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

To ask His Majesty's Government what budget was allocated to the Office for Place during its existence, and what (1) budget, and (2) Civil Service headcount, they have allocated to the functions of oversight of design quality in new developments now that they have closed the Office for Place.

We want exemplary development to be the norm and not the exception – this is the focus of teams across the Department. MHCLG’s design and placemaking policy team is comprised of 13 civil servants, including five staff who were redeployed from the Office for Place. The team is working across the Department to embed good design within housing and planning policy, and we will be publishing updated national design guidance later this year.

An additional five staff from the Office for Place were redeployed onto housing delivery to support efforts to improve the quality of new development. We can confirm that all staff who were working directly on Office for Place activities were transferred to MHCLG or their home departments. The Office for Place annual report and accounts are available on gov.uk here.