Switzerland: Free Trade Agreement Negotiations
(2 days, 11 hours ago)
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The Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security (Mr Douglas Alexander)
The sixth round of negotiations on an enhanced free trade agreement (FTA) with Switzerland took place in Switzerland between 3 and 10 March 2025.
Economic growth is our first mission in government and FTAs have an important role to play in achieving this. We are seeking an enhanced FTA with Switzerland that guarantees market access for UK services suppliers, facilitates the seamless flow of data and ideas between two world-leading services powerhouses, and provides long-term certainty on UK business travel to Switzerland. An enhanced FTA will contribute to growth and prosperity across the UK and build on our existing trading relationship with Switzerland. This currently supports 130,000 services jobs and more than £17 billion in services exports, including over £700 million from Scotland and the north-west.
Good progress was made in all negotiation sessions, including but not limited to digital trade, financial services, goods market access and dispute settlement. Productive discussions were held in relation to intellectual property, with further sessions scheduled later in the spring. Negotiators also provisionally closed two additional chapters.
Services, investment and digital
The UK Government’s focus continues to be on agreeing ambitious outcomes in services, investment and digital trade which are not covered in the existing UK-Switzerland FTA. Good progress was made in financial services in particular, with both sides focused on agreeing the most comprehensive chapter that either country has signed.
On digital trade, provisions on data, source code and cryptography were discussed, with the UK continuing to seek ambitious outcomes.
Goods
Progress continued in talks around trade in goods, with discussions taking place on market access, focusing on securing outcomes that are commercially meaningful for UK exporters. The 99% of UK exports to Switzerland by value are already tariff free, with the bulk of remaining Swiss tariffs in the highly protected agriculture sector.
On customs and trade facilitation, the UK and Switzerland provisionally agreed a chapter on transparent, predictable and efficient customs procedures that help facilitate trade at the border. It includes commitments on the release of perishable goods that go further than Switzerland has agreed before in a trade agreement, and are in line with the UK’s best precedents.
Both sides also agreed measures that promote the simplification of customs procedures and reduce administrative burdens for traders, including through digitisation and automation.
Good progress was also made on rules of origin, with commitments agreed to make it easier for UK firms to trade with Switzerland, while locking in our strong pre-existing rules of origin arrangements.
Transparency
Both sides reached agreement on a chapter that supports a transparent, stable and predictable environment for business. This includes commitments to promote transparency in Government decision making by ensuring regulations are accessible and encouraging public consultations when designing regulations.
Next steps
Round 7 of negotiations is expected to take place in the UK in summer 2025. The Government will continue to work towards delivering outcomes in the FTA that secure economic growth for the UK and will update Parliament on the progress of discussions with Switzerland as they continue to develop.
The Government will only ever sign a trade agreement that aligns with the UK’s national interests, upholding our high standards across a range of sectors, alongside protections for the national health service.
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Grassroots Sport: Facilities Investment
(2 days, 11 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy)
Grassroots sport clubs are at the heart of communities across the UK. As we deliver our plan for change, we will remove barriers to an active lifestyle and increase opportunity for all, ensuring that wherever people may live, they can access high-quality sports facilities and experience the joy that sport brings.
On Friday 21 March, the Government announced £100 million in additional funding for the UK-wide multi-sport grassroots facilities programme. Funding benefits a range of projects such as new and improved pitches, changing rooms, pavilions, solar panels, floodlights, goalposts and maintenance machinery, so that sites can provide a more inclusive and sustainable offer throughout the year. Our continued investment will mean that more community clubs and facilities can get people participating in the sports they love.
The programme delivers funding for local authorities, clubs and communities across the UK through our delivery partners: the Cymru Football Foundation in Wales, the FAs in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the Football Foundation—a charity set up by the Government, the FA and the Premier League—in England.
Through this targeted investment, we will support grassroots facilities to provide priority use for women and girls, and increased access for under-represented groups, so that they can get on to the pitch, get active and develop a lifelong passion for a new sport. The 50% of investment will target the 30% most deprived areas, providing transformational funding to the areas that need it most. The 40% of funding will also support projects that have a multi-sport offer, meaning that more people can participate in a wider variety of sports and activities that appeal to them. These facilities also often provide opportunities for boys and young men to participate and benefit from wider community facilities, such as mental health support, and the atmosphere of camaraderie that sport provides.
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Great British Energy: Rooftop Solar Power
(2 days, 11 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)
Hundreds of schools, NHS trusts and communities across the UK will benefit from new rooftop solar power and renewable schemes to save money on their energy bills, thanks to a total £200 million investment partnership between Great British Energy and the UK Government, including the Department for Education and the Department for Health and Social Care.
In another step forward for the Government’s plan for change, the Energy Secretary has today, Friday 21 March, announced the first major project for Great British Energy—a company owned by the British people, for the British people. It will immediately begin working with schools, the NHS and the devolved Governments to install rooftop solar panels, build local clean power and bring down energy bills.
In England, around £80 million in funding will support around 200 schools. This could lead to lifetime savings of up to £140 million. Estimates suggest that, on average, a typical school could save over £25,000 per year.
Additionally, £100 million will be allocated to nearly 200 NHS sites in England. This covers a third of NHS trusts. The NHS is the single biggest public sector energy user, with an estimated annual energy bill of £1.4 billion. This has more than doubled since 2019. Great British Energy’s investment could save the NHS up to £260 million per year—up to £45,000 per hospital.
The first panels are expected to be installed by the end of summer 2025. This will save schools and hospitals money for the next academic year. There is also the potential to sell leftover energy back to the grid.
Schools and hospitals have been hit with rocketing energy bills in recent years, costing taxpayers millions of pounds and eating into school budgets. This has been driven by the UK’s dependency on global fossil fuel markets. Great British Energy’s first investment could see millions invested back into frontline services, targeting deprived areas, with lifetime savings for schools and the NHS of up to £400 million over around 30 years.
A further £9.3 million will power schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These projects can be a mixture of installations on public sector buildings, new community or local renewables projects, and other complementary technologies such as battery storage solutions. This funding has come from the budget allocated to GBE local delivery in the 2025-26 spending review, which has been apportioned between all four nations by population share. England has supplemented this with funding from existing budgets, including health and education. The devolved Governments may similarly choose to use this new funding alongside existing budgets to deliver ambitious new projects or expand existing schemes.
In addition, local authorities and community energy groups will also be supported by nearly £12 million to help build local clean energy projects—from community-led onshore wind to solar on rooftops and hydropower in rivers—that can help drive growth.
Great British Energy’s community energy fund will provide £5 million in grant funding to support community energy groups to develop their own clean power supply projects. These could generate profits that could then be reinvested into community projects or take money off people’s bills.
The UK Government will continue to fund the local net zero hubs in England, with a total of £6.8 million for existing hubs. These offer a free-to-use service for local authorities to access the expertise and resource to get clean energy projects up and running.
Great British Energy is also launching partnerships with strategic mayoral authorities. The metro mayors can apply for a share of £10 million to deliver clean power projects in every region of England.
We have been clear from the start that expanding support for local and community power is a core ambition for Great British Energy. This announcement demonstrates an immense commitment by Great British Energy and the UK Government to support local and community energy now and in the future. These schemes will deliver clean, secure, home-grown power for our core public services and local communities.
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UK Pesticides National Action Plan
(2 days, 11 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)
On 21 March the Government published the UK pesticides national action plan (NAP), setting out how we will reduce the environmental risk of pesticides by 10% over the next five years.
This plan—the first to be published in a decade—sets out a future of more sustainable pesticide use, which protects the environment and human health, and boosts food security for the long term.
