Cameron Thomas

Sustainability of local journalism is an area of particular concern for this Government, across the country and in Gloucestershire and other rural areas.

We are developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of this vital sector. Our vision is a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level, reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, and helping to foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story.

We are working across Government and with other stakeholders as the Strategy develops and will announce further details in due course.

The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an EHC plan. EHC plans must be issued within twenty weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need. In 2023, there were 138,200 initial requests for an EHC plan and 90,500 assessments took place. 50.3% of new EHC plans in 2023 were issued within twenty weeks.

The department knows that local authorities have seen an increase in the number of assessment requests and that more needs to be done to ensure that local areas deliver effective and timely services. This includes better communication with schools and families.

The department continues to monitor and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plan timeliness. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we help the local authority to identify the barriers and put in place an effective recovery plan. This includes, where needed, securing specialist special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) adviser support to help identify the barriers to EHC plan process timeliness and put in place practical plans for recovery.

A Joint Area SEND inspection was carried out by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission between 11 to 15 December 2023 in Gloucestershire. Inspectors concluded the local area partnership’s arrangements led to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people and identified a number of recommendations including increasing timeliness and quality of EHC plans. Leaders in the local area have provided an improvement plan and an updated SEND strategic plan.

Officials and SEND advisors from both the department and NHS England meet regularly with Gloucestershire local area leaders from the local authority and integrated care board, parent representatives, education leaders and other partners to monitor progress against their improvement plan. As part of this work, there is also ongoing monitoring of Gloucestershire’s EHC plans, on their timeliness, quality and clearance of any backlog.

To assist the local area, the department has deployed a SEND advisor to offer support and advice. Some of the advisor’s work to date includes analysis of EHC plans data and trends, facilitation of best practice exchange from other regions, advice and guidance to enhance the quality of EHC plans.

Local authorities are responsible for allocating additional funding from their high needs budgets to mainstream schools for their pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. Of that total, Gloucestershire County Council is being allocated a provisional funding amount of over £104.8 million in the 2025/26 financial year through the high needs national funding formula (NFF), which is an 8.3% increase per head of their 2 to 18 year old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 financial year NFF allocation.

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA), British racing's governing and regulatory body, is responsible for the welfare of racehorses at British racecourses. The BHA works alongside the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare to make horseracing as safe as possible. Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs continue to engage productively with these organisations on equine welfare and safety matters.

This Government is investing £2.4 billion over this year and next year to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences – benefitting both rural and urban communities.

The Environment Agency is currently working with partners on property flood resilience schemes to residential homes most regularly affected by flooding in Tewkesbury, including at Abbey Terrace.

To speed up scheme delivery and ensure the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account, a consultation will be launched in the new year which will include a review of the formula.

The Government has also announced £50 million of additional investment into internal drainage boards and £60 million in payments to farmers impacted by last year’s severe weather through the Farming Recovery Fund.

This Government recognises that dynamic transport infrastructure like the new Arle Court Transport Hub in Cheltenham is essential for helping people go about their daily lives. We have already awarded Gloucestershire nearly £4.2m capital funding for bus service improvements in 2025/26 and will make further funding announcements later this year.

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is a tax on car ownership from which electric vehicles are currently exempt. As announced by the previous Government at Autumn Statement 2022, from April 2025, electric and hybrid cars, vans and motorcycles will begin to pay VED alongside petrol and diesel vehicles.

The Policy Costings document published alongside Autumn Statement 2022 when the change was announced estimates the impact on electric vehicle take-up to be “negligible”.

The Government is committed to supporting the transition to Zero Emission Vehicles and announced a number of measures at Budget to support EV take-up. VED First Year Rates are changing from 2025-26, with higher rates for polluting hybrid, petrol and diesel vehicles. In addition the Government maintained incentives for the purchase of EVs within the Company Car Tax and Salary Sacrifice regimes, and extended the 100% First Year Allowances for businesses purchasing zero emission cars and installing chargepoint infrastructure.

