Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 resilience of fire and rescue services during periods in which multiple major incidents occur simultaneously.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government is committed to ensuring that fire and rescue services can draw on national capabilities, enabling them to respond effectively to large-scale or critical incidents.
Government funds specialist national resilience capabilities, ensuring national assets - such as urban search and rescue; high volume pumps; and mass decontamination – are strategically located across the country for times of need.
My department funds the national resilience lead authority in Merseyside to deliver a range of services, including capability assurance, to ensure National Resilience Capabilities operate effectively across the country.
The National Coordination and Advisory Framework (NCAF) provides robust and flexible arrangements for mutual aid and the mobilisation of specialist and conventional resources from across England where an incident, or combination of concurrent incidents, places demands beyond the capabilities or capacity of an individual service.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her Department's planned timetable is for including social sector buildings in the total number of buildings 11 metres and over in height identified with unsafe cladding in its remediation progress reports.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The number of buildings 11 metres over in height identified with unsafe cladding in the Building Safety Remediation data release already includes social sector buildings. Overall remediation progress information on social sector buildings is available in the Overall remediation progress section of the data release, as well as in the ACM remediation, Building Safety Fund, Cladding Safety Scheme and Social housing self-funded remediation sections of the release.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds centrally approved new spending on property, advertising, consultancy, technology and commercial.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG holds information relating to new spending proposals that are subject to departmental approval processes, including in areas such as property, advertising, consultancy, technology and commercial activity.
The information held will vary depending on the nature of the approval proposal but will likely include details such as the contract value, duration and supplier information. Relevant approvals and assurances required as part of departmental governance processes are also captured. Consultancy and professional services spending is subject to specific approval arrangements within the Department.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to ref: 5105613138 in her Department's document entitled MHCLG: spending over £25,000, May 2026, published on 10 August 2026, what are the terms of reference for the Multiple Disadvantage Research to be conducted by Verian Group UK Limited.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The multiple disadvantage research carried out by Verian included the preparation of a series of webinars which will share the learning generated from the evaluation of Changing Futures 1 with the sector, and internal work to support the design and delivery of the evaluation of Changing Futures 2.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much (a) CDEL and (b) RDEL funding is uncommitted in each year of the Spending Review period.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG manages its budgets in line with HM Treasury guidance. I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the answer given to UIN 22099, tabled on 28 August 2026, for further information on the department's budget management practices.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 22 June 2026 to Question 5340 on MHCLG: Darlington, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the ability of the staff assigned to the Darlington campus to attend the office; and what the expected office attendance rate is for (a) junior and (b) senior civil servants assigned to that office.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department keeps its workplace attendance arrangements under regular review and is satisfied that staff assigned to the Darlington campus have adequate access to office accommodation to support required attendance levels. Attendance expectations are applied alongside agreed workplace attendance exceptions where appropriate. Based on the most recent quarter, the attendance target for Darlington was 28%, reflecting the impact of approved exceptions, and actual attendance was 29%, exceeding the target for that period.
The Department's current workplace attendance expectations for Darlington are that Senior Civil Servants spend an average of 60% of their working time in the office, while junior colleagues are expected to spend an average of 40% of their working time in the office.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the OBR forecasts published in the answer of 29 June 2026, to Question 11413, on Council tax, table 4.8: CDEL spending by departments, if she will publish an updated budget line for the MHCLG CDDEL spending in each year in cash terms and real annual growth.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As set out in the answer of 14 July 2026 to Question 14926, departments have been asked to contribute 1p in every £1 of their capital budgets to fund this Government’s Defence Investment Plan.
Revisions to departmental capital budgets will be reported to Parliament through the usual estimates process.
The Local Government DEL budget does not include capital expenditure and therefore no Local Government CDEL allocation is held.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 14 July 2026, to Question 14926, on MHCLG: Public Expenditure, if she will publish a table showing the revised CLG and LG CDEL allocations in each year of the spending review.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As set out in the answer of 14 July 2026 to Question 14926, departments have been asked to contribute 1p in every £1 of their capital budgets to fund this Government’s Defence Investment Plan.
Revisions to departmental capital budgets will be reported to Parliament through the usual estimates process.
The Local Government DEL budget does not include capital expenditure and therefore no Local Government CDEL allocation is held.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the answer of 21 January 2025 to Question 23347 on INTERREG Programme, whether any financial corrections were issued by the European Commission or European Court of Auditors in relation to the 2014-20 EU INTERREG programmes.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department was responsible for managing the UK’s participation in nine 2014-2020 Interreg Programmes, which have now closed. My Department has not been notified of any financial correction applied by the European Commission or the European Court of Auditors.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many financial corrections were made in the final round of the European Regional Development Fund according to records held by her Department.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
A total of 4,573 financial corrections were applied across the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014-20 England Programme, with a cumulative value of £73,454,209.