Written Statements

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

Thursday 13 February 2025

National Procurement Policy Statement

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Georgia Gould)]

Today the Government are publishing a national procurement policy statement that sets out our priorities for public procurement and maximises the impact of every pound spent. This will come into effect alongside the commencement of the Procurement Act 2023 on Monday 24 February. The Government are determined to ensure that the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth, supports small businesses, champions innovation, and creates good jobs and opportunities across the country.

For too long, small and medium-sized enterprises and voluntary, community and social enterprises have been held back by Government procurement processes that are too slow, bureaucratic, and difficult to navigate. Therefore, today, the Government are also announcing new measures to support the transformation of public procurement and deliver on the Government’s plan for small businesses.

New rules will require all Government Departments and their arm’s length bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs (from 1 April 2025) and VCSEs (from 1 April 2026) and publish progress annually. On top of this, regular spot checks will ensure smaller companies in the supply chain are paid within 30 days. This builds on previous interventions in the Budget that require Government Departments to exclude suppliers from bidding for major contracts if they cannot demonstrate prompt payment of invoices. We will be reforming the way social value is taken into account in central Government procurement, streamlining the current model to focus on delivery of our missions, and taking forward new standards on fair work in support of our growth mission.

The new national procurement policy statement sets out an expectation for the public sector to maximise procurement spend with SMEs and VCSEs. It sets out how early market engagement and collaboration combined with a clear pipeline of projects can help deliver this. To support local businesses the Government have listened to concerns from local authorities and are working to implement changes to allow them to reserve competitions for low-value contracts for local small businesses and social enterprises.

A new commercial innovation hub will foster procurement innovation by trialling new approaches to service design and procurement. Delivering on the commitment in the blueprint for modern digital government, we will explore establishing a digital commercial centre of excellence bringing together digital and commercial expertise to make it possible to buy once and well, and to open up opportunities for small and medium businesses to work on digital transformation.

This Government are clear that we want the value of contracts to go into delivering for citizens, and are making changes to deliver value for money in procurement through stronger expectations around commercial capability and contract management. A new online register of commercial agreements will increase visibility of frameworks and fees, curbing excessive profits. We will deploy new artificial intelligence commercial tools to cut bureaucracy, boost productivity, and free up commercial staff for higher-value tasks.

To build on this progress, the Government will consult on further reforms to our public procurement processes to drive economic growth, support small businesses, and better support innovation. This consultation is intended to inform the development of primary legislation when parliamentary time allows.

The Government will update their sourcing playbook and consult on introducing a new public interest test for contracting authorities to assess, at the outset of a procurement process, whether work should be outsourced or if it could be done more effectively, and drive better value for money, in house. This will strengthen market stewardship in procurement and ensure there is a rigorous evaluation of the broader public interest of in-house, outsourced or hybrid delivery models, ensuring that decisions properly reflect long-term value for taxpayers and are aligned with Government priorities.

This transformative package of reform ensures public procurement delivers real benefits for taxpayers, businesses and communities alike. By setting ambitious targets for small business spend and aligning social value with our missions, we are driving economic growth, strengthening supply chains, and fostering innovation. By maximising the power of public procurement, we will fuel job creation around the country, drive local and national outcomes and ensure that every pound spent delivers the maximum value for the people of this country.

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Contingencies Fund Advance: National Savings and Investments

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Emma Reynolds)]

HM Treasury has agreed additional resource DEL and capital DEL funding of £88,414,000 for National Savings and Investments (NS&I) as part of spending review 2025 phase 1 during the 2024 autumn Budget. The additional resource supports NS&I’s business transformation programme which will see it transition to a modernised operating model, with multiple service delivery partners. The funding also supports the capital DEL requirements for NS&I’s moving between offices in London.

Parliamentary approval for additional resource of £40,630,000 and capital of £17,120,000 has been sought in a supplementary estimate for NS&I. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £57,750,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.

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Bank of England and Treasury: Financial Relationship

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Emma Reynolds)]

I can announce today the conclusion of a Bank of England and HM Treasury five-yearly review of the Bank’s capital framework parameters, as set out in section 2B of the Bank and HM Treasury financial relationship memorandum of understanding.

The review concluded that:

The capital framework has been effective in delivering its intended objectives at inception in 2018: to ensure that the Bank is equipped with capital resources consistent with the monetary and financial stability remits it has been given by Parliament.

The existing parameters of the capital framework remain adequate to support the Bank’s balance sheet.^[1]

The existing Bank-HMT financial arrangements, as set out in the MoU, are sufficient to support the bank’s planned transition to a demand-driven operating framework fully backed by repo.^[2]

The Bank and HM Treasury will keep these arrangements under review during the Bank’s balance sheet transition to a new steady state in coming years, ensuring close engagement as per the existing governance and information sharing channels set out in the MoU.

The Bank and HM Treasury have updated the MoU accordingly, and this can be accessed at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/memorandum-of-understanding-between-hm-treasury-and-the-bank-of-england-2025

^[1] The parameters of the capital framework include a target, a floor, and a ceiling. As set out in the 2018 letter from the Governor of the Bank of England to the Chancellor, the values of the capital parameters are £0.5 billion for the floor, £3.5 billion for the target and £5.5 billion for the ceiling. This letter can be accessed at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/letter/2018/governor-letter-210618.pdf

^[2] Further detail on the transition of the Bank’s operating framework can be accessed through the following attachments:

“Transitioning to a repo-led operating framework”—Bank of England https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2024/dp/transitioning-to-a-repo-led-operating-framework

“The importance of central bank reserves”—lecture by Andrew Bailey https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2024/may/andrew-bailey-lecture-london-school-of-economics-charles-goodhart

“Let’s get ready to repo”—speech by Victoria Saporta https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2024/july/victoria-saporta-speech-at-afme-seminar

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Syria: Sanctions

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Stephen Doughty)]

Today I am updating the House on the future of the UK’s Syria sanctions regime following the welcome fall of Assad’s dictatorship late last year.

Sanctions remain a powerful foreign and security policy tool, and this Government are committed to maximising their impact, which includes reviewing their use in light of changing circumstances.

Therefore, I am pleased to inform the House that the Government will bring forward measures in the coming months adapting the Syria sanctions regime, including amendments to the Syria regulations, which Members of Parliament will have the opportunity to debate.

We are making these changes to support the Syrian people in rebuilding their country and to promote security and stability. They will include the relaxation of restrictions that apply to the energy, transport and finance sectors, and provisions to further support humanitarian delivery.

The Government remain determined to hold Bashar al-Assad and his associates to account for their actions against the people of Syria. We will ensure that asset freezes and travel bans imposed on members of the former regime remain in force.

In this way, the FCDO will continue to use sanctions in a manner that is targeted, proportionate and robust to hold accountable those responsible for atrocious crimes committed during Assad’s reign and to support what we hope will be Syria’s transition to a more secure, prosperous and stable future.

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Firearms Licensing Consultation: Government Response

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention (Dame Diana Johnson)]

The Government are today publishing their response to the public consultation that was run by the previous Government on firearms licensing controls. The consultation ran between 29 June and 23 August 2023. The consultation sought views on recommendations that were made to the Government by the senior coroner in his prevention of future deaths reports following inquests into the deaths of the five people who were shot and killed in Keyham on 12 August 2021; on recommendations made by the Independent Office for Police Conduct following its investigation into the police force involved; and recommendations made by the Scottish Affairs Select Committee following its review of firearms licensing regulations which followed on from a fatal shooting by a licensed shotgun holder on the Isle of Skye on 10 August 2022.

A total of 91,385 responses to the consultation were received either online or by post and email and we are grateful to all those who took the time to respond. The Government response sets out the actions that the Government intend to take to further strengthen firearms licensing controls.

The previous Government decided not to consult on the recommendations that had been made to consider greater alignment of shotgun and firearms controls and legislation. The Government are, however, mindful that the shootings in both Keyham and Skye involved lawfully held shotguns, and that there have been other incidents involving shotguns since these tragic events occurred. We therefore take the view that it is right to look again at the differences in the controls and to consider whether changes should be made to better protect the public. We intend to publish a new consultation on this issue later this year.

A copy of the Government response will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on gov.uk.

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Crown Land: Planning Permission for Development

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

Planning is principally a local activity, but it is a well-established principle that in limited circumstances, and where issues of more than local importance are involved, it is appropriate for the Secretary of State to make planning decisions.

Recent experience, including the response to covid-19, has exposed that the existing route for securing planning permission on Crown land, namely the urgent Crown development route under section 293A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 introduced in 2006, is not fit for purpose, and it is telling that it has never once been used.

I am therefore confirming today that the Government will implement two new routes by which Crown bodies can apply for planning permission for development on Crown land in England, as legislated for through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.

The first route, referred to as the Crown development route, will allow planning applications for Crown developments which are considered of “national importance” to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate directly instead of to local planning authorities.

Allowing such planning applications to be determined in this manner will allow for a more timely and proportionate process. Applications taken through this route will still be determined on the basis of their planning merits, with due consideration of local and national planning policy, and local communities and local planning authorities will still be fully engaged throughout the decision-making process and their views taken into account.

This process will be led by an independent planning inspector, with the inspector usually taking the decision, with provision for the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to make the final decision where deemed appropriate.

The second route, an updated urgent Crown development process, will enable applications for “nationally important” development that is needed “urgently” to be determined rapidly under a simplified procedure. Applications under the urgent route will be submitted to, and dealt with directly by, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government.

The Government believe that it is vital to ensure these routes are in place, and it is our sincere hope that it will remain a matter of cross-party consensus that where circumstances warrant it, decisions on nationally important development by the Crown can and should be made appropriately at the national level.

However, as I argued in opposition during the passage of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act, it is imperative that such powers are used only where necessary, and that appropriate safeguards to their use are put in place. Where they are used, I also want to ensure there is transparency not just with those involved, but with Parliament. In implementing these routes, we have been careful to account for both points, which I will address in turn.

First, these new routes can only be used if the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government considers the proposed development from a Crown body to be of “national importance”. To this end, all applications must be accompanied by a statement setting out why the development is considered to meet that criteria.

The Secretary of State will in general only consider a development to be of national importance if, in her opinion, the development would:

involve the interests of national security or of foreign Governments;

contribute towards the provision of national public services or infrastructure, such as new prisons, defence, or border infrastructure;

support a response to international, national, or regional civil emergencies;

or otherwise have significant economic, social, or environmental effects and strong public interest at a regional or national level.

For urgent Crown development, the Secretary of State must in addition be satisfied that the development subject to the application is genuinely needed as a matter of urgency. The Secretary of State will only consider this to be the case where the applicant can demonstrate the need for an expedited planning process. The applicant will need to demonstrate that the proposed development will need to be made operational to an accelerated timeframe that is unlikely to be feasible using other application routes, including Crown development, and will need evidence of the likely consequences of not securing a decision within the accelerated timeframe.

Secondly, where these routes are used, the Government are committed to ensuring proper transparency at every stage. This will take the form of three distinct steps:

First, where an application is accepted by the Secretary of State, the relevant Members of Parliament will be notified at the same time as the applicant and the relevant local planning authorities. A notification will also be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses and will include details as to where the application can be viewed and the process that will follow.

Secondly, at the point of decision, and again at the same time as the applicant and relevant local planning authorities, the relevant Members of Parliament will be notified of either the grant or refusal of planning permission, and this letter will also be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.

Thirdly, on an annual basis, I will publish a report of all decisions taken under these routes, including a link to the decision letters, which again will be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.

I am confident that, taken together, these steps will ensure Members are properly appraised of any applications being considered through these routes that relate to their constituencies, and will provide the House as a whole with the opportunity to consider and scrutinise their general operation. The Government will keep these steps under review as the routes begin to be used.

Finally, with regards to implementation, I have today laid draft regulations which make consequential amendments to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and other primary legislation, as well as to planning application fee regulations, to reflect the two new Crown development routes.

These regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure, enabling Parliament to debate them. To support scrutiny ahead of parliamentary debates, I will publish in draft the regulations setting out the procedures for both routes, which will be laid following parliamentary approval of the affirmative regulations. Our aim, subject to parliamentary approval, is to bring both routes into force in April 2025. Further guidance will be published on the operation of the two routes closer to implementation.

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Large-scale Housing Site Delivery

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

The delivery of significant numbers of large-scale housing developments in England is integral to driving economic growth and meeting the Government’s ambitious plan for change milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament.

I am today updating the House on the progress that is being made to build out large sites across the country and to take forward the next generation of new towns.

The next generation of new towns

The post-war new towns programme was the most ambitious town-building effort ever undertaken in the UK. It transformed the lives of millions of working people by giving them affordable and well-designed homes in well-planned and beautiful surroundings. This Government will continue to invest in their regeneration, but we also remain committed to bringing forward the next generation of new towns.

