Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision to give licensing authorities the power to issue fixed-penalty notices to people collecting for (1) charities, (2) community interest companies, and (3) other unlicensed collectors without the required street-collection licence.
Answered by Baroness Mackenzie of Sherwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
In the Protecting What Matters action plan, the Government committed to increase fines and strengthen local authorities’ enforcement powers to tackle unlicensed street fundraising. These changes require primary legislation, which is subject to the availability of parliamentary time. The Government is working on the development of these powers in collaboration with a range of stakeholders.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to (1) apply and (2) enforce the overnight levy to short term lets and what steps they plan to take, if any, to support data-sharing between relevant departments to facilitate this approach.
Answered by Baroness Blake of Leeds - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The visitor levy will apply to short-term, commercially let overnight accommodation, including short term lets. Local leaders will decide whether a levy is the right choice for their area and, if so, how revenue should be invested to make their regions better for people to visit and enjoy. Options for the administration of the visitor levy and possible data sharing arrangements are being considered and a decision will be made in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of using section 228 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 to enable them to introduce nightly tracking data collection on short term lets as part of the proposed short-term let registration scheme.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
During the design phase of the registration scheme, it was determined that the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act does not contain the specific powers required to mandate the sharing of 'number of nights' data for the enforcement of other regulations. This data is not currently intended to be collected as part of the short-term lets registration scheme. DCMS is assessing alternative legislative vehicles (such as a Private Members' Bill on data sharing) to support local authorities in enforcing other regulations.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (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 whether eviction for anti-social behaviour is a realistic prospect under proceedings brought by public landlords; and whether social tenants who become victims of anti-social behaviour are adequately protected by the law.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer given on 16 July 2026 to Question UIN HL1654 (attached) on powers available to social housing landlords to tackle anti-social behaviour.
The police, local authorities and social landlords may already apply for a Civil Injunction under Section 1 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to prevent behaviour that is causing housing-related nuisance and annoyance.
Through our Crime and Policing Act, which achieved Royal Assent in April, we are making our streets and neighbourhoods safer by strengthening the powers available to the police and other agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour. Our new Respect Orders, which social landlords will be able to use where the ASB directly or indirectly relates to or affects its housing management functions, will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless adult ASB offenders. Respect Orders will be in force from 26 October.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that local authorities and agencies are sufficiently resourced to tackle those who engage in repeated anti-social behaviour and shoplifting; and what steps they are taking to ensure that those who do so cannot continue to engage in those activities without consequence.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a priority for this Government and a key commitment in the Government’s Plan for Change.
The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 already gives social landlords, the police and local authorities a range of powers and tools to tackle anti-social and criminal behaviour, which are deliberately broad in nature to enable flexibility and local discretion in their use.
The Government is further strengthening powers available to police and other agencies through the Crime and Policing Act. The introduction of Respect Orders, a preventative civil order to address sustained and/ or highly disruptive ASB, will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless adult ASB offenders and will be able to prohibit a wide range of behaviours.
We are also increasing the upper limit for fixed penalty notices for breaches of Community Protection Notices and Public Space Protection Orders from £100 to £500, increasing the time a dispersal direction can be implemented for from 48 to 72 hours and giving registered social housing providers the power to issue closure notice.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment, if any, they have made of the impact of the introduction of a land value tax on (1) residents, (2) the local economy, and (3) house prices, in central London.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The current UK property taxes are an important source of revenue for both the Exchequer and Local Authorities. They raise over £75 billion each year to help pay for essential public services. Any reforms to the property tax system would need to carefully consider positive or negative implications for the Exchequer, Local Government finances, taxpayers and the wider economy. The government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to give councils more control over the funds generated from business rates from their respective areas.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Local Authorities already retain a significant share of business rates income. At Autumn Budget 2025, the government extended existing 100% business rates retention pilots in Cornwall, the West of England, and Liverpool City Region for a further three years, to 2028-29. The government is also developing further proposals for fiscal devolution for Mayoral Strategic Authorities. Further details will be set out through the fiscal devolution roadmap at Autumn Budget 2026.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing a hybrid business rate which combines a reduced property business rate with a modest digital business rate levied on online sales using the existing VAT system.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government has already started reforming the Business Rates system. At Budget, the government introduced new permanently lower multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.
The government is paying for this through a high-value multiplier on the top one per cent of most expensive properties. This includes many large distribution warehouses, such as those used by online giants. The high-value multiplier is 33 per cent more than the multiplier for small RHL properties.
This is in addition to the support package, worth £4.3 billion, that the government introduced at Budget to protect ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills. As a result, over half of ratepayers see no bill increases in 2026/27, including 23 per cent whose bills go down
In addition, the government has announced that pubs, clubs and live music venues will benefit from 20% relief from April 2027 on top of the 15% relief and 2-year real-terms freeze in bills announced earlier this year.
Regarding a tax levied on online sales, while tax policy is kept under review, evidence received from a consultation in spring 2022 under the previous Government on the case for an Online Sales Tax suggested that such a tax would have been extremely complex to design and implement and create undue administrative burden for businesses. This included challenges of defining the boundaries between online and in-store retail, including ‘Click and Collect’ orders. Stakeholders also expected it would lead to higher prices for consumers.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 8 May 2025 (HL6763), what progress they have made in tackling money laundering through cash-based high street businesses such as American candy stores and souvenir shops; whether they plan to legislate to introduce new powers for (1) the National Crime Agency, (2) local authorities, or (3) HMRC, to tackle such activities; and whether they will grant additional financial resource to enable effective enforcement.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling high street criminality is a priority for this Government. That is why, on 19 May, the Government announced a £30 million crackdown targeting cash intensive business such as candy stores and souvenir shops, over three years. This includes dedicated funding for an enhanced law enforcement response supporting the National Crime Agency, HMRC, Trading Standards and others, and the creation of a new cross-government High Street Organised Crime Unit to tackle this threat. The Unit will identify what more is needed – from stronger powers to better coordination – to respond to this criminal activity and stop it from happening in the first place.
As part of the Government’s work on this issue, the Government is currently consulting on extending the duration of Closure Orders to 12 months, to ensure that criminal businesses can be shut down for longer where appropriate.
Further details about the £30 million package can be found here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-05-19/HCWS32
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of restricting, or banning, repetitive protest marches in order to prevent undue restriction on the activities of residents, businesses, and visitors.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to upholding the right to lawful protest while ensuring the public are protected from serious disruption or harm.
Under Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 police have the power to impose conditions on protests where necessary. Under Section 13 of the Act, where a chief officer assesses that conditions will not be sufficient to prevent serious public disorder, they can seek an order prohibiting for a period not exceeding 3 months all public processions in that area. The decision to prohibit processions under Section 13 is exceptional and must be agreed by the Home Secretary.
In the Crime and Policing Act 2026, Section 165 requires police to consider the cumulative impact of repeated protests when assessing serious disruption to the life of the community. This may result in conditions being imposed on the timing or route of recurring protests to reduce repeated disruption to residents, businesses and visitors. This provision came into force on 29 June.
Lord Macdonald of River Glaven KC led a review of public order and hate crime legislation which considered if existing powers appropriately balance protecting public safety and upholding the right to protest. The review was submitted to the Home Secretary at the end of May and she will review the report in detail before setting out the Government’s formal response and publishing the report.