Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

The Government announced at the Wildfire Summit on 23 October that it will establish a nationally coordinated aerial firefighting capability. This includes the Ministry of Defence developing an aerial firefighting capability permanently based in the UK, with military support available to civilian fire and rescue services across all four nations through Military Aid to the Civil Authorities arrangements.

The Department has engaged with the Ministry of Defence at official level on wildfire preparedness and response, including through the Wildfire Summit. We are continuing to work with the Ministry of Defence, the National Fire Chiefs Council and other partners on the operational detail.

Arrangements for meeting the costs of deploying A400M aircraft, and any joint training between the Royal Air Force and fire and rescue services, are being considered as part of this work as well as worked out operationally with relevant partners.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places a legal requirement on Fire and Rescue Authorities to assess, make and maintain plans, and generally become more self-reliant in responding to crises within their remit.

These plans, including their Community Risk Management Plans, should be developed on the basis of responding to incidents without the need for military assistance.

Military Aid to Civilian Authorities (also known as MACA), may be requested to support civilian authorities, such as fire and rescue services (FRSs) when their capacity is overwhelmed.

Effective engagement with Military Advisors, such as JRLO (Joint Regional Liaison Officers) is encouraged and well established within FRS major incident response structures.

Following activations of the Flood Recovery Framework in 2023/24, local authority returns record 3,439 households having received a Community Recovery Grant following Storm Babet, with payments totalling £1,719,000. Following Storm Henk, 1,669 households received the Community Recovery Grant, with payments totalling £834,500.

The Government will introduce the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill this year.

MHCLG has a pay on transfer calculation that is applied when individuals transfer pay ranges, wherein individuals are placed on the same relative position on their pay range as they held on their old pay range. The calculation is:

D = (A – B) / C then G = (E x D) + F

A = current salary
B = current pay range minimum
C = current pay range maximum minus current pay range minimum
D = position on current pay range
E = new pay range maximum minus new pay range minimum
F = new pay range minimum
G = new salary.

The Department does not intend to place in the Library a copy of departmental guidance on policies in place regarding the transfer of national pay bands from London pay bands upon a change in office location. Departmental policies are subject to change through negotiation or consultation and only provide a point in time update position.

For the week commencing 21 September, 52% of staff assigned to the Salford office attended the workplace. This equates to attendance by 53 staff from a total assigned workforce of 102 colleagues based in Salford.

Eight individual social media influencers were paid and the lead agency was 23red.

23red is the department's contracted agency. In line with standard contractual arrangements, 23red subcontracted influencer management to Pepper, a specialist influencer agency, who directly hired the social media influencers.

Local Resilience Forums assess the risks facing their areas, drawing on the Government’s national risk assessment alongside local evidence and expertise. Differences between national and local assessments are expected, reflecting local circumstances, vulnerabilities and potential impacts.

Government supports a two-way approach, with local evidence informing the national understanding of risk, and national assessments and planning assumptions informing local preparedness. Local and national capability assessments also help identify whether capabilities are sufficient to manage assessed risks and where further action may be required. This helps ensure that differences between local and national assessments are understood and reflected in resilience planning and preparedness.

There is no general requirement under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 for responders to undertake public consultation on emergency plans before adopting them. Category 1 responders have duties under the Act to assess risk, maintain emergency plans and make information available to the public, but these do not amount to a general requirement to consult the public on the contents of those plans.

Communities can raise concerns about local emergency planning with the relevant responder or Local Resilience Forum so that they can be considered through local review and improvement arrangements. Where there are concerns about LRF performance, MHCLG will engage and work with the LRF to support improvements. In extreme cases the Civil Contingencies Act also provides for government enforcement where responders fail to perform their statutory duties.

The Department expects colleagues to attend the office 50% of the time, except in four of our offices where attendance is capped at 40% due to capacity constraints. Once these capacity limits, agreed attendance exceptions and periods of leave are taken into account, our overall attendance target for July to September 2026 was 37%. During that quarter, we achieved 36% attendance, just one percentage point below the adjusted target.

The Department has clear guidance in place setting out office attendance expectations and regularly monitors office attendance for its employees as well as capacity utilisation. We are continuing to work collectively to support consistent application of the policy and to ensure that all staff benefit from the collaboration and learning opportunities that face-to-face working provides.

Cyber security, within the wider remit of national security, is a reserved matter. Within Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, certain devolved public services are the responsibility of the respective governments.

The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government supports English local government to strengthen their cyber defences and manage their cyber risks more effectively in line with the Government Cyber Action Plan.

Since 2020, my department has provided £29 million of cyber grant funding and technical support to local government and have recently announced further funding available to all English councils and Strategic Authorities. This includes support to deliver the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) for local government, which sets a clear cyber security standard for the sector. The CAF applies to all English councils, helping them strengthen cyber resilience - particularly for essential services, the critical IT systems that support them and the sensitive data that they hold.

My department also provides a Cyber Incident Response service to support English councils and Strategic Authorities to respond to severe cyber incidents, helping to limit the impact these have on data and services.

The Building Safety Levy came into force on 1 October 2026. The Government expects the levy to raise around £3.4 billion over approximately 10 years to help fund the remediation of unsafe buildings and ensure that the housing sector makes a fair contribution towards addressing historical building safety defects.

The latest Office for Budget Responsibility economic and fiscal outlook estimates levy receipts of £55 million in 2027-28, £235 million in 2028-29, £340 million in 2029-30, £395 million in 2030-31 and £459 million in 2031-32. No revenue is expected in this financial year (2026-27). These forecasts were published in the October 2026 Economic and fiscal outlook, certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The Building Safety Levy is charged on new residential development and revenues are therefore linked to levels of housebuilding. However, revenues are also influenced by a range of factors, including the mix of developments coming forward and the application of exemptions and discounts. The levy has been designed to minimise impacts on housing supply while ensuring the industry makes a fair contribution towards the cost of remediating unsafe buildings.

Fire and rescue authorities have very wide freedoms to borrow and invest. This allows them to set their own capital strategies on the basis they are best placed to understand local needs, without prior government approval. This also ensures they remain accountable to the local electorate.

There are few statutory constraints on borrowing. Most importantly, fire and rescue authorities must not borrow more than they can afford. It is for them to determine what is affordable. In making that decision, they are required by the statute to have regard to the Prudential Code, published by CIPFA, which provides broad guidance on the affordability assessment.

There will be no public representation period for this Urgent Crown Development application.

As it is an expedited planning process, there is no legal requirement for the Secretary of State to carry out public consultation for Urgent Crown Development applications under The Town and Country Planning (Crown Development) (Urgent Applications) (Procedure) (England) Order 2025.

All Urgent Crown Development applications involve engagement with the local planning authority and with relevant statutory consultees. This is being undertaken in this instance between 4 and 12 November 2026.

The Government recognises that, while short-term lets may in some cases benefit local economies, excessive concentrations in some areas can impact the availability and affordability of homes to buy and rent, as well as place pressures on local services.

The Government published a Call for Evidence seeking input on the impacts of business rates on investment and options to address barriers. As part of a Call for Evidence, the Government sought views on the tax treatment of short-term lets in the business rates system to ensure that this system is supporting genuine small businesses and homeowners are paying their fair share towards local services. This call for evidence is available here. The Call for Evidence closed on 18 February and the Government will respond in due course.

More widely, we have abolished the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime, removing the preferential tax treatment previously available to holiday let owners. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 also ensures landlords cannot evict existing tenants simply to turn a property into a holiday let. We are also introducing a national registration scheme for short-term lets and considering what additional powers local areas may need to respond to the pressures created by short-term lets.

MHCLG officials engage with Home Office officials regularly on a number of issues, including risks and both feed into the National Security Risk Register and the National Risk Register which includes public disorder among the many risks described.

Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) in England and Wales, Regional Resilience Partnerships (RRPs) in Scotland and Emergency Preparedness Groups in Northern Ireland play a critical role in bringing local responders, such as the emergency services, together to plan for risks. Local Resilience Forums’ partners produce Community Risk Registers (CRRs), which focus on the highest priority risks in each local area.

In addition, Government is taking the following steps to support local partners in this space:

• Providing £21 million in core funding for LRF capacity and capability between 2026-27 and 2028-29. Considering the role of Mayors and Strategic Authorities in local resilience. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 post-implementation review will consider how legislation can strengthen local arrangements alongside English devolution.

• Launching a refresh of the National Resilience Standards for Local Resilience Forums (LRFs)

• Working with the UK Resilience Academy, Local Government Association and Society of Local Authority Chief Executives to strengthen local authority resilience

The Government has engaged, and continues to engage, with stakeholders, public bodies, and political parties throughout the development of political finance policy and, where necessary, prior to any relevant announcements being made.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform framework applies to homeowners, and cannot be used to apply community asset transfers for commercial properties.

However, the government is bringing forward new Community Right to Buy Powers to allow communities to take ownership of valued assets, which could include commercial premises providing they have a community use; for instance, pubs, clubs and sporting assets.

The Cabinet Statement on Rewiring the State set out our commitment to a new model of government that we will move to by the end of this Parliament, including the powers that will be transferred to local leaders to support growth and improve public service performance. The Cabinet Statement is available in full on gov.uk here. Full details of the new functions to be devolved from central government to local leaders will be set out in the Rewiring the State Delivery Plan later this year.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Questions UIN 39702 and UIN 39701.

The majority of the funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced, recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Questions UIN 39702 and UIN 39701.

The majority of the funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced, recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.

Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 provides the basis for central government to pay ringfenced grants to local authorities. Ringfenced funding is subject to legal conditions in the grant determination issued by a government department specifying how the funding can be used. Monitoring, reporting or assurance arrangements provide mechanisms to check compliance with grant conditions. The specific arrangements will depend on the grant and are determined by the department or policy team responsible for the relevant grant.

This Government inherited a homelessness and rough sleeping crisis - between 2010 and 2025, the number of people sleeping rough increased by 171%. On his first day in office, the Prime Minister launched an urgent national drive to end rough sleeping at the earliest opportunity. We are providing £874 million new funding to local areas to ensure that everyone who needs it is offered a route off the streets before Christmas this year which will continue beyond this winter thanks to new funding announced at Budget, while providing longer-term accommodation and support for people with the most complex and long-term experiences of rough sleeping.

These measures build on the Government's wider action to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, including the commitments set out in A National Plan to End Homelessness. This takes total investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years to more than £4.4 billion.

Further details on the Government's most recent measures are set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 1 September 2026 (HCWS300).

This Government inherited a homelessness and rough sleeping crisis - between 2010 and 2025, the number of people sleeping rough increased by 171%. On his first day in office, the Prime Minister launched an urgent national drive to end rough sleeping at the earliest opportunity. We are providing £874 million new funding to local areas to ensure that everyone who needs it is offered a route off the streets before Christmas this year which will continue beyond this winter thanks to new funding announced at Budget, while providing longer-term accommodation and support for people with the most complex and long-term experiences of rough sleeping.

These measures build on the Government's wider action to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, including the commitments set out in A National Plan to End Homelessness. This takes total investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years to more than £4.4 billion.

Further details on the Government's most recent measures are set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 1 September 2026 (HCWS300).

This Government inherited a homelessness and rough sleeping crisis - between 2010 and 2025, the number of people sleeping rough increased by 171%. On his first day in office, the Prime Minister launched an urgent national drive to end rough sleeping at the earliest opportunity. We are providing £874 million new funding to local areas to ensure that everyone who needs it is offered a route off the streets before Christmas this year which will continue beyond this winter thanks to new funding announced at Budget, while providing longer-term accommodation and support for people with the most complex and long-term experiences of rough sleeping.

These measures build on the Government's wider action to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, including the commitments set out in A National Plan to End Homelessness. This takes total investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years to more than £4.4 billion.

Further details on the Government's most recent measures are set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 1 September 2026 (HCWS300).

The Social Cohesion Taskforce is an existing, internal Civil Service team, comprised of Civil Servants.

The previous Government wrote to the Parliamentary Parties Panel in September 2022 regarding its intention to proceed with uprating spending limits in line with inflation. The Labour Party were a member of the Parliamentary Parties Panel at the time and no response is held.

Our letters to the Electoral Commission on 10 July and 29 August which set out our rationale regarding the review of the spending limits framework are published on GOV.UK.

The previous Government wrote to the Parliamentary Parties Panel in September 2022 regarding its intention to proceed with uprating spending limits in line with inflation. The Labour Party were a member of the Parliamentary Parties Panel at the time and no response is held.

Our letters to the Electoral Commission on 10 July and 29 August which set out our rationale regarding the review of the spending limits framework are published on GOV.UK.

MHCLG’s Community Cohesion Unit supports and promotes cohesion across England by working closely with local authorities, voluntary and community sector and faith organisations, and other government departments.

Following the disorder in summer 2024, several areas in Staffordshire have received sustained support. In Stoke-on-Trent, MHCLG has supported a multi-agency partnership approach to strengthen cohesion and resilience, aligned with the development of the city’s cohesion strategy. This brings together statutory and community partners to address integration, cohesion and tensions monitoring.

Five areas across Staffordshire, Bentilee and Ubberley, Bradley and Chell Heath, Meir North, Cannock Chase, and Glascote Heath have each been awarded Pride in Place Programme funding, with £20 million invested over ten years to deliver long-term, preventative improvements to community cohesion.

In Tamworth, MHCLG supported the Borough Council following unrest in summer 2024, addressing immediate challenges and strengthening longer-term cohesion capability through initiatives such as the ‘We Are Tamworth’ programme.

Nationally, MHCLG is coordinating cross-government work on a longer-term approach to social cohesion. Protecting What Matters, published on 9 March 2026, set out HMG’s vision to build stronger, more cohesive communities through sustained investment, improved integration, strengthened English language provision, and robust action against hate and extremism.

My Department has made no specific assessment of brownfield land in Walsall Borough.

It is for individual local planning authorities to assess the suitability, availability, and achievability of sites for inclusion on their Brownfield Land Registers using specific criteria set out in the Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017.

My Department launched the National Housing Delivery Fund (NHDF) on 1 April 2026. The NHDF will provide c.£5 billion of capital grant funding for infrastructure and land from 2026 to 2030. This includes £1.3 billion allocated through the Integrated Settlement for Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities (EMSAs) to support mayors to deliver more housing over the Spending Review period.

Ministers meet with their colleagues regularly to discuss housing and homelessness issues and consider how to support effective joint working between public bodies.

The Government is strengthening safeguards for people living in supported housing through implementation of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. The Act requires all local housing authorities to introduce a licensing regime for supported housing, which will include new national support standards, as well as a requirement for local authorities to assess the suitability of landlords. These reforms will strengthen local authority oversight of supported housing, including in areas such as Birmingham.

We are taking a cross-government approach to tackling homelessness. This includes a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to oversee delivery of our strategy, A National Plan to End Homelessness, and enact the Prime Minister’s commitment to end rough sleeping.

My department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver a number of interventions to support people experiencing homelessness with co-occurring health needs. These include the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Programme, which funds evidence-based drug and alcohol treatment and wraparound support for people sleeping rough or at risk. It aims to improve access to treatment, including for those with co-occurring mental health needs. For 2026-29, we are investing £185 million into this programme, expanding to nine additional areas with high levels of need and taking the total number of areas supported to 91.

In addition, we are investing an additional £874 million into ending rough sleeping. The new Rough Sleeping Programme (RSP) funds areas to ensure everyone sleeping rough has a route off the streets before Christmas, while building the longer-term solutions to end and prevent rough sleeping. Alongside providing accommodation, funding should be used by local areas to address the causes of a person’s rough sleeping, including working with health and social care partners to improve access to mental health, social care, safeguarding and ongoing support for people sleeping rough.

