Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Environment Agency has allocated funding for the (a) repair and (b) reopening of Temple Footbridge in Hurley.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) is investing up to £500k this financial year to progress the initial phases of the Temple Footbridge (Hurley) and Marsh Horsebridge (Henley on Thames) projects. This includes the preparation of outline designs, which are expected to be completed by 31 March 2026, along with any further specialist surveys and visualisations that are needed to assist the future delivery of these projects. The outline designs will be used to calculate the indicative costs of the completed projects, and therefore how much partnership funding will be needed alongside any government grant in aid that will be allocated. The EA has been working with local stakeholders to develop a partnership funding strategy for these projects. This will start to be implemented once the outline designs and completion costs are finalised.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to provide additional resources to the Environment Agency to support works to restore full navigation under Temple Footbridge in Hurley.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) will continue to invest in its Navigation infrastructure. Once the indicative costs of completing the Temple Footbridge project is known, the amount of additional grant in aid available to the EA for this project will be calculated.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the effectiveness of late payment reforms.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This Government is committed to tackling late payments and will introduce the most significant legislation aimed at tackling late payments in 25 years. Late payments cost the UK economy £11bn per year and close down 38 UK businesses every day.
Large businesses are already legally required to publish their payment performance twice yearly through GOV.UK. Analysts at the Department for Business and Trade will be able to determine the effectiveness of these measures through using the data that large businesses submit to check that payment times have improved.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of late payment reform on cash flow for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This Government is determined to tackle late payments. On 31st July, alongside the Plan for Small Business, we launched a public consultation to seek views on our proposed legislative measures to ensure companies pay their suppliers quickly and on time. These measures include proposals to set strict maximum payment times at 60 days and to provide the Small Business Commissioner with stronger powers to tackle poor payment practices.
As part of the launch of the consultation an impact assessment was published on GOV.UK assessing the impact these measures will have on all businesses across the UK.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions his Department has had with local planning authorities on the impact of permitted development for Houses in Multiple Occupation on parking provision.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has not had any such discussions with local planning authorities.
Local authorities can remove the permitted development right for smaller Houses in Multiple Occupation to protect local amenity or wellbeing of an area by introducing an ‘Article 4’ direction.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of HM Land Registry providing registered leaseholders with an annual update of their (a) lease terms and (b) other relevant information by (i) post and (ii) email.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
It is essential that leaseholders understand their rights and responsibilities and are able to access information regarding their leasehold arrangements.
Leaseholders can view high level information on their lease on the title register or request an official copy of their lease from HM Land Registry (HMLR) using form OC2. A dataset of registered leases is also published by HMLR and can be accessed free of charge for personal use. It can be found on gov.uk here.
On 4 July, the government published a consultation on strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services. It can be found on gov.uk here. For an overview of the proposals set out in the consultation, I refer the hon. Member to the associated Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS780). The consultation closed on 26 September, and we are analysing responses.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of publishing the (a) lease length, (b) ground rent (c) service charges and (d) other relevant matters of leasehold tenures (i) online and (ii) on request from all property sales outlets.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On 6 October 2025, the government published a consultation on proposals to improve to the home buying and selling process. It can be found on gov.uk here.
The consultation includes proposals to require sellers and estate agents to provide upfront property information. This might include information relating to leasehold terms, property condition, and purchasing chains.
Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, property listings must already not omit information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to introduce (a) long service (i) awards and (ii) medals and (b) additional forms of formal recognition to support the (A) retention and (B) morale of magistrates.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Magistrates are already recognised for their service through initiatives such as long service certificates, nominations for UK National Honours, and invitations to Royal Garden Parties. Ministers are actively considering options to further recognise the invaluable contribution of magistrates to our criminal justice system.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that leaseholders’ reserve funds are (a) legally protected, (b) transparently accounted for and (c) subject to independent oversight.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Landlords and managing agents are responsible for handling billions of pounds of service charge monies each year, including reserve fund monies. Service charge monies are legally protected since they must be held in trust and at a financial institution authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
On 4 July, the government published a consultation on strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services. It can be found on gov.uk here. For an overview of the proposals set out in the consultation, I refer the hon. Member to the associated Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS780). The consultation closed on 26 September, and we are analysing responses.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of defined benefit pension schemes for public sector workers on the public purse; and whether she plans to review the balance between defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes across the (a) public and (b) private sectors.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In line with the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission’s report in 2011, the Government’s central measure of the affordability of public service pensions is long-term public service pension spending as a share of GDP. In its Fiscal Risk and Sustainability Report 2024, the OBR projects that this measure will fall from 1.9% in 2023-24 to 1.4% in 2073-74.
The Government has established a new Pensions Commission, to support a strong, sustainable and fair pension system that secures a financially secure retirement for millions of private sector pensioners into the middle of this century.