The NAP sets out how all four UK Governments will support farmers, growers and other land managers to increase their use of sustainable farming practices to reduce the potential harm from pesticides by 10% by 2030, while controlling pests and pesticide resistance effectively.
Pesticide resistance, climate change and invasive species pose significant challenges to our food security. Embracing a future with a nature-friendly approach to pest management means a better deal for our food producers. Sustainable pesticide use supports healthier ecosystems in which vital pollinators, such as bees, are allowed to flourish, and crop health and food production are boosted for the long term.
This NAP will support voluntary moves by farmers towards more sustainable pest management through increased use of integrated pest management (IPM)—a sustainable and holistic approach to pest, weed and disease management, which can benefit farm businesses as well as the environment. By using nature-based solutions and alternative techniques, farmers can ensure that pesticide use is targeted and optimised, cutting down on input costs and tackling pesticide resistance to support long-term profitability and productivity.
The UK is a world leader in agrifood research and development. The actions in the NAP will build on this strong foundation and support continued growth in the sector, including by supporting manufacturers to bring more bio-pesticides to market and reducing barriers to innovation and precision application technology, such as drones.
Finally, the NAP outlines how we will ensure that regulations are followed by targeting enforcement efforts where they are needed most, through training, guidance and enhanced inspections and compliance.
The publication of the NAP follows wider Government action on pesticides. We have already committed to taking decisive action to protect bees and other pollinators by ending the use of three harmful neonicotinoids—clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam—in England. The launch of the NAP presents another step in promoting the sustainable use of pesticides and protecting food security for the future.
The plan has been published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the devolved Governments. The full UK pesticides national action plan can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-pesticides-national-action-plan-2025
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Building Safety Levy
(2 days, 11 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Alex Norris)
The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced a power for the Secretary of State to introduce a levy on new residential buildings requiring certain building control approvals in England, to raise revenue for the purpose of building safety expenditure. The Government have committed to ensuring buildings over 11 metres tall with unsafe cladding are fixed as quickly as possible, and to protecting the taxpayer and leaseholders from further remediation costs. The building safety levy, first announced in 2021, is one of the measures we are implementing to ensure that the industry responsible makes a fair contribution to fix building safety issues. It will be collected by local authorities on behalf of central Government.
As part of the “Remediation Acceleration Plan” published in December 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister announced her intention that the levy would come into effect in autumn 2025. To give the housing sector more time to adapt, we have determined that the levy regulations will be laid in Parliament later this year, and the levy will now come into effect in autumn 2026. This will give local government, the Building Safety Regulator, and Registered Building Control approvers a further 12 months to prepare for the levy, and housing developers who will pay the levy more time to factor levy costs into their plans.
This will in no way impact the pace of remediation. The Government are committed to fixing building safety defects as quickly as possible.
In order to give housing developers as much time as possible to factor the cost of the levy into their plans for upcoming developments, I am today announcing the levy rates, that will be applied when the levy comes into force. These are included in the response to the levy technical consultation, which I am publishing today, having taken into account the feedback to this consultation and to the previous consultation on the levy. The technical consultation response provides further detail on the operation of the levy.
Levy rates have been set for each local authority area using average house prices for that area. Therefore, the levy rate is highest in those areas with the highest house prices, and lowest in those areas with the lowest house prices. This will help to mitigate the housing supply impact of the levy. A discounted rate of 50% of the standard levy rate has been set for works on previously developed land—sometimes known as “brownfield”—to reflect the higher cost of building on this type of land. Affordable housing and community facilities, and small developments with fewer than 10 units are exempt from paying the levy. The levy will be charged per square metre of floorspace in a chargeable development. The rates are therefore set per square metre.
