates relief for separately assessed public toilets. No specific assessment on the level of provision of public toilets has been made.
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 his Department plans to (a) review and (b) update the Mobile Homes Act 2013.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
A review of the effectiveness of the Mobile Homes Act 2013 was undertaken in 2017 and it made a number of recommendations. Most have been implemented, such as the introduction of a fit and proper person test and changes to the pitch fee review inflationary index from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Price Index.
The government has no plans to undertake a further review.
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 he has made an assessment of the impact of mobile home occupants on their host community where the former do not have a legal obligation to pay (a) Community Infrastructure Levy or (b) a Section 106 contributions.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has made no such assessment.
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 his planned timeline for progression is for areas of England not included in the devolution priority programme.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Decisions on future devolution areas beyond those in the Devolution Priority Programme have not yet been taken, but the Department will continue to engage with local authorities, including any new unitary authorities following local government reorganisation, about possible future devolution agreements.
We want to see devolution that is built on strong foundations, with strong unitary structures in place before areas access mayoral devolution. The Government recognises that Mayoral Strategic Authorities are most successful when they are built on a strong history of partnership and joint delivery. Moving forward, we will therefore seek to facilitate the establishment of Foundation Strategic Authorities in areas without a significant history of collaboration, to build local capacity ahead of areas accessing mayoral powers.
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 he plans to amend the (a) Building Safety Act 2022 and (b) Building Regulations to ensure (i) building owners and (ii) nominated building design professionals can access Building Control records when required.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Provisions already exist within section 53 of the Building Act 1984 (as amended by the Building Safety Act 2022) to ensure relevant building control information is made available to both local authorities and those carrying out building work when changing building control body.
When a building control body can no longer provider services, they are required to provide the local authority any information it would have obtained had it been performing building control functions itself, and any additional information reasonably required to enable it to do so within 21 days. The building control body must also provide the person carrying out the work, typically the building owner or their nominated building design professional, any such information and other records necessary to allow another building control body to perform those functions.
The Department is considering how best to invest in building control digitalisation to improve the openness, accessibility, interoperability and reusability of building control data and deliver better outcomes for regulators, developers, built environment professionals and members of the public.