Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the relevant councils following the cyber attacks on Westminster Council, Hammersmith and Fulham Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, including in relation to the people or organisations behind the attacks.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the National Cyber Security Centre and law enforcement have been working closely with the impacted councils, to understand the risk to their services and to wider government, and to support effective remediation and restoration of services for the public. Councils have been working diligently with specialist support to validate the security of their networks and bring essential services back online. We are aware that some council data may have been stolen by criminal actors. The impacted councils, government and law enforcement are thoroughly investigating the accuracy and potential impact of any data loss. There is an ongoing law enforcement investigation which the councils and MHCLG are fully supporting.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of exempting all small sites from biodiversity net gain on the UK's progress in meeting its legally-binding biodiversity targets.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) plays a vital role in protecting nature and the Government expects it to make an important contribution to meeting legally binding environmental targets. We have heard from developers, local authorities, and ecologists that BNG needs to work better for some of the smallest developments. Recently announced reforms will make the process simpler for small developers while maintaining nature recovery at scale. A full response to the BNG consultations is expected in the new year.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of biodiversity net gain on the UK's progress in meeting its legally-binding biodiversity targets.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) plays a vital role in protecting nature and the Government expects it to make an important contribution to meeting legally binding environmental targets. We have heard from developers, local authorities, and ecologists that BNG needs to work better for some of the smallest developments. Recently announced reforms will make the process simpler for small developers while maintaining nature recovery at scale. A full response to the BNG consultations is expected in the new year.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the (a) name, (b) job title, (c) annual remuneration, (d) time commitment and (e) expected end date is for each direct ministerial appointment in his Department.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We will publish data on MHCLG’s Direct Ministerial Appointments in line with recent guidance.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
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 publish an analysis of how the updated deprivation indicators have altered funding allocations to individual councils under the new Local Government Finance Settlement for (a) Hampshire; (b) Hertfordshire; (c) Kent; (d) Surrey; (e) Essex; (f) Oxfordshire; (g) Buckinghamshire; (h) West Sussex; and (i) East Sussex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the local government finance policy statement Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 - GOV.UK and government 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 system, that will realign funding with need and deprivation.
The government has used the most robust and up to date evidence available. On this basis, we are now using data from the recently published 2025 Indices of Multiple Deprivation in our assessment of need.
We will publish provisional local authority allocations at the upcoming provisional multi-year Settlement in December. Proposals and allocations will be subject to consultation and the usual Parliamentary process.
The government will also include technical annexes for each ‘relative need formula’ – including those which use updated deprivation data – at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (IoD25) on Thursday 30th October 2025. All resources can be accessed online here - English indices of deprivation 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of (a) named day questions and (b) ordinary written questions were responded to by his Department within the required timescale in (i) May 2025, (ii) June 2025, (iii) July 2025, (iv) August 2025, (v) September 2025, (vi) October 2025 and (vii) November 2025.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises the importance of the effective and timely handling of written parliamentary questions (PQs).
The House of Commons Procedure Committee monitors departmental PQ performance and publishes a report of the government’s consolidated PQ data following the end of each session.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the policy papers entitled Spending Review 2025, published on 30 June 2025, and Budget 2025, published on 28 November 2025, what their Department’s capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) will be in each year of the Spending Review period; how much capital funding has been allocated to each of their Department’s programmes; and how much and what proportion of the capital DEL allocation remains unallocated in each year.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Budget document, published on 28 November 2025, set out the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Capital Departmental Expenditure Limits for 2025-26 to 2029-30 (the Spending Review period) in table C.2.
2025-26 budgets are fully allocated. For future years of the Spending Review, allocations will be subject to the departmental business planning process in advance of the start of each financial year.
We have announced a number of key programmes for the Spending Review period, including £39bn for a 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme and £5bn grant funding for infrastructure and land from the new National Housing Delivery Fund. This will complement £4.8bn capital investment from 2026-27 to 2029-30, including £2.5bn in low-interest loans to support the building of social and affordable homes.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 24 October 2025 to Question 77559 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Aviation, what was the topic of the training course.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The topic of the course was risk management.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of mitigating the financial risk of the removal of the statutory override from local authorities regarding the requirement to balance budgets in 2028.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At Autmn Budget 2025, the government clarified that ambitious Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reform plans will be set out early in the new year and that funding for SEND will be managed within the government’s overall departmental spending limits from 2028-29. Therefore, we do not expect local authorities to need to fund future SEND costs from general funds, once the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Statutory Override ends at the end of 2027-28.
We recognise that local authorities are continuing to face significant pressure from the impact of historic and accruing DSG deficits on their accounts. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government engages regularly with local authorities and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy on the impact of the deficits and the extent to which they are expected to grow. We will set out further details on our plans to support local authorities with their historic and accruing deficits through the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has he made of the potential impact of the removal of the statutory override on local authority budgets by the end of the 2027-28 financial year.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At Autmn Budget 2025, the government clarified that ambitious Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reform plans will be set out early in the new year and that funding for SEND will be managed within the government’s overall departmental spending limits from 2028-29. Therefore, we do not expect local authorities to need to fund future SEND costs from general funds, once the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Statutory Override ends at the end of 2027-28.
We recognise that local authorities are continuing to face significant pressure from the impact of historic and accruing DSG deficits on their accounts. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government engages regularly with local authorities and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy on the impact of the deficits and the extent to which they are expected to grow. We will set out further details on our plans to support local authorities with their historic and accruing deficits through the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement.