Ben Goldsborough

Information on specific technologies such as heat pumps used across the Government estate is not held centrally. Across the office estate managed by Cabinet Office’s Government Property Agency, there are 2 buildings which are heated in part by heat pumps.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) works closely with local authorities and investment partners to monitor and support the impact of foreign direct investment in the South Norfolk constituency.

Foreign direct investment in the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area resulted in 14 FDI projects and the creation of 516 new jobs in 2023-24, including both single-site and multi-site projects. While this area covers South Norfolk, specific statistics for the parliamentary constituency are not published due to confidentiality concerns.

DBT provides a wide-ranging package of export support for food and drink businesses in Norfolk and across the whole of the UK. This includes educational support to upskill food producers via our Export Academy and one to one support from International Trade Advisors and our extensive overseas network, with trade advisors promoting UK food in over 100 countries. Overseas we deliver a comprehensive programme of trade shows, trade missions and events to connect exporters with buyer and new market opportunities. Our UK Export Finance agency helps companies access export finance, with a dedicated finance manager covering Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The Low Pay Commission publishes a report that provides a coverage of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) each year, shortly before the rates are updated in April. The report provides a Local Authority and Regional breakdown of NMW and NLW coverage, including those paid below or within 5p of the applicable rate. Data on those who are within 50p of the rates is not provided as part of the report.

In total, over 3 million workers are expected to receive a pay rise due to increases to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage in April 2025.

We will also publish an Impact Assessment alongside the legislation that implements the increase to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage. The Impact Assessment will provide a regional and country breakdown on the number of workers benefitting from an increase.

The Department for Business and Trade provides a comprehensive package of support to increase exports, including the Export Support Service, UK Export Finance and a network of trade advisers across the UK and overseas. The department remains committed to breaking down market access barriers affecting the horticultural industry, and to opening up new markets for horticultural exports through trade agreements.

The latest statistics for the number of households in fuel poverty in 2022 in administrative areas and parliamentary constituencies in England can be found in the published sub-regional fuel poverty statistics, in Tables 2 and 4: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics

For England and Wales, the Planning Act 2008 sets out the consultation requirements that developers of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), including electricity transmission projects, are required to follow. In April 2024, new guidance was published for NSIPs which sets out the consultation milestone that requires developers to demonstrate that they have consulted adequately with communities. The developer’s statutory consultation needs to show compliance with the energy National Policy Statements, including in relation to construction. In Scotland, the Scottish Government’s good practice guidance sets out the expectations and requirements for consultation.

The previous government’s response to the consultation on community benefits for transmission network infrastructure was published in November 2023. This document outlines that, when combined with bill discounts and additional benefits for underground cables and substations, these levels of wider benefits could lead to benefits to society with an estimated value between £1.5bn - £7.8bn if improved acceptability reduces delays to network build. These benefits come from reduced network constraint costs and emissions savings.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/community-benefits-for-electricity-transmission-network-infrastructure

It is important for this Government that where communities host clean energy infrastructure, they should directly benefit from it. We are currently considering how to ensure communities benefit from living near new onshore electricity transmission infrastructure.

It is important for this Government that where communities host clean energy infrastructure, they should directly benefit from it. We are currently considering how to ensure communities benefit from living near new onshore electricity transmission infrastructure.

In 2021/22, UKRI invested £478 million in East Anglia.

For example, Innovate UK’s Launchpad programme is allocating up to £7.5 million to help SMEs in the East of England agri-tech and food technology cluster to grow. Norfolk County Council is one of the Launchpad’s partners.

Other UKRI investments in the region include the Next Generation Infrastructure programme, delivered jointly by the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory; and the Earlham Institute-coordinated BioFAIR, which will establish a transformative digital research infrastructure for life sciences.

This Government recognises the transformative role that youth services play in young people’s lives. The detail and scale of the funding commitments included in this Government's National Youth Strategy will be shaped by engagement with young people and the youth sector, and will be dependent on Spending Review decisions.

Over £120,000 has been invested in South Norfolk and an additional £1.4 million in the wider Norfolk County through the Youth Investment Fund.

The Secretary of State’s Written Statement, of 15 May 2025, sets out the Department’s 2025/26 funding for youth programmes - an investment of over £145 million - to provide stability to the youth sector and ensure young people can continue to access opportunities, as we transition to the new National Youth Strategy.

The package of funding includes £79.4 million of reprofiled Youth Investment Fund Phase 2 to ensure the successful delivery of projects scheduled for completion in 2025/26. This includes the pipeline of 25 Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) projects.

This Government recognises the transformative role that youth services play in young people’s lives. The detail and scale of the funding commitments included in this Government's National Youth Strategy will be shaped by engagement with young people and the youth sector, and will be dependent on Spending Review decisions.

Over £120,000 has been invested in South Norfolk and an additional £1.4 million in the wider Norfolk County through the Youth Investment Fund.

The Secretary of State’s Written Statement, of 15 May 2025, sets out the Department’s 2025/26 funding for youth programmes - an investment of over £145 million - to provide stability to the youth sector and ensure young people can continue to access opportunities, as we transition to the new National Youth Strategy.

The package of funding includes £79.4 million of reprofiled Youth Investment Fund Phase 2 to ensure the successful delivery of projects scheduled for completion in 2025/26. This includes the pipeline of 25 Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) projects.

