Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 7 September (HL Deb col 506), what the cost of local government reorganisation has been so far to (1) central government, and (2) local authorities.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government provided a total of £7.6m in 25/26 to support the 21 areas undergoing local government reorganisation to develop proposals.

The Government also paid out £1.8m in August 2026 to Surrey, with new councils taking on responsibilities from April 2027. This was part of the committed £63 million capacity funding to councils undergoing reorganisation.

As part of the Review announced on 7 September, the Government will consider the approach to costs and funding given that areas will have committed some resources to reorganisation.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 6 August (HL2668), what public interest reason there is for not publishing the presentations received from councils, elected representatives, and political groups regarding the planned cancellation of the May 2026 local elections.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

A summary of the representations received was published here. The Government currently has no plans to publish the individual representations received.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 13 July (HL1406), whether they intend to publish the technical specification of the data that is requested from local housing authorities on local authority housing waiting lists via continuous recording of lettings by local authorities data; and whether they have reviewed the data collection in this regard given its accredited official statistics status of the social housing lettings in England publication.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Data on the number of households on the housing register (waiting lists) is collected as a snapshot at 31 March each year via the Local Authority Housing Statistics (LAHS). While commentary on the findings is included in the Social Housing Lettings statistical release, no data on housing registers is collected via the Continuous Recordings of Social Housing Lettings.

The latest guidance for the LAHS is published on gov.uk here. The LAHS data is quality assured by my department’s statisticians, as per the publication’s technical notes and in line with Code of Practice for statistics. The latest available are the 2024-25 technical notes which can be found on gov.uk here.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 2 September (HL Deb col 118), what estimate they have made of the total value of the donations under investigation by the Electoral Commission in the years 2023–24, 2024–25 and 2025–26.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Electoral Commission is operationally independent of Government and is responsible for regulating political finance and conducting investigations into potential breaches of the political finance framework.

In line with its Enforcement Policy, it may open an investigation where it has reasonable grounds to suspect an offence or other breach of the rules. Information on recently closed investigations is published by the Commission on its website. This information does not always include the value of the donation under investigation.

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Found: We look forward to working with our minister, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, as we engage with developers

Found: We look forward to working with our minister, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, as we engage with developers

Found: Letter dated 21/09/2026 from Baroness Taylor of Stevenage to Baroness Thornhill regarding the chronology

Found: Letter dated 18/09/2026 from Baroness Taylor of Stevenage to Baroness Coffey, Baroness Parminter of Godalming

Found: Letter dated 23/09/2026 from Baroness Taylor of Stevenage to Lord Jamieson regarding an oral question