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Local Government Reorganisation
(2 days, 11 hours ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution (Jim McMahon)
This Government was elected on a manifesto that pledged to fix the foundations of local government alongside a transfer of power and funding out of Westminster through devolution. That means creating clearer, more sustainable local government structures to unlock crucial efficiency savings, with more resources directed to the frontline. This reform will mean more accountable structures, making it much clearer for residents who they should look to on local issues, with fewer, but more empowered local political leaders, who can focus on delivering for residents. This Government will not waste this opportunity to achieve stability for local government across England and increase value for money for council taxpayers, so they are no longer paying an inefficient two-tier premium. I would like to update the House on progress on local government reorganisation.
Interim plans
Last month I invited all councils in two-tier areas and their small neighbouring unitary authorities to work together to develop proposals for reorganisation. I requested interim plans by Friday 21 March to contain updates on thinking in areas about their options for creating new unitary councils.
I recognise the challenges of producing these plans and I would like to thank members and officers in district, county and unitary councils for their hard work in preparing these documents. This demonstrates the commitment of colleagues across the local government sector to drive forward better outcomes for their citizens. We know that in many areas, local leaders have been working together on their plans for reorganisation for many years and are pleased to be invited to work with Government to seize this opportunity.
All district and county councils in two-tier areas and their neighbouring small unitaries were invited, and I am pleased to confirm that every single area—comprising councils of all political stripes—have responded to the invitation to reorganise, demonstrating without doubt the groundswell consensus from communities that change is overdue and needed. These areas are: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; Derbyshire and Derby; Devon, Plymouth and Torbay; East Sussex and Brighton and Hove; Essex with Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock; Gloucestershire; Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton; Hertfordshire; Kent and Medway; Lancashire, Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen; Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland; Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire; Norfolk; Nottinghamshire and Nottingham; Oxfordshire; Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent; Suffolk; Surrey; Warwickshire; West Sussex; and Worcestershire.
Criteria for delivering new authorities
The Government have set out their criteria for these changes to provide confidence that new councils are right for individual areas. On the population size, the guidance is clear that new councils must be the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks. As set out in our “English Devolution” White Paper, we outlined a population size of 500,000 or more—this is a guiding principle, not a hard target—we understand that there should be flexibility, especially given our ambition to build out devolution alongside local government reorganisation.
The published guidance sets out that “there may be certain scenarios in which this 500,000 figure does not make sense for an area, including on devolution, and this rationale should be set out in a proposal.” In discussions with individual councils and parliamentarians, and in interviews given throughout the process, the Government have reinforced this position to aid local discussions. Equally, it may be decided that population sizes around this figure, or greater than it, are the best fit locally. Instead of presenting a top-down solution for each area, our starting point is to support and empower local leaders and to respect their knowledge, expertise and insight. This approach is in line with the new partnership between Government and local government.
There is a clear expectation that though councils will change, the communities they serve remain, along with the strong sense of history, identity and belonging which gives them the character local people hold dear. That matters, and it will not just be accepted, but celebrated for the pride of place it instils.
Support
Local government reorganisation is a complex process, and we are at the beginning of this journey. We will continue to reset the relationship and work in partnership with the sector to ensure they receive the necessary support as we work together to deliver this ambitious agenda.
Councils need our full backing and support to drive these changes forward—and this Government are acutely aware of the difficult financial situation facing all councils following a decade of financial mismanagement by the previous Administration. I am pleased to announce that £7.6 million will be made available in the form of local government reorganisation proposal development contributions, to be split across these 21 areas. This is the first time that capacity funding has been made available for reorganisation proposals, recognising the priority that this Government attaches to this. Further information will be provided on how this will be allocated and we intend to make payments as soon as possible.
Beyond funding, we understand that practical support and learning from those who have undergone reorganisation before is crucial. My Department has been working closely with the LGA, trade unions and sector bodies to develop support for areas. The LGA Hub will host a central repository for practical advice and support. A programme of webinars and events will be available and the LGA and other sector bodies will be launching networks for peer support.
Next steps
The submission of interim plans is not a decision point. It is the next stage in the process and enables councils to engage with the Government on the issues that matter locally and receive support to develop their full proposals. We expect local leaders to continue working collaboratively and proactively with each other, including by sharing information.