As of 2023/24, a total of £826 million has been allocated from the Dormant Assets Scheme to England, with DCMS responsible for this portion of funding. This is broken down by year as follows: 2011/12: £39.9 million; 2012/13: £41.6 million; 2013/14: £70 million; 2014/15: £41.1 million; 2015/16: £30.7 million; 2016/17: £79.1 million; 2017/18: £128 million; 2018/19: £59.8 million; 2019/20: £57.6 million; 2020/21: £75.6 million; 2021/22: £44.8 million; 2022/23: £77.9 million; and 2023/24: £79.9 million.

To date, this has been distributed by four independent, expert organisations set up with the explicit purpose of delivering dormant assets funding: Youth Futures Foundation, Fair4All Finance, Better Society Capital, and Access: The Foundation for Social Investment. Dormant assets funding seeks to address entrenched societal challenges through long-term, innovative programmes at a national scale, and is not allocated on a regional basis.

Examples of how dormant assets funding has benefited East Anglia and Norfolk include Fair4All Finance investing £88,240 in community finance organisations in Norwich to support people in vulnerable circumstances by improving their access to fair and affordable financial products and services. Additionally, Asperger East Anglia received a £35,000 loan from Access’s Growth Fund, funded by dormant assets.

As the entitlements are expanded, it is vitally important that they remain accessible and affordable for families.

Providers can ask parents to pay for consumables. However, in line with a recent High Court judgment, charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing a funded place.

The department publishes data on the proportion of income providers get from parent-paid fees, entitlement funding and other income in our annual provider finances report. The most recent report is for 2023 and is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673b14b8fc572967fe66a92e/Providers__finances_Evidence_from_the_2023_Survey_of_Childcare_and_Early_Years_Providers.pdf.

The department is engaging with stakeholders on revising the school food standards, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.

Schools are responsible for their school meals service and how and where they choose to buy their produce. Schools can voluntarily follow the government's buying standards.

Additionally, The National Procurement Policy Statement, published in February 2025, underscores the government's commitment to increasing the procurement of food that meets higher environmental standards and upholding ethical sourcing practises across public sector contracts, which we believe our high-quality British producers are well-placed to meet.

Alongside this, the government’s wider food strategy will create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system, boosting our food security, improving our health, ensuring economic growth, and delivering environmental sustainability.

As with all aspects of the school food standards review, we will consider our approaches to procurement of locally grown produce.

The hourly funding rate for the early years entitlements varies to reflect the costs of delivering provision to different ages. The department knows, from listening to the sector and from our own regular research, that the cost of delivery is highest for younger children due to tighter staffing ratios and, consequently, higher staff costs, as staffing makes up the most significant proportion of provider costs.

Each local authority receives an hourly rate for each entitlement, determined by the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF). The EYNFF targets funding to local authorities where it is needed most, reflecting the relative needs of the children and costs of delivering provision in that area. Local authorities are responsible for setting individual provider funding rates in consultation with their providers and schools forum, and fund providers using their own local funding formula.

Further details of how early years entitlements funding is distributed, including a detailed methodology document on the EYNFF and operational guidance, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2025-to-2026.

The department meets with Ministers and officials from across the UK and other nations to discuss developments, approaches and best practice in the provision of early education and childcare. International evidence, such as the OECD’s Education at a Glance publication, is used to identify high performing and innovative early years systems and inform policy development. England is a member of the British-Irish Council, in which we actively engage to collaborate on a wide range of education matters, including early education and childcare across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

It is our ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

The 2024 Department for Education Provider Survey shows that there were 322,000 registered places at school-based nurseries in 2024.

School-based nurseries are one part of this country's childcare and early years market.

Nurseries located on a school site can operate under different delivery models, such as nursery classes run by the school, a private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nursery leasing space on a school’s premises or operating on the school’s behalf, or provision run by a childminder, or group of childminders, leasing space on a school premises.

School-based nurseries are more likely to be led by graduate qualified staff, which is associated with higher quality provision for children. Additionally, the benefits of school-based nursery provision, including transition to school, were highlighted by many teachers working in schools with a nursery in the Kindred Squared school readiness report.

As of 1 August, strong demand for the Government’s £150 million Capital Grant offer means that all available funds for this round have now been allocated.

We plan to make further improvements to the offer for future rounds. We expect to open a new round for farmers to secure more funding during 2026. Other Countryside Stewardship capital grants which remain open for applications now are Woodland Tree Health grants, Capital grant plans, woodland management plans, Protection and Infrastructure grants and Higher Tier capital grants.

This Government will continue to work with regulators to hold water companies to account on poor performance and drive improvements which benefit customers and the environment. The Water (Special Measures) Act delivers on our manifesto commitment to put water companies under special measures by strengthening regulation to clean up our waters.

Through water resource management plans and regional water resources plans we are addressing unsustainable abstraction and protecting the environment from climate change over the next 25 years and beyond. These plans include action to protect England’s precious and unique chalk stream habitats, reducing abstraction by nearly 3 billion litres a day by 2050.

Nutrient pollution from wastewater is one of the key pressures affecting our rivers, lakes, and seas. There is a legally binding target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80% by 2038 against a 2020 baseline. We will require water companies to upgrade 440 wastewater treatment works by 2030, to meet stricter phosphorus permit limits, reducing harmful nutrient pollution from treated wastewater. In Price Review 2024 final determinations, Ofwat has allowed £4.795bn of investment to improve water quality by reducing phosphorus pollution in England and Wales.

Furthermore, as part of the record £11bn of investment to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows in England and Wales during Price Review 2024, with 75% of such High Priority Sites needing to be improved by 2035 and the rest by 2045. By 2050, we expect no storm overflow spill to cause any adverse ecological harm and spill no more than 10 times per year.

The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.

We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market.

There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.

The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.

We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market.

There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.

The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.

We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market.

There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.