Lord Birt

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter below from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Lord Birt

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

4 September 2025

Dear Lord Birt,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 23 July (HL9313), whether the reasons as to why London’s economy is 28.5 per cent more productive on average than the rest of the United Kingdom can be identified (HL9939).

London is home to a high proportion of knowledge-intensive sectors such as financial services, insurance, and professional, scientific, and technical industries, all of which drive higher levels of productivity. There is evidence that London, like other major cities, benefits from an agglomeration effect, whereby the close proximity of a diverse mix of businesses, highly skilled labour, and major institutions fuels knowledge spillovers, collaboration, and innovation which enhance overall economic output. 1

London-based firms also consistently outperform their regional peers, even within the same industries, with firms benefitting from access to a large highly skilled labour market and a well-developed infrastructure and also from high competition between firms driving business dynamism.

This same pattern is found globally, with the largest cities typically having higher productivity levels compared with other areas due to these agglomeration impacts.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

1 https://whatworksgrowth.org/insights/understanding-agglomeration/

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

Emma Rourke | Acting National Statistician

The Lord Birt

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

16 July 2025

Dear Lord Birt,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how the productivity of London’s economy compares with the UK’s economy as a whole (HL9313).

According to our latest regional labour productivity publication for 2023, titled Regional and subregional labour productivity, UK: 2023[1], London remains by far the most productive region in the UK. The headline measure, output per hour worked, shows that London’s productivity was 28.5% higher than the UK average in 2023.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/productivitymeasures/bulletins/regionalandsubregionallabourproductivityuk/2023

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was established to consider whether important institutions — including the Anglican Church — had taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse. The Inquiry published a report, entitled “The Anglican Church - Safeguarding in the Church of England and the Church of Wales”. The report, published in October 2020, is available on the Inquiry’s website, alongside the response to its recommendations from the Church of England and the Church of Wales. The response by the Church of England was considered by the House of Bishops on 19 October 2020 and a unanimous vote supported and accepted all of the Inquiry’s recommendations, particularly the two most significant themes arising from the report; firstly, proper redress for victims and survivors, and secondly, greater independence in safeguarding decision making.

The Chair of the Inquiry, Professor Alexis Jay, subsequently conducted an independent review, on behalf of the Church of England, into the future of Church Safeguarding, which was published in February 2024. The Government does not plan to establish a further inquiry.

The Prime Minister is committed to restoring confidence in government and ensuring ministers are held to the highest standards. Under his leadership, this Government will ensure the highest standards of integrity and honesty. When meeting with his new Cabinet for the first time, the Prime Minister was clear about the standards he expects of them and their ministerial teams.

He will issue a Ministerial Code in due course which will set out the standards of behaviour expected of ministers. As public office holders, ministers are also bound by the Nolan Principles. One such principle that applies is leadership, under which ministers are required to “treat others with respect”.

Ministers' special advisers are contractually required to abide by the standards set out in the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, which includes the requirement to “establish mutual relationships of confidence and trust” with civil servants.

The Government is currently focused on looking forwards and resetting the relationship with our European friends. As such the Prime Minister hosted 45 leaders from across Europe to the European Political Community on Thursday 18 July, to enhance cooperation on European security and other shared challenges the continent faces. Publicly available research on the interactions between the UK-EU relationship and the UK economy is widely accessible.

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To support this, up to £3.8 billion is being invested through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme over the financial years 2020/21 to 2027/28 to provide grants for public sector bodies in England to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures.

A consultation was held under the previous administration on whether a transitional, or ‘bridging’, support should be provided for large-scale biomass generators when their current subsidies end. No decision has been taken on proposed support. Any decision will be subject to robust analysis and the Government is considering a range of factors to inform its decision.

The Government only supports sustainable biomass and generators only receive subsidies for biomass that complies with our sustainability criteria. The 2023 Biomass Strategy contained a commitment to consult on developing and implementing a cross-sector sustainability framework to enable greater consistency across sectors. Next steps on this will be announced in due course.

CCUS will be vital to this government’s commitment to create good jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands, ensuring a just transition for the industries based in the North Sea, and accelerating towards Net Zero.

The historic investment we recently announced in Carbon Capture and Storage in the North-West and North-East is just the start, representing a vote of confidence in this technology and burgeoning industry. We have been engaging with the Track-1 and Track-2 clusters to understand their deployment and expansion plans, and we will have more to say on future projects in the coming months.

Ofgem published their conclusions on an investigation into Drax’s compliance with sustainability standards on 29 August 2024. The investigation found that whilst Drax complied with the standards, it failed to report data accurately. Government expects full compliance with all regulatory obligations and the size of Drax’s redress payment, at £25 million, underscores the robustness of the regulatory system.