Revenue from motoring taxes helps ensure we can continue to fund the vital public services and infrastructure that people and families across the UK expect.

The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.

It is expected that up to around 2,000 estates will be affected by the changes to APR and BPR in 2026-27, with around half of those being claims that involve AIM shares. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (including those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

The UK has robust domestic food production, and these reforms will only affect a small number of estates. The small number of landowners affected will not necessarily need to sell the land and, if they choose to, then it does not necessarily mean the land would stop being used for food production. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced the largest ever investment in sustainable food production in England.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

The Government condemns the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the adult social care sector and continues to take robust action against this unscrupulous behaviour.

If an individual is in danger or at risk of exploitation, we urge them to come forward so we can work with the police or other law enforcement bodies, including the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), to support them through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

The enforcement bodies are currently working together to investigate a range of allegations about the adult care sector. The evidence ranges from labour market offences such as charging for work finding fees and non-payment of National Minimum Wage to the higher level of exploitative abuses such as debt bondage and modern slavery.

We have recently implemented prohibitions on Skilled Worker sponsors recouping sponsorship costs from those they sponsor, and those doing so now risk losing their licence. We also intend to ban any employer who flouts employment laws from acting as a sponsor in the future.

Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.

The Government recently announced Respect Orders which will be introduced through the Crime and Policing Bill. Respect Orders can be applied for by the police and local councils and are issued by the courts. They will enable courts to place wide-ranging restrictions on the behaviour of the most persistent and disruptive ASB offenders. They will include a power of arrest for any suspected breach, meaning officers can take action quickly to disrupt ongoing ASB. Breach will be a criminal offence, which is heard in the criminal courts with a wide range of sentencing options, including community orders, unlimited fines and, for the most severe cases, up to two years’ imprisonment.

We will also put thousands of new neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities, so residents know who to turn to when things go wrong.

Where the Government is involved in the planning of large scale sporting events (like the commonwealth games 2022), there is ongoing engagement with local police to ensure risks are identified and addressed in the planning and delivery of the event. The local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) co-ordinated by the Local Authority provides advice and guidance on specific areas of responsibility for organisers and other agencies involved in organising events.

The UK has a moral obligation to assist our Afghan friends and allies who served for, with or alongside our Armed Forces in support of UK objectives in Afghanistan. We will honour that moral duty.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) offers a range of packages for those relocated under the ARAP upon their arrival. This includes transitional accommodation on the Defence Estate, orientation and cultural awareness briefings, safeguarding, and English language support, as well as help to register to access mainstream services (such as the NHS, education, employment, and universal credit). Working with Local Authorities and other Government Departments, the MOD has also supported families in moving into settled accommodation.

This Government is fully committed to delivering on the pledge to those in Afghanistan who are eligible to relocate and resettle, and we continue to welcome these Afghans and their families to the UK through our Afghan resettlement schemes. This is why, as announced by the Secretary of State for Defence on 18 December 2024, we are launching the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP), which will draw together a single pipeline for Afghan resettlement, working cross-Government, to deliver greater efficiency and better outcomes.

Further information on the resettlement offer under the ARP can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/afghan-resettlement-programme

The Government is committed to ensuring that the 1.5 million homes we will build over the course of this parliament will be high quality, well designed and sustainable.

Future standards, to be introduced this year, will set our new homes and buildings on a path that moves away from relying on volatile fossil fuels and ensures they are fit for a net zero future. These homes will be future proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency. No further energy efficiency retrofit work will be necessary to enable them to become zero-carbon over time as the electricity grid continues to decarbonise.

This commitment will help put the UK back on track to meeting its climate goals, all while cutting bills, boosting economic growth and delivering energy independence with clean power by 2030.

Garden Communities are locally-led new settlements or urban extensions. The Garden Communities programme provides support to progress long-term housing projects from their earliest stages. It enables local authorities to recruit specialist staff, undertake the required planning and receive advice and support from the housing delivery body, Homes England. The government will keep the programme under review.