Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding her Department has allocated to reducing the number of rail replacement services required on Thameslink services in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department requires its train operators to use reasonable endeavours to provide alternative means of transport where they cannot provide their planned train service. Rail replacement bus services are typically provided when parts of the railway are closed for planned maintenance and upgrade work or unplanned maintenance and repair work. The Department does not specifically allocate funding for the purpose of reducing the number of rail replacement services.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Persons with Reduced Mobility National Technical Specification Notice, published in December 2017, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of Appendix B.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We recently published the Accessibility National Technical Specification Notice (NTSN), replacing the Persons with Reduced Mobility NTSN. The Accessibility NTSN preserves many specifications inherited from EU law while updating ones that did not have a clear case for change. This update was published following an extensive review and public consultation facilitated by the Rail Safety and Standards Board.
During our review and public consultation, we did not receive any feedback on the adequacy of Annex B. However, we keep all NTSN content under regular review and will consider any further feedback as part of our continuing monitoring.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will take steps to provide provide financial support for communities seeking to bring disused pubs back into use.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important role pubs play on our high streets and in community spaces and we want to see them thrive.
That is why we have funded a wide range of community assets, including pubs, through the Community Ownership Fund. On 23 December 2024, this Government announced the outcome of Round 4 of the Community Ownership Fund, the largest ever round to date which approved funds for 6 community pub projects.
Through The Hospitality Support Scheme, we are working with Pub is the Hub and providing funds to help community pubs adapt to changing local needs, ensuring these vital social hubs continue delivering for their communities.
As part of the English Devolution Bill, the Government will legislate to introduce a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets, such as empty shops, pubs and community spaces. This will empower local people to bring community spaces back into community ownership and end the blight of empty premises on our high streets. More details will be announced in due course.
In addition, we will soon be publishing our Small Business Strategy, which will announce further measures to support small businesses in the pub and hospitality sector which will help revitalise high streets.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 estimate of the amount of capital funding that public sector bodies will spend on (a) building and (b) purchasing houses between July 2024 and July 2029.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authority capital expenditure and financing estimates for the current financial year can be found on gov.uk here.
At the Spending Review, we announced £39 billion for a successor to the Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 2 July (HCWS771).
The government is also providing £950 million capital for the fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund - the largest round of the fund to date – to deliver up to 5,000 homes.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of UK hospitality's press release entitled, One third of hospitality businesses now operating at a loss, published 2 June 2025.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to supporting the hospitality sector. That is why we have launched a licensing taskforce to make recommendations to cut red tape and remove barriers to business growth that exist within the UK’s licensing framework. The industry-led Taskforce has shared its findings with the Government, and we aim to update publicly by the summer.
The Government is also creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century. From April 2026, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values below £500,000. This permanent tax cut will ensure that the hospitality sector benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
The rates for these new business rate multipliers will be set at Budget 2025 so that the Government can take into account the upcoming revaluation outcomes as well as the economic and fiscal context.
We also recognise that RHL businesses will need support during the interim period for 2025/26, and so we are providing 40 per cent relief to RHL properties up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business. Without any government intervention, RHL relief would have ended entirely in April 2025, creating a cliff-edge for businesses.