Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations officials in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government have made to the Greater London Authority about the 35- per-cent affordable housing quota.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On 23 October the Housing Secretary and Mayor of London announced a package of targeted and temporary support to drive up housebuilding in London. This includes a new, time-limited planning route and consultation on the removal of some design restrictions which limit the density of development. For further detail, please see the Written Ministerial Statement made on 23 October 2025 (HCWS991).
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of removing the statutory requirement to consult local authorities as part of the pre-application stage for nationally significant infrastructure projects, and the impact of removing that statutory requirement on local authorities securing community benefit.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Replacing the statutory requirement to consult on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) will give applicants and local authorities greater flexibility to engage in a more proportionate way. The Government has designed its policy to ensure local authorities can continue to play an important role in the NSIP regime. Applicants will be required by law to notify local authorities of their schemes. Local authorities will also be able to continue to provide Local Impact Reports to the Examining Authority and the Secretary of State outlining the impacts of a scheme on their area. The Government has also committed to extending the power for local authorities to recover costs from applicants for their advice. A consultation seeking views on how to achieve this closed on 28 October. Community benefits are typically secured through legally binding development consent obligations (DC obligations), which remain enforceable regardless of changes to consultation requirements.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many local authorities will not be able to deliver a five-year housing land supply in their local plan following the decision to increase mandatory housing targets, and which local authorities will not be able to deliver that supply.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National Planning Policy Frameworks sets out that local authorities should identify and update annually a five-year housing land supply (5YHLS) of deliverable housing sites (with appropriate buffer) for decision making. We have restored this test to safeguard the delivery of homes.
While the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) may be aware of an authority’s 5YHLS position at the time of a specific appeal, this position is not static. It may change over time due to annual updates or as a result of subsequent planning appeal decisions. As such, my Department does not collect live data on the 5YHLS status of individual local planning authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to incentivise housing developers to speed up to allow local authorities to adopt new housing estates.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Lady to the answer given to question UIN 81305 on 24 October 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the difference between commissioners and envoys in the context of local government intervention.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Secretary of State may intervene under the Local Government Act 1999 where they are satisfied that a council is failing to meet its Best Value Duty to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement. Intervention typically involves directing the council to take specific actions to improve and appointing individuals to work with the council to support their improvement.
Commissioners have been appointed to seven councils to provide challenge and exercise specified council functions if necessary to accelerate improvement.
Ministerial Envoys have been appointed to two councils to provide support and guidance, helping them drive their own improvement, and generally do not have the ability to exercise council functions.
Some Ministerial Envoys hold powers in reserve to exercise council functions, which are intended to be used only as a last resort to ensure compliance with the Best Value Duty.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the decision to stop funding the Neighbourhood Planning Support Programme on the creation of new neighbourhood plans, and why that decision was taken.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Following the Spending Review, my Department has announced that it is unable to commission new neighbourhood planning support services for 2025 onwards.
Technical support which has already been awarded will continue to be provided but must be completed before the end of March 2026.
The government remains of the view that neighbourhood plans can play an important role in the planning system. Communities can continue to prepare neighbourhood plans where they consider that doing so is in their best interests.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of uncontracted and unsold affordable homes across England; and how many housebuilders have been supported since the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearance Service was launched in 2024.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government does not collect or publish data on uncontracted and unsold affordable homes in England.
The Homes England clearance service launched in December 2024 to help improve the functioning of the market for affordable housing, by supporting buyers and sellers to find each other more effectively - with developers able to share details of unsold section 106 affordable homes for registered providers and local authorities to search. Since its launch, as of March 2025, 411 organisations have registered. This includes:
The government calls on all developers with uncontracted Section 106 affordable homes, as well as registered providers and local planning authorities, to engage proactively with the service.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 24 June (HLWS735), what assessment they have made of the administrative and financial implications for councils that will be mandated to move from a committee model to a cabinet model.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
In the statement of 24 June, we set out the Government’s intention to bring forward primary legislation when Parliamentary time allows to ensure all local authorities in England operate an executive model of governance. If Parliament agrees this legislation, councils operating the committee system will have one year following commencement of the new legislation within which to change to the leader and cabinet model. Councils which are to be abolished under local government reorganisation in their area will be exempt. This timeline gives councils which need to make the change time to prepare.
Going forward, simplifying executive governance models across the sector, and preventing the establishment of new mayoral councils, will avoid further such costs arising to local taxpayers and will provide certainty to councils as to their governance arrangements as unbudgeted costs of responding to petitions and hosting referendums will be prevented, ultimately saving councils time and taxpayers money.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to their press release “Government backs SME builders to get Britain building” published on 28 May, whether councillors on local authorities will be able to refer tier A planning applications to a planning application committee for consideration.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Our proposals to introduce a national scheme of delegation through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill would be mandatory for local planning authorities as defined in the Bill.
As set out in the technical consultation on reform of planning committees published on 28 May 2025, all applications in Tier A would be delegated to planning officers.
However, Question 5 asks for views on whether there should be a mechanism to bring a Tier A application to committee in exceptional circumstances and, if so, what would those circumstances be and how would the mechanism operate.
Applications in Tier B would be presumed to be delegated unless the chief planning officer (or equivalent officer in local planning authorities without a chief planning officer) and Chair of Committee agree it should go to Committee based on a gateway test.
The consultation is open for views until 23 July 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their plans for a national scheme of delegation as referenced in documents accompanying the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will consist of guidance to local authorities or whether local authorities will be required to follow the scheme.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Our proposals to introduce a national scheme of delegation through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill would be mandatory for local planning authorities as defined in the Bill.
As set out in the technical consultation on reform of planning committees published on 28 May 2025, all applications in Tier A would be delegated to planning officers.
However, Question 5 asks for views on whether there should be a mechanism to bring a Tier A application to committee in exceptional circumstances and, if so, what would those circumstances be and how would the mechanism operate.
Applications in Tier B would be presumed to be delegated unless the chief planning officer (or equivalent officer in local planning authorities without a chief planning officer) and Chair of Committee agree it should go to Committee based on a gateway test.
The consultation is open for views until 23 July 2025.