The 2023 Biomass Strategy contained a commitment to consult on developing and implementing a cross-sector sustainability framework to enable greater consistency across sectors. Next steps on this will be announced in due course.

Following the conclusion of Ofgem’s investigation, the Government is considering the findings.

As outlined by groups including the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies such as Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technologies can play a role in supporting net zero targets. No decisions on potential future support for this site have been made at this time.

The Government is committed to ensuring low carbon heating is affordable. We are doing this by encouraging heat pump efficiency through innovation, installer training and product standards. We are also keen to support the most efficient ways of bringing down running costs of low-carbon alternatives.

The Warm Homes Plan will offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation, low carbon heating and other home improvements. We will be focused on making it economically worthwhile for people to transition to clean sources of heating. We will announce further policy detail in due course.

The Government sets five-yearly carbon budgets which outline our pathway to net zero. To identify the optimum route, Government considers a range of factors including technical potential, impacts on growth, wider costs and benefits, as well as advice from our independent advisory body, the Climate Change Committee. We will publish an updated Carbon Budget Delivery Plan in Spring 2025 and set the Carbon Budget 7 target by June 2026, in line with statutory duties.

Heat pumps will play a pivotal role in the decarbonisation of heat in homes, and the Government is committed to supporting their adoption.

Support is available to help households to upgrade to a heat pump, through schemes like the Boiler Upgrade Scheme which provides grants of £7,500 towards the cost of installation. Current schemes, like the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and the Home Upgrade Grant, also remain in place to provide financial support for installations in low-income households and social housing.

Our Warm Homes Plan will set out further Government support for investment in insulation and low-carbon heating, with the goal of upgrading five million homes over this Parliament. We will announce more details in due course.

Natural England has the statutory responsibility for identifying areas for new or extended National Landscape designations.

Given the pressures on public finances, Defra has had to make difficult decisions about funding. It was not affordable to continue Defra funding to Natural England to continue the new National Landscapes designations programme in 25/26. As such, Natural England have made the decision to stop work on some of the planned programme. Other elements of the programme, including the Surrey Hills boundary review and potential new National Landscape in the Yorkshire Wolds, are being maintained and progressed as the work was further advanced.

Defra is prioritising supporting our existing Protected Landscapes to ensure they remain a source of national pride. We are committed to empower them to become greener, wilder and more accessible.

Defra is aware that Natural England, in light of pressure on its budgets, has taken the hard decision to stop work on the Chilterns boundary review and consideration of the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge for designation as a National Landscape. It had yet to reach the stage of sharing proposed ‘candidate areas’ publicly and as a result of having to stop the project there is no longer a planned timeline for the public consultation. Natural England is in contact with the affected partners to work through the implications of this decision over the coming weeks. We continue to recognise the value landscape designations bring to people and nature and remain committed to maximising that value over the long term.

Ofwat independently scrutinises water company plans as part of the price review process to ensure companies meet their statutory obligations and ensure value for money for consumers.

Ofwat published its final determinations for Price Review 2024 (PR24) on 19 December, which sets company expenditure and customer bills for 2025-2030. This will deliver substantial and enduring improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector. This investment will contribute to delivery of key elements of the Government’s Plan for Change and Mission Objectives for this Parliament.

We have also overseen the launch of an Independent Commission into the water sector and its regulation, in what is expected to form the largest review of the industry since privatisation. The Independent Commission will review infrastructure resilience including enforcement of existing infrastructure requirements, infrastructure resilience standards and the setting of base expenditure allowances within the price review process.

The Environment Agency received three self-reported pollution incidents from United Utilities relating to operations at Glebe Road Pumping Station, Windermere. These were reported on 26 January, 29 February and 21 May 2024.

The Environment Agency has launched an investigation into the sewage discharges at this Pumping Station and is examining further evidence received from the company. If United Utilities is found to be in breach of an environmental permit, the Environment Agency will take the appropriate enforcement action up to and including a criminal prosecution.

The Environment Agency (EA) is carrying out an investigation into United Utilities’ (UU) discharges into Lake Windermere.

The investigation concerns three separate incidents that were self-reported by UU. One of these incidents was a retrospective report of pollution.

Where a breach of a UU permit has occurred, the EA will take the appropriate enforcement action in accordance with its enforcement and sanctions policy.

Companies are being held to strict requirements by the regulators, demanding significantly higher spend on environmental enhancement than in the previous price review.

On 11 July, the Secretary of State met with water company bosses to set out our expectations for the sector, just six days after my Cabinet appointment. Alongside this, this Government announced a series of initial steps towards ending the crisis in the water sector.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill will give Ofwat further powers to hold water companies to account where they do not deliver for customers and the environment.

This Bill is just the start of the fundamental and much broader transformation that this Government will lead for the water industry.

The Government will launch a review to shape further legislation that will fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.