Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (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 London Plan 2021 on the number of houses built in London.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Section 346 of the Greater London Authority (GLA) Act 1999 places a duty on the Mayor to monitor the implementation of the Mayor’s London Plan. The second Annual Monitoring Report under the 2021 Plan, was published in September 2025 and showed that housing completions reduced in 2022-23. You can find the Annual Monitoring Report published by the Greater London Authority here: Monitoring the London Plan | London City Hall.
The Government recognises that London housing delivery is below the level of housing need in London and below the annual target set out in the London Plan 2021. To address this, the Secretary of State and the Mayor of London announced a new package of support for housebuilding in London in October 2025. I refer the Noble Baroness to the Written Ministerial Statement published on 23 October 2025 (HLWS989).
The Mayor is currently working on a new London Plan, with consultation on a draft expected in summer 2026. The Government will work with the Mayor to ensure that the next London Plan is ambitious and aligned with our priorities set out nationally through the National Planning Policy Framework.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Housing on 5 February 2024 (HC8158), what proportion of the budget for social and affordable housing is spent on (1) Ukrainian and Afghan refugee and guests schemes, (2) asylum seekers, (3) migrant workers on the shortage occupation list, (4) dependents of such migrant workers, (5) workers on the health and social care visa scheme and (6) non-UK citizens.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There is not a single budget for social and affordable housing. Most of the income for social housing providers come from rent paid by tenants, some of whom have help from the welfare system to pay it. New social and affordable homes are typically funded by a mix of subsidy from government grant programmes, or through Section 106 agreements in planning permissions, combined with borrowing by landlords against future rental income.
Completed new social homes are allocated to new tenants by local authorities, unless agreed otherwise. Local authorities are responsible for their own allocation scheme for social housing within the framework of legislation.
Eligibility for social housing is tightly controlled. If a person’s visa means that they cannot access state benefits or local authority housing assistance, they are not eligible for an allocation of social housing. Asylum seekers and migrants in the UK on work or student visas are not eligible for social housing.
Data is available for all social housing lettings in England. This data does not include details of official refugee or immigration status, or route into the country. However, it does include details of nationality, based on the self-reported nationality of the lead tenant. The data shows that between April 2024 and March 2025:
These figures are publicly available (attached) in Social housing lettings in England, April 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Housing on 17 January 2024 (HL9067), how many full time equivalent staff currently work in the self-commissioned homes delivery unit in Homes England.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are currently three full time employees in the Self Commissioned Homes Unit of Homes England.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by the Minister for Housing on 17 January 2024 (HC9065 and HC9066), whether they will start collecting data about (1) the proportion of planning permissions for new homes granted to small and medium sized housebuilders in each year, and (2) the proportion of new homes built by small and medium sized housebuilders.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Our Department has no specific plans to start new collection of data on these topics, but as part of our ambitious plans to digitalise the planning system, we are committed to introducing a planning application data standard to standardise and openly publish detailed data on planning application submissions and decisions for all types of residential development across the country.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what resources they are making available to support training and resourcing for artificial intelligence and large language models in planning departments for the purpose of (1) assessing good design, and (2) boosting productivity in those departments and local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.
We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.
My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the research by Create Streets, AI Judging Architecture for Well-Being: Large Language Models Simulate Human Empathy and Predict Public Preference, published on 13 October, for the purpose of supporting the use of good design in the planning system.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.
We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.
My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (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 encourage the use of artificial intelligence by planning departments and local authorities to support good design.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.
We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.
My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their target for the New Homes Accelerator for each year of the current Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The New Homes Accelerator (NHA) is a collaboration between the government, Homes England, the Greater London Authority (GLA), local authorities, developers, and other key stakeholders. It aims to unblock and accelerate the delivery of housing developments that have for various reasons become delayed, or which are not progressing as quickly as they could be. The NHA is helping to progress large development sites across the country by providing site-specific support and also addressing system-wide constraints.
Since July 2024, the NHA has announced 16 sites for site-specific support, with combined capacity for c. 48,600 homes, that will benefit from government support. To date, through our engagement with statutory consultees and arms-length bodies, we have unblocked nearly 100,000 homes.
The programme is constantly exploring new issues and blockers to address, which will determine the NHA’s level of impact. The NHA continues to work with Homes England, the GLA and other partner bodies to expand the programme’s capacity and impact over this current Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their target for housing delivery in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes over this Parliament as set out in our Plan for Change. These will be high-quality, well-designed homes, supported by the necessary infrastructure, where people can thrive. In January, the Chancellor confirmed that the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor is a key economic priority for the country and we are working with local authorities across the region to help them do their part in planning for ambitious housing delivery.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what budget was allocated to the Office for Place during its existence, and what (1) budget, and (2) Civil Service headcount, they have allocated to the functions of oversight of design quality in new developments now that they have closed the Office for Place.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We want exemplary development to be the norm and not the exception – this is the focus of teams across the Department. MHCLG’s design and placemaking policy team is comprised of 13 civil servants, including five staff who were redeployed from the Office for Place. The team is working across the Department to embed good design within housing and planning policy, and we will be publishing updated national design guidance later this year.
An additional five staff from the Office for Place were redeployed onto housing delivery to support efforts to improve the quality of new development. We can confirm that all staff who were working directly on Office for Place activities were transferred to MHCLG or their home departments. The Office for Place annual report and accounts are available on gov.uk here.