Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she collects data on local highways authority spending on highways maintenance additional to funding provided by central government.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Local authorities are responsible for setting their own highways maintenance budgets, drawing on a combination of Department for Transport capital funding and their wider local resources.

To support greater transparency, the Department introduced a requirement last year for all local highway authorities to publish annual highways maintenance transparency reports. These set out how each authority plans to spend its Department for Transport highways maintenance allocation, alongside its total planned highways maintenance expenditure from all funding sources. This provides clearer visibility of the extent to which authorities invest above their DfT allocation.

In addition, the Department introduced a new traffic light rating system for all local highway authorities in England on 11 January. All authorities are assessed annually and receive a red, amber or green rating based on the condition of their roads, how much they spend to maintain their roads, and whether they do so using best practice.

As part of the spend scorecard within this rating system, authorities that reported plans to spend 100% of their Departmental allocation received an amber rating. The vast majority of authorities reported plans to invest at least 30% of additional capital from other funding sources to maintain their highway networks, and 113 authorities therefore received a green spend scorecard.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster's speech entitled Move fast. Fix things., published on 20 January 2026, what discussions he has had with regional mayors on lessons learned from Project Reset.

Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister’s (CSPM) speech set out how “Project Reset” would slash bureaucracy and enable civil servants to move fast. It will mean fewer repeated permissions required, giving those closer to real decision-making more freedom and autonomy to deliver change.

CSPM has met with Mayors including the Mayor of the North East, the Mayor of the East Midlands, and the Mayor of London. These discussions included barriers to delivery.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to protect supported housing in NE Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government is committed to improving the quality of supported housing across England. We are implementing measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, which will strengthen local oversight, improve quality of support and require councils to produce Local Supported Housing Strategies to understand local supply, demand and unmet need.

We recognise the significant challenges faced by the supported housing and homelessness sector. As announced at Autumn Budget 2025, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is leading work across government to improve the value for money of homelessness services, including delivery models to increase the supply of good‑quality, good‑value supported housing.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate he has made of the number of renewable energy projects awaiting grid connection in NE Somerset and Hanham; and what steps he is taking to reduce connection delays.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Information on projects holding connection agreements is available at TEC Register | National Energy System Operator for transmission projects and National Grid - Embedded capacity register for distribution projects in the South-West. However, data is categorised by grid connection point, not geographic location of projects.

At transmission level, Government is working with National Energy System Operator, network companies and Ofgem to prioritise connections for viable projects that meet our strategic needs. In addition, in its end-to-end review, Ofgem is proposing measures to hold network companies more to account on timely delivery of connections, to both the transmission and distribution networks.