Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the proportion of projected additional funding for the Affordable Homes Programme that will be allocated to homes for social rent in the next three financial years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme averages £2.3 billion of grant capital funding per year.
The Spending Review 2025 policy paper (which can be found on gov.uk here) makes clear that spending on our new £39 billion, 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme (2026-27 to 2035-36) will reach £4 billion per year in 2029-30 and rise in line with inflation subsequently.
As such, government spending on affordable housing investment will have almost doubled by the end of this Parliament.
Government does not usually publish year-by-year spend on specific programmes in advance. We will continue to publish past year’s expenditure figures in the department's Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the projected percentage increase in nominal funding for the Affordable Homes Programme in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme averages £2.3 billion of grant capital funding per year.
The Spending Review 2025 policy paper (which can be found on gov.uk here) makes clear that spending on our new £39 billion, 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme (2026-27 to 2035-36) will reach £4 billion per year in 2029-30 and rise in line with inflation subsequently.
As such, government spending on affordable housing investment will have almost doubled by the end of this Parliament.
Government does not usually publish year-by-year spend on specific programmes in advance. We will continue to publish past year’s expenditure figures in the department's Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the real-terms percentage change in funding for the Affordable Homes Programme in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme averages £2.3 billion of grant capital funding per year.
The Spending Review 2025 policy paper (which can be found on gov.uk here) makes clear that spending on our new £39 billion, 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme (2026-27 to 2035-36) will reach £4 billion per year in 2029-30 and rise in line with inflation subsequently.
As such, government spending on affordable housing investment will have almost doubled by the end of this Parliament.
Government does not usually publish year-by-year spend on specific programmes in advance. We will continue to publish past year’s expenditure figures in the department's Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what role will organically certified produce have in achieving 50 percent of public sector catering contracts from British producers or those certified to higher environmental standards.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have published a new national procurement policy statement, which sets out expectations for government contracts to favour products certified to high environmental standards. We are currently considering the policy options available to deliver further on our ambitions for public sector catering, including the role of organic produce.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment claimants who use some of their Personal Independence Payment to pay for housing costs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is intended to provide a financial contribution towards the extra costs faced by disabled people and people with long-term health. Claimants are free to use PIP according to their own needs and priorities. Information on how claimants spend their benefit is published in The Uses of Health and Disability Benefits, and, for a subset in receipt of the Support Group rate of Employment and Support Allowance and its Universal Credit equivalent, in chapter 3.4 of The work aspirations and support needs of claimants in the ESA Support Group and Universal Credit equivalent.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme on electricity bills for non-exempt consumers.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government is looking to fund this support by bearing down on levies and other costs in the energy system, alongside revenues from the strengthening and expansion of carbon pricing.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of its proposed exemptions for certain industrial users from (a) Feed-in Tariffs, (b) Renewables Obligation Certificates and (c) the Capacity Market ion levy costs for other industrial, commercial or domestic consumers.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government is looking to fund this support by bearing down on levies and other costs in the energy system, alongside revenues from the strengthening and expansion of carbon pricing.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Nature Restoration Fund proposed by the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on the Marine Recovery Fund.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Marine Recovery Fund is being established as a voluntary mechanism to deliver strategic compensation for offshore wind developers.
The Nature Restoration Fund will offer a new way for developers to discharge existing environmental obligations related to protected sites and species, using resources strategically to maximise positive outcomes for nature.
There are currently no plans to combine the two funds.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 5 June 2025 on School Food, HCWS682, what the (a) timeframe and (b) scope of the consultation on revising School Food Standards will be; and whether that consultation will include direct engagement with young people.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for children, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the school food standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance. The department is currently engaging with a range of stakeholders to help us understand the challenges around school food.
We intend to consult on these revisions and further details will be available in due course. Hearing from young people is an important part of this work and we will ensure there are appropriate opportunities for their engagement.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Independent - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children aged between 28 days and 17 years old were admitted to NHS care for more than seven days in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England collects the data on patient discharge episodes, including for children, through the Hospital Episode Statistics. Discharge data does not represent the number of individual children with a hospital stay, as a child may have more than one discharge from hospital within the reporting period.
Between April 2023 and March 2024, there were 35,282 discharge episodes recorded where the patient was in hospital for more than seven days and was aged over 28 days old and under 18 years old when admitted into National Health Service care.