Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to provide future funding to increase supported accommodation stock in a) Eastbourne and b) East Sussex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 introduced a duty for all local housing authorities in England to formulate and publish local supported housing strategies. The government will provide new burdens funding and publish guidance shortly, setting out how local authorities should undertake an analysis of existing supported housing provision, current unmet need and future need.
Young people need the right support alongside housing to improve health, wellbeing and access employment, enabling them to access and retain housing and reducing their risk of homelessness and rough sleeping. Funding for housing support services is primarily through the Local Government Finance Settlement and commissioning of services is for local authorities to determine.
We have confirmed a new 10-year £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme to kickstart social and affordable housebuilding at scale across the country. We want to see new supply of supported housing in England through the new programme, in greater numbers and also across a diverse range of cohorts and housing types, including for vulnerable young people.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support is available for young people requiring supported accommodation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 introduced a duty for all local housing authorities in England to formulate and publish local supported housing strategies. The government will provide new burdens funding and publish guidance shortly, setting out how local authorities should undertake an analysis of existing supported housing provision, current unmet need and future need.
Young people need the right support alongside housing to improve health, wellbeing and access employment, enabling them to access and retain housing and reducing their risk of homelessness and rough sleeping. Funding for housing support services is primarily through the Local Government Finance Settlement and commissioning of services is for local authorities to determine.
We have confirmed a new 10-year £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme to kickstart social and affordable housebuilding at scale across the country. We want to see new supply of supported housing in England through the new programme, in greater numbers and also across a diverse range of cohorts and housing types, including for vulnerable young people.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment was made in the process of developing the Fair Funding Allocation formulae of the adequacy of the evidence supplied by stakeholders and local authorities of the cost impacts of remoteness and rurality.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 and response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November, which set out the government's plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system. The government also published the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 on Wednesday 17 December 2025. The government is committed to continuing to work closely with the sector. We have now consulted four times on our proposals for reform and we are grateful for the high-quality and constructive responses received from local authorities and sector groups.
The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Our updates will account for local circumstances, including the variation in cost of delivering services, such as between rural and urban areas. More detail can be found in the consultation response document here.
As part of this, the government is including a remoteness adjustment within the adult social care formula, as the best evidence we have heard indicates that distance from a major market has an impact on the cost of delivering social care services. We are also including a journey times adjustment, which is within the area cost adjustment applied to all our funding formulas, which accounts for the impact on the cost of labour of the difference in travel times to provide services; and increasing the cap within the home to school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles, in recognition that the original distance cap would unfairly penalise authorities who have no choice but to place children further from home.
The government is considering the responses received following the consultation of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026 to 2027 and will set out a position when the final Settlement is published in early February.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will provide the basis on which his Department determined there was insufficient evidence of rurality and remoteness impacting the cost of service delivery in the provisional local government finance settlement.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 and response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November, which set out the government's plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system. The government also published the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 on Wednesday 17 December 2025. The government is committed to continuing to work closely with the sector. We have now consulted four times on our proposals for reform and we are grateful for the high-quality and constructive responses received from local authorities and sector groups.
The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Our updates will account for local circumstances, including the variation in cost of delivering services, such as between rural and urban areas. More detail can be found in the consultation response document here.
As part of this, the government is including a remoteness adjustment within the adult social care formula, as the best evidence we have heard indicates that distance from a major market has an impact on the cost of delivering social care services. We are also including a journey times adjustment, which is within the area cost adjustment applied to all our funding formulas, which accounts for the impact on the cost of labour of the difference in travel times to provide services; and increasing the cap within the home to school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles, in recognition that the original distance cap would unfairly penalise authorities who have no choice but to place children further from home.
The government is considering the responses received following the consultation of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026 to 2027 and will set out a position when the final Settlement is published in early February.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 significance of a remoteness factor adjustment in the Fair Funding Review for rural areas.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 and response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November, which set out the government's plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system. The government also published the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 on Wednesday 17 December 2025. The government is committed to continuing to work closely with the sector. We have now consulted four times on our proposals for reform and we are grateful for the high-quality and constructive responses received from local authorities and sector groups.
The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Our updates will account for local circumstances, including the variation in cost of delivering services, such as between rural and urban areas. More detail can be found in the consultation response document here.