In the coming weeks my officials will follow up with areas to discuss their interim plans, provide feedback and understand the collaboration and information sharing arrangements. The Department will be speaking to Surrey as a priority in the coming days, then with councils on the devolution priority programme during April, and other areas after the local government elections in May. For Surrey, the deadline for proposals is in May and for other areas later this year in September or November.
My Department will consider these proposals against the criteria set out before consulting and taking a decision on which of those proposals will be taken forward and implemented. This is a statutory process, and affirmative legislation will be needed to establish new councils and abolish any of the predecessor councils.
Conclusion
I acknowledge this is a significant undertaking—the largest structural reform of local government in half a century and a fundamental part of our project to reform the British state, so that it delivers for working people. We need to push forward together and deliver these changes, so communities can see the benefits of simpler structures and so councils can deliver better value for money public services. Local leaders are central to our mission to deliver change for hard-working people in every corner of the country through our plan for change, and our councils are doing everything they can to stay afloat and provide for their communities day in, day out. I will update the House after receiving full proposals and explain how they will be taken forward.
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Road Maintenance
(2 days, 11 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Transport (Heidi Alexander)
Today I am announcing two key measures to boost funding for transport as part of the Government’s commitment to renew national infrastructure, improve England’s road network and drive growth as part of the plan for change.
First, I am setting out the details of what local highways authorities across England will need to do to unlock their full share of the £500 million funding uplift that the Government have announced for the 2025-26 financial year. This will help ensure that every penny of taxpayer funding for road repairs is delivering results and will help tackle the pothole plague, which is the result of a decade of under-investment by the previous Government.
For the first time ever, local highways authorities will have to publish a succinct report, in plain English, by the end of June, detailing what they are doing to improve the state of their local roads. This will shine a spotlight on what councils are doing with taxpayers’ money and allow local people to hold their councils to account. It will help ensure that the additional funding provided by my Department will be spent delivering the improvements that local people have every right to expect.
The Department has provided a template for these reports that sets out the information that is required. Each authority will need to explain how much it is spending on highways maintenance and how this has changed over time. Authorities will also need to give an overall picture of the condition of their roads, and a summary of how many potholes they have filled in each of the last five years, as well as what they are doing to shift their focus to long-term preventive maintenance. They will need to explain what they are doing to minimise the disruption caused by utility companies’ street works, and to make their highways networks more resilient to the changing climate.
Local highways authorities will also be required to send some further, more technical information to the Department by the end of October. This will summarise what each authority is doing to follow best practice and deliver innovation and efficiency. Authorities will have to provide information on matters such as whether they carry out customer satisfaction surveys to allow the public to have a say on local priorities, and whether they benchmark their performance with other authorities.
Authorities that comply in full with the requirements will receive their full share of the £500 million funding uplift, which for most authorities will mean an increase of almost 40% on average in highways maintenance funding compared to the current financial year. Authorities that do not meet these requirements will forfeit the final 25% of the funding uplift, with this money then redistributed to other councils to allow them to do even more to fix their local roads.
Secondly, I am providing details of a £4.8 billion interim settlement for National Highways in 2025-26 to keep the strategic road network working for the people and businesses that rely on it every day.
Delivery of this investment focuses heavily on operating, maintaining and enhancing the strategic network. Crucially, there is also a record investment in renewals, which is essential to keeping this vital network in good repair to avoid unplanned disruption, drive productivity and better connect people and business to support growth across the country.
The current road investment strategy (RIS) expires at the end of March 2025, and we intend to set a new multi-year strategy. But this requires time to plan, and the choices we make in that strategy will be informed by this year’s spending review.
In the absence of an RIS, I am laying in Parliament statutory directions and guidance to National Highways to cover the exercise of its functions beyond the expiry of the second road investment strategy, from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 inclusive.
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