Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
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 support affordable housing developers with (a) making grid connections, (b) installing drainage infrastructure, (c) achieving biodiversity net gain and (d) other development challenges.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that the purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, including the provision of supporting infrastructure in a sustainable manner.
Local development plans should address needs and opportunities in relation to infrastructure and identify what infrastructure is required and how it can be funded and brought forward. When preparing a Local Plan, Planning Practice Guidance recommends that local planning authorities use available evidence of infrastructure requirements to prepare an Infrastructure Funding Statement. Such Statements can be used to demonstrate the delivery of infrastructure throughout the plan-period.
The government provides financial support for essential infrastructure in areas of greatest housing demand through Land and Infrastructure funding programmes, such as the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 will also support the increased provision and modernisation of various types of public infrastructure. It makes clear that local authorities should have policies that set out an overall strategy for the pattern, scale and design quality of places; that they should make sufficient provision for infrastructure including energy; and that applications which could affect drainage on or around the site should incorporate sustainable drainage systems.
The government is also committed to strengthening the existing system of developer contributions to ensure new developments provide necessary affordable homes and infrastructure. Further details will be set out in due course.
On 28 May 2025, the government published a consultation on improving the implementation of biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development. It can be found on gov.uk here. The consultation closed on 24 July 2025 and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is considering the responses received.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
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 there is sufficient planning human resource capacity to enable the timely sign-off of pre-start conditions for affordable housing developments.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 67508 on 21 July 2025.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the financial pressures facing housing associations.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This government is committed to rebuilding the financial capacity of housing associations so they can borrow and invest in new and existing homes.
At the Spending Review, the government set out funding to provide a decade of certainty for housing associations. This included a new ten-year £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) alongside a ten-year rent settlement that will permit social housing rents to increase by CPI+1% annually. In addition, we recently completed a focused consultation on how we will implement social rent convergence, ahead of a final decision to be announced at Autumn Budget.
The Government has also committed over £1 billion between 2026 and 2030 to support cladding remediation for social landlords, ensuring equal access to building safety funds, as well as £2.5 billion in low-interest loans which will be made available to support new affordable housing development.