As part of this, the government is including a remoteness adjustment within the adult social care formula, as the best evidence we have heard indicates that distance from a major market has an impact on the cost of delivering social care services. We are also including a journey times adjustment, which is within the area cost adjustment applied to all our funding formulas, which accounts for the impact on the cost of labour of the difference in travel times to provide services; and increasing the cap within the home to school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles, in recognition that the original distance cap would unfairly penalise authorities who have no choice but to place children further from home.
The government is considering the responses received following the consultation of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026 to 2027 and will set out a position when the final Settlement is published in early February.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the weight given to deprivation within the proposed Foundation Formula in the Fair Funding Review; and how dispersed rural deprivation is accounted for.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 and response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November, which set out the government's plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system. The government also published the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 on Wednesday 17 December 2025.
The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Our updates will account for local circumstances, including the variation in cost of delivering services, such as between rural and urban areas. We are including a journey times adjustment, which is within the area cost adjustment applied to our funding formulas, which accounts for the impact on the cost of labour of the difference in travel times to provide services. We are also including a remoteness adjustment within the adult social care formula and increasing the cap within the home to school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles. In addition, we are using updated deprivation data in our assessment of need, to help ensure that deprivation in rural areas is captured more accurately.
The government is considering the responses received following the consultation of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026 to 2027 and will set out a position when the final Settlement is published in early February.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to reopen the Fair Funding Review following consultation responses.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 and response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November, which set out the government's plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system. The government also published the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 on Wednesday 17 December 2025.
The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Our updates will account for local circumstances, including the variation in cost of delivering services, such as between rural and urban areas. We are including a journey times adjustment, which is within the area cost adjustment applied to our funding formulas, which accounts for the impact on the cost of labour of the difference in travel times to provide services. We are also including a remoteness adjustment within the adult social care formula and increasing the cap within the home to school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles. In addition, we are using updated deprivation data in our assessment of need, to help ensure that deprivation in rural areas is captured more accurately.
The government is considering the responses received following the consultation of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026 to 2027 and will set out a position when the final Settlement is published in early February.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the costs for rural authorities of delivering services across large and dispersed communities.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 and response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November, which set out the government's plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system. The government also published the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 on Wednesday 17 December 2025.
The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Our updates will account for local circumstances, including the variation in cost of delivering services, such as between rural and urban areas. We are including a journey times adjustment, which is within the area cost adjustment applied to our funding formulas, which accounts for the impact on the cost of labour of the difference in travel times to provide services. We are also including a remoteness adjustment within the adult social care formula and increasing the cap within the home to school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles. In addition, we are using updated deprivation data in our assessment of need, to help ensure that deprivation in rural areas is captured more accurately.
The government is considering the responses received following the consultation of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026 to 2027 and will set out a position when the final Settlement is published in early February.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data, analysis, and modelling did the Department use to determine the removal of the remoteness factor from the Area Cost Adjustment, and if the Government will publish or share this evidence with local authorities to demonstrate how the change accurately reflects differences in service delivery costs.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. In addition to including a remoteness adjustment in adult social care formulas, we are including a journey times adjustment, which aims to account for the impact of the difference in travel times to provide services on the cost of labour; including updated deprivation data to help ensure that deprivation in rural areas is captured more accurately; and increasing the cap within the home to school transport formula from 20 miles to 50 miles
As set out in the Fair Funding Review 2.0, the government believes that accounting for variations in cost between local authorities is important when determining funding allocations through the Local Government Finance Settlement. This ensures that all authorities receive funding which reflects their costs relative to others.
Following the Fair Funding Review consultation, the government has taken the decision to include a remoteness adjustment in the area cost adjustment applied to the adult social care formula, but not to other formulas. This is because the best evidence we have heard indicates that distance from a major market has an impact on the cost of delivering adult social care services.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support local authorities to deliver supported housing for young people.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Young people need the right support alongside housing to improve health, wellbeing and socio-economic outcomes, enabling them to access and retain housing and reducing their risk of homelessness and rough sleeping.
Funding for local housing support services is primarily through the Local Government Finance Settlement – commissioning of local housing-related support services is for local authorities to determine.
In December 2025, the government announced a £124m supported housing programme over 2026-29, working with targeted local areas, reaching over 2,500 people, both to prevent homelessness and to help people, including young people, off the streets and into more stable housing.
The Social and Affordable Homes Programme includes new flexibility on grant rates for accommodation where design and adaptation drive higher costs and calls on providers to produce ambitious bids for new supported housing – helping to increase the overall supply of supported housing, including options for vulnerable young people.