My Department has made no such specific assessments.

It is for local planning authorities, through local development plans, to address needs and opportunities in relation to infrastructure, identify what infrastructure is required, and how it can be funded and brought forward.

My Department has made no such specific assessments.

My Department has made no such specific assessments.

Where historic covenant breaches are alleged, existing law provides routes for homeowners to dispute liability, challenge their enforceability or resist unreasonable demands.

However, the government recognises that these mechanisms may be complex, costly, or difficult to navigate in practice.

We will consider whether further measures are needed to protect homeowners from unreasonable enforcement of restrictive covenants, while ensuring that legitimate and proportionate estate management arrangements can continue to operate where they are necessary.

The UK Government is committed to helping people with disabilities and health conditions get into and progress in work, with ambitious plans set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.

Pathways to Work is a key element of these plans backed by £3.5 billion of investment, with consequential funding flowing to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where policy responsibility is devolved.

The Local Growth Fund can also be used to provide complementary support to people with disabilities in Northern Ireland, Wales and parts of Scotland.

The Government remains committed to local government reorganisation and to delivering simpler, more sustainable local government. The petition has been received and the Government will provide a response following consideration of the issues raised.

Since the petition was presented, the previous decision for Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton has been withdrawn and all proposals for the area remain under consideration. We will provide a further update by Christmas, and every area will have an outcome by early 2027.

This Government recognises the serious concerns about the pressures facing households in temporary accommodation and the significant impact that out of area placements can have on families, including the disruption caused by separating them from relatives, schools, doctors and other vital support networks. Through the National Plan to End Homelessness, we have committed to taking action on out of area placements and driving out unsuitable practices.

We are aware of poor practice and are actively engaging with stakeholders, including local authorities, to understand the challenges and how we might address this. We have also published new data on out of area placements to improve transparency and are strengthening the performance and accountability framework for local areas to support better outcomes and support stronger local governance arrangements.

On 1 September, we introduced a new notification system which places a duty on local housing authorities to notify schools, GP practices and health visiting services when a child is placed in temporary accommodation. This strengthens information sharing so that schools and specified health services are aware where a child may need new or different support, and can seek to improve their outcomes.

Wildfires can occur at any time of year, with peaks typically in spring and summer. The timing and duration of these peaks vary across the UK, depending on weather, vegetation and local conditions.

The five pilot locations selected are Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, a defined status set out in the English Devolution White Paper, reflecting the governance maturity, delivery capacity and funding flexibility, through Integrated Settlements, needed to deliver the Place Based Budgets programme at pace. These areas were invited to participate and agreed to do so.

Of the seven areas holding or newly receiving an Integrated Settlement from April 2026, two were not included: Greater Manchester, already delivering similar work through its own Prevention Demonstrator; and the Greater London Authority, whose distinct institutional form and governance arrangements differ from the Combined Authority model the pilots are testing. London continues to benefit from public service reform activity, including Test, Learn and Grow.

Departments have been asked to contribute 1 percent of their capital budgets to help fund the Defence Investment Plan. I can confirm that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is required to contribute to this.

As has been the case under successive administrations, employees who are temporarily placed in a location other than their designated offices abide by their existing home department’s travel and expenses policy. This applies to employees volunteering to work in No. 10 North.

My department has not undertaken a specific assessment of the impact of money laundering and illicit trading on commercial rental values or the ability of legitimate businesses to secure high street premises. However, the government recognises that criminal activity undermines legitimate businesses and damages confidence in our high streets.

Our High Streets strategy, Hope on the High Street, sets out action to tackle these threats, including a £30 million crackdown on high street organised crime, improved intelligence sharing and plans to strengthen powers for councils and police to close premises linked to criminal activity.

The government is also providing up to £30 million annually until 2028/29 to tackle illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales and support implementation of the Tobacco and Vapes Act, including recruiting 120 Trading Standards apprentices, alongside a further £2 million annually over the same period to combat high street organised crime.