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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding was allocated to English for Speakers of Other Languages in 2024-25; what is the budget for 2025-26; and what proportion in each case was allocated as grants to local authorities.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The below answer refers to funding made by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government only. The provisions described are in addition to what other departments may offer.

Councils receive a tariff of £5,900 per Homes for Ukraine arrival in their area to support guests to rebuild their lives and fully integrate into communities. Councils can use this funding flexibly which could include supporting guests to access English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision. However the department does not collect the full breakdown of expenditure per council on ESOL provision. Homes for Ukraine funding allocations are published on gov.uk here.

The department provided £11.5 million of funding for English language courses and employment support for up to 12,500 Ukrainians across the UK through the ‘STEP Ukraine’ programme. We are about to launch a follow-up ‘STEP’ programme of £4.2m (excl. VAT) for English language courses and employment support for Ukrainians and Hong Kong British Nationals. The aim is for the programme to reach 4,000 participants.

In the summer of 2025, the department has also allocated £3 million in grant funding to Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMPs) in England to strengthen the capacity of ESOL teachers and expand community-based English language support for eligible Afghans, Ukrainians, and Hong Kong BN(O)s until March 2026. This builds on the £1 million SMP ESOL capacity grant delivered in 2023–24, which trained over 350 teachers and supported more than 2,500 resettled learners

The Hong Kong British National (Overseas) Welcome Programme, which is in its fifth year of funding, provides demand led funding to councils in England which can be accessed to cover the costs of English language courses. In 2024-25, the department allocated £4.5m to councils. Continued funding is available in 2025-26.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress the Social Cohesion Taskforce has made on its objectives in the last 12 months.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Social Cohesion Taskforce is a civil service team considering how to tackle divisions in our society and build common ground. Ministers will update on progress of the Taskforce in due course.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what planning appeal decisions the Planning Inspectorate has made in relation to Grey Belt land since December 2024 by (a) reference number and (b) local authority.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Planning Inspectorate does not hold the requested information in a readily searchable way, and planning appeals do not have a marker for Grey Belt. As such, it is not possible to identify planning appeal decisions relating to grey belt land since December 2024 in the time available.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to provide funding to local authorities for additional planning officers in (a) 2026-27 and (b) 2027-28.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the Question UIN 67508 on 21 July 2025.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2025 to Question 62596 on Greater Manchester Combined Authority: Property Development, what information (a) her Department and (b) Homes England holds on the number of developments that have received funding from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund in each of the last ten years.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loan Fund is operated by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). MHCLG and Homes England do not hold information in individual developments in this programme. GMCA is therefore best placed to respond to this question.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 7 April 2025 to Question 40908 on New Towns: Planning Permission, whether she has received representations from Ebbsfleet Development Corporation on removing the Site of Special Scientific Interest designation to facilitate the redevelopment of Ebbsfleet Central West.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Secretary of State has received no representations from the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation to remove the Site of Special Scientific Interest designation at Ebbsfleet.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the number of housing starts in London in Q2 2025 on her target to build 1.5 million homes over this Parliament.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Delivering historic levels of housebuilding in London is a critical part of the government’s commitment to build 1.5 million homes within this parliament.

The government fully recognises the scale and breadth of the housing delivery challenge in London. We are committed to working in partnership with the Mayor of London, boroughs and wider partners to significantly increase housing delivery to meet these ambitions.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the NISTA Annual Report 2024–25 dashboard, for what reason no evaluation has been completed for the project Asylum Support Accommodation Programme in the Home Office.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP) is still in the early implementation phase. As such, a formal evaluation has not yet been undertaken. However, evaluation planning is underway, and the programme is being designed with a robust evaluation framework in mind. The evaluation will follow a mixed methods approach including: process evaluation – to assess delivery and implementation; Impact evaluation – to measure outcomes for service users and stakeholders and economic evaluation – to assess value for money. This approach is aligned with NISTA recommendations and Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) expectations that all major programmes are evaluated.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 55303 on Asylum: Housing, if she will publish the template accommodation contract for housing asylum seekers between (a) her Department, (b) its contractors and (c) private rented sector landlords.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The document is available at https://atamis-8888.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#58000000L5A4/a/4I000001QuuT/sGjvxn0.zVTmJRxP5zk64Vp4prQLfMGIuGWdVxlBIsA as Schedule 22 in Home Office AASC contracts.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to narrow the definition of family member in relation to immigration and asylum policy.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

I refer the Hon Member to the Statement made to the House by the Home Secretary on 1 September 2025.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 234 of the Home Office annual report and accounts 2024-25, published in July 2025, HC1133, how much the UK (a) contributes to and (b) receives from the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The United Kingdom no longer participates in the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 75 of the Home Office annual report and accounts 2024-25, published in July 2025, HC1133, how many (a) contracted asylum hotels, (b) people residing in asylum hotels, (c) people residing in a individual asylum hotel on average there were in (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Since coming into office this Government is delivering on its pledge to close asylum hotels; drastically reducing taxpayer costs and giving control back to local communities. This Government is committed to ending the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of the Parliament.

Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including hotels, and by local authority can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2025 to Question 35311 on Asylum: Health Services, whether any local authorities have commissioned independent health sector providers to provide health care to asylum seekers using central government funding in the last 12 months.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not hold this information.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what items from the Government Art Collection have been (a) installed and (b) deinstalled in (i) her office in Marsham Street, (ii) her office in Whitehall and (iii) Admiralty House by (A) title, (B) artist and (C) reference number since 4 July 2024.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

This information is not held by MHCLG. The Government Art Collection is administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 46900 on Asylum: Housing, how many dwellings have been procured via Cushman and Wakefield across England since July 2024; and what the total number of leasehold and freehold properties which are part of the Home Office landholdings is.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not publish information on the location of asylum accommodation sites for safety and security reasons. The Home Office continues to work with Cushman and Wakefield to identify potential sites for Home Office acquisition as part of the Asylum Accommodation Programme.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the level of criminal activity linked to candy retail stores.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is committed to ensuring high street businesses such as candy retail stores are not exploited by criminals conducting illicit activity such as money laundering or tax evasion.

The Government’s approach to tackling money laundering is set out in the Economic Crime Plan 2 which includes action to disrupt cash-based money laundering and strengthen system wide coordination. The Government, working in partnership with law enforcement and other agencies, is closely monitoring the level of illicit activity in the high street and actively considering whether further systemic interventions are needed to tackle this threat.

Operationally, in March 2025, the National Economic Crime Centre in the National Crime Agency, coordinated a three-week crackdown against barbershops and other cash intensive businesses involving 19 different police forces and Regional Organised Crime Units, as well as national agencies including HMRC, Trading Standards and Home Office Immigration Enforcement. In total, 380 premises were visited across the three-week operation, with officers securing freezing orders over bank accounts totalling more than £1m, executing 84 warrants and arrested 35 individuals. Officers also seized more than £40,000 in cash, 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, over 8,000 illegal vapes and two vehicles.

This is the first phase of targeted action against criminals and organised crime groups who use high-street businesses to launder criminal monies.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding was allocated for English for Speakers of Other Languages provision by her Department in 2024-25; what the budget is for 2025-26; and what proportion in each case was allocated as grants to local authorities.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Please refer to the 4^th of July response from the former Minister for Children and Families, Janet Daby MP, for more detail on how ESOL is funded [UIN 63247].