Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring mortgage providers to reflect the EPC rating of properties in their mortgage rate offers to consumers.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The pricing of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders. Currently the market provides a range of products such as green mortgages that can offer reduced rates or cashback for borrowers where certain conditions are met.

Any borrower seeking one of these products should speak to a mortgage broker, who will be able to assist them in finding the best possible product for their circumstances.

As part of the Warm Homes Plan, Government is exploring options for working with lenders to further scale up and diversify the private green finance options available to homeowners to support low carbon heating and energy efficiency retrofit.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring students studying for a royal town planning institute course to complete a 12-month placement within a local planning authority as part of their accreditation.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government recognise the importance of town planning students getting the broadest range of knowledge and experience as they study, including an understanding of the vital work undertaken by local planning authorities. That is why the department funds the Local Government Association’s Pathways to Planning programme. This places non-planning graduates, from a variety of backgrounds and locations, into local planning authorities whilst also receiving a bursary for an RTPI fully accredited master’s course. Many universities offer a year out in industry which benefits students and readies them for work.

More broadly, the government has announced a £46 million package of investment into the planning system to support capacity and capability in local planning authorities, including through the recruitment and training of 300 graduate and apprentice planners and the development of skills needed to implement reforms and unlock housing delivery.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the guidance issued to local education authorities on funding schools for in-year (a) transfers of pupils and (b) growth in pupils on roll.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department has allocated £242 million in Growth and Falling Rolls funding to local authorities in 2024/25 through the dedicated schools grant, which local authorities can use to support schools managing significant growth in pupil numbers. We allocate this funding to local authorities based on the actual growth in pupil numbers they experienced the previous year.

The department publishes guidance on the operation of growth funding at a local level, which sets out mandatory minimum requirements for local authorities in the use of this funding. This guidance is reviewed each year. The guidance for 2024/25 is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2024-to-2025/growth-and-falling-rolls-fund-guidance-2024-to-2025.

The mobility factor in the schools national funding formula (NFF) also provides funding to local authorities to support schools with high levels of pupil mobility. This factor allocates funding to schools with a high proportion of pupils who have an entry date in the last three years which is not typical. In most cases this would be where a pupil’s first recorded appearance on the school’s roll was other than the October census.

In addition, the department publishes guidance for local authorities on the funding arrangements relating to pupils who are permanently excluded from one school and then move to another school. This guidance is within the Schools Funding Operational Guidance, which is also updated each year. The 2024/25 guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2024-to-2025/schools-operational-guide-2024-to-2025.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including information about school libraries in the school census return.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department has no current plans to collect any specific data about school libraries in the school census.

The school census is the department’s primary source of administrative data about pupils attending schools in England. We keep the content of all our data collections, including the school census, under review to ensure that the data we collect is necessary, feasible and minimises the data collection burden placed on the sector.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average (a) primary and (b) secondary school class size was in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England in each of the last five years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department publishes annual statistics on class sizes in state-funded schools in England here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics. The England averages for the most recent five years are available in the ‘Class size’ section of the publication. Comparable figures for local authorities can be found in files in the data catalogue or displayed via the interactive table tool. Figures for parliamentary constituencies can be calculated from the school level files listed under the heading ‘Additional supporting files’ for each annual publication. Data on parliamentary constituencies use boundaries as they were when the statistics were last published for January 2024. Statistics using new boundaries will be available in the next publication of the series in June 2025.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department allocated to (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department cannot provide comparable funding back to 2010 due to the changes in the funding system since that time. The scope of the per pupil funding before and after the 2018/19 financial year are not directly comparable. In particular, funding for the central services provided by local authorities was split out from the schools block funding in the 2018/19 financial year, and instead funded separately through the central school services block from that year onwards.

The department has therefore provided the links to the published dedicated schools grant (DSG) tables from the 2018/19 financial year to the 2024/25 financial year. In these tables we provide total allocations and average per pupil funding amounts, split by primary and secondary phase, for each local authority and at national level.

The department has also provided the link to the recently published schools national funding formula (NFF) allocations for the 2025/26 financial year. In these tables we provide total allocations and per pupil funding amounts for each local authority and at national level. These per pupil figures will be used to calculate final allocations for 2025/26 through the DSG in December, based on updated pupil numbers.

The department does not provide school funding figures at constituency level. The individual allocations that schools within Mid Cheshire constituency receive are determined, each year, by the local funding formula set by Cheshire local authority.

Links to the published DSG tables from 2018/19 onward are below.

The 2018/19 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.

The 2019/20 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2019-to-2020.

The 2020/21 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2020-to-2021.

The 2021/22 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2021-to-2022.

The 2022/23 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2022-to-2023.

The 2023/24 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2023-to-2024.

The 2024/25 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2024-to-2025.

The NFF table for the 2025/26 financial year: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2025-to-2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average per-pupil funding was that her Department allocated to (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England in each year since 2010.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department cannot provide comparable funding back to 2010 due to the changes in the funding system since that time. The scope of the per pupil funding before and after the 2018/19 financial year are not directly comparable. In particular, funding for the central services provided by local authorities was split out from the schools block funding in the 2018/19 financial year, and instead funded separately through the central school services block from that year onwards.

The department has therefore provided the links to the published dedicated schools grant (DSG) tables from the 2018/19 financial year to the 2024/25 financial year. In these tables we provide total allocations and average per pupil funding amounts, split by primary and secondary phase, for each local authority and at national level.

The department has also provided the link to the recently published schools national funding formula (NFF) allocations for the 2025/26 financial year. In these tables we provide total allocations and per pupil funding amounts for each local authority and at national level. These per pupil figures will be used to calculate final allocations for 2025/26 through the DSG in December, based on updated pupil numbers.

The department does not provide school funding figures at constituency level. The individual allocations that schools within Mid Cheshire constituency receive are determined, each year, by the local funding formula set by Cheshire local authority.

Links to the published DSG tables from 2018/19 onward are below.

The 2018/19 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.

The 2019/20 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2019-to-2020.

The 2020/21 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2020-to-2021.

The 2021/22 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2021-to-2022.

The 2022/23 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2022-to-2023.

The 2023/24 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2023-to-2024.

The 2024/25 financial year DSG: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2024-to-2025.

The NFF table for the 2025/26 financial year: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2025-to-2026.