In September 2024, we established an independent New Towns Taskforce and tasked the experts on it with identifying and recommending locations for new towns within 12 months. Over the past five months, the taskforce has made significant progress. Its nationwide call for evidence, which invited proposals for sites with the potential to accommodate large-scale new communities of at least 10,000 homes, attracted over 100 submissions from every region in England, demonstrating the enthusiasm that exists across the country to be part of this transformative programme.

Today, the taskforce is publishing an update on its work, setting out the vision and aims of the programme, as well as the unique benefits it would deliver and the lessons learnt from a comprehensive review of the three phases of the post-war new towns programme.

The Government have been clear that we want exemplary development to be the norm not the exception, so that more communities feel the benefits of new development and welcome it. We remain fully committed to creating high-quality, beautiful, and sustainable buildings and places.

We are therefore determined to ensure that the next generation of new towns are well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive places where people want to live and have all the infrastructure, amenities and services necessary to sustain thriving mixed communities, including public transport and services like GP surgeries and schools.

The taskforce is also today sharing its emerging thinking on how best to meet these expectations, setting out what principles should guide the delivery of the kind of new large-scale communities we want to create through the programme. The intention is to begin a national conversation about what constitutes an ideal new town, and a series of engagement events will be held with the residents of existing new towns to secure their insight.

The Government are clear that public investment, leadership, and focus will be needed to kick-start the delivery of the next generation of new towns. However, our clear long-term objective is to ensure that the settlements brought forward under the programme pay for themselves through the value they create. This requires that the price paid for land reflects the costs of quickly and efficiently providing the infrastructure, amenities and affordable housing essential to the creation of high-quality places. We look forward to receiving the taskforce’s recommendations as to how this can be best achieved.

The taskforce will submit its final report to the Deputy Prime Minister and I in the summer, setting out its recommended locations for potential new towns, and its view on how best to fund and deliver them. The Government will then make decisions on the basis of those recommendations and begin the process of initiating the programme.

The spending review will confirm the Government’s plans to provide certainty for this transformative programme, demonstrating our commitment to bringing forward sustainable new communities and unlocking economic growth across the country. In the immediate term, an initial £15 million has been allocated for the next financial year, to enable early scoping work on new sites to begin, ensuring delivery can start as soon as ministerial decisions have been made.

New homes accelerator

Following its launch in July 2024, the new homes accelerator has been working with national and local partners to speed up housing delivery on a series of large sites across the country.

These include seven sites that were previously announced, namely Liverpool central docks, Northstowe, Worcestershire Parkway, Langley Sutton Coldfield, Tendring Colchester Borders garden community, Stretton Hall, and Biggleswade garden community, which together have the potential to deliver more than 28,500 homes.

Through intensive engagement with other Departments and statutory consultees as a convener and broker, the accelerator has also helped progress a number of other sites with the capacity to deliver more than 20,000 homes.

The call for evidence that the accelerator launched last year identified 350 sites, with a combined potential delivery pipeline of approximately 700,000 homes, as requiring some form of support to progress.

Today, the accelerator is announcing that it will focus attention on three new sites: Frome Gateway regeneration area in Bristol, south of Cayton in Scarborough, and Beam Park in London. Together, these have the potential to deliver more than 7,400 homes.

The new homes accelerator is also providing £3 million of grant funding to local authorities for site-specific support. This will be supplemented by the ongoing direct advice provided by its dedicated team of built environment specialists. We are also announcing £1 million of funding to key statutory consultees and £2 million of funding to the Building Safety Regulator to accelerate processing of applications.

Regeneration funding

To further increase the supply of new homes, I am today announcing several new investments. These include confirming £29.6 million from the brownfield infrastructure and land fund to unlock 1,000 new homes in Broadford City Village; announcing £1.5 million to support a joint venture between Manchester city council and private partners to deliver a new district in Manchester Victoria North; and £20 million towards remediating small council-owned brownfield sites, as part of the brownfield land release fund.

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Machinery of Government

Thursday 13th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Prime Minister (Keir Starmer)]

I am making this statement to bring to the House’s attention the following machinery of government change.

On 4 September 2024 I announced that the Government would respond in full to the Grenfell phase 2 inquiry report within six months. In response to one of the report’s recommendations, I am confirming today that responsibility for fire will move from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This change will bring responsibility for building safety and fire under a single Secretary of State, providing for a more coherent approach to keeping people safe from fire in their homes. The Home Office will retain management of the airwave service contract on behalf of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and will remain responsible for the emergency services mobile communications programme and His Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary and fire and rescue services.

This change will be effective from 1 April 2025. The Government will respond to the full report in due course.

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