Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps are being taken to support community-backed housing schemes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government recognises that the community-led housing sector delivers a wide range of benefits including strengthening community participation in local decision-making, engendering community cohesion, achieving high quality design and strengthening the co-operative economy.
In March, we announced a £20m 10-year social finance investment to provide capital finance for community-led housing, which is expected to directly support the construction of more than 2,500 new homes over the next decade. These housebuilding projects will be led by communities to specifically address local needs in their area.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December strengthened support for community-led housing, including through changes to the size limit on community-led exception sites and a broadening of the definition of organisations able to deliver community-led housing.
The new Social and Affordable Homes Programme seeks to support an increase in the delivery of community-led and rural housing. The flexibility in grant rates provided for under the new programme will help community-led schemes achieve viability and help the sector grow towards its full potential.
The government is also considering opportunities to legislate to establish a legal framework for a co-operative housing tenure, which would help formalise the rights and responsibilities of both co-operatives and their tenants, and make co-operative housing a more attractive option.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding is available from her Department for local crime prevention measures in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Rural crime can have devastating consequences for countryside communities and the agricultural sector.
We are improving the protections for rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on equipment theft, anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.
This financial year the Home Office has provided the first Government funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit (£365,000) as well as continuing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit (£450,000). The National Rural Crime Unit work with police forces and rural communities to promote the use of crime prevention measures such as Rural Watch.
We have also worked closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to deliver their updated Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy for 2025-2028. The strategy highlights how policing can assist in the prevention of crime in rural areas.
It is the responsibility of Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including Mayors who exercise PCC or equivalent functions, to take decisions around the allocation of their funding and resources.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding is available to increase options for active travel involving schools in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
On 10 December, the Department announced over £626 million of funding to support active travel across England, including walking and cycling to schools. Of this funding, Shropshire Unitary Authority, of which South Shropshire is a part, has been allocated £2,004,847 over 2026/27 to 2029/30.
In addition, Active Travel England provided £191,121 to support Bikeability cycle training in Shropshire over 2024/25, with a similar level expected for 2025/26. The Bikeability programme delivers a range of cycle training activities aimed at giving school children the skills and confidence to cycle on the road. Future funding for Bikeability will be announced in early 2026.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the cost of extending Energy Performance Certificate regulations to short-term holiday lets on the finances of owners of those properties.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We expect that the impact of extending Energy Performance of Buildings regulations to short-term holiday lets on the finances of owners of those properties will be minimal. We published an impact assessment alongside our consultation on reforms, accessible here: Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime: impact assessment, in which we modelled the cost of obtaining a domestic EPC at £70, which are valid for 10 years. We are keeping the impacts of the proposals under review, and will publish a government response shortly.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 implications for his policies of the prevalence of the use of non-disclosure agreements during corporate restructuring in safety-critical sectors.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is unable to assess the prevalence of the use of non-disclosure agreements across the economy, including in specific sectors, as they are private contractual agreements and data on their use is not collected.
While NDAs can lawfully be used to require one or more parties to keep certain information confidential (for example, trade secrets), there are a range of legal limitations on their use. For example, NDAs cannot prevent someone from making a whistleblowing disclosure (known formally as a “protected disclosure”) or a disclosure required by law.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to restore the academy conversion support grant.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has no plans to restore the academy conversion support grant. Voluntary conversion is a choice for schools and trusts to make.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of of green levies on utility bills.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The key to bringing down energy bills in the long term is clean power. With gas prices still significantly higher than historic levels, our exposure to international fossil fuel markets is still the main driver of high energy bills.
Taken together, the actions announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Chancellor at the Budget take an average £150 of costs off people’s energy bills and deliver on funding more of the investment we need in our energy system through public expenditure rather than levies. £7 billion worth of the historic Renewables Obligation levy has been moved into public expenditure and the ECO scheme has been scrapped. The government is delivering the biggest public investment in home energy efficiency ever, increasing the settlement we received at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to promote limestone insulation as an energy efficiency measure.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government does not promote one measure over another, instead energy efficiency measures installed under current Government energy efficiency schemes must be compliant with PAS 2035/2030 to ensure installations are done to the highest quality and the risk of unintended consequences, such as condensation or damp, are minimised.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will increase the level of support available for the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme is due to end March 2026, and decisions on the future of the programme will be made as part of departmental business planning.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve the sustainability of local authority leisure centres.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities which are vital spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure facilities lies at local authority level with funding levels set as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement. The Government encourages local authorities to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities.
In June, we committed another £400 million to transform sports facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years, supporting the Government's Plan for Change. We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, before setting out further plans on how future funding will be allocated.