Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the current student maintenance support system in light of sustained increases in rent, food, and energy costs; and what steps it is taking to ensure that student finance reflects real-world living expenses across all regions, including for students studying at rural institutions.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To help higher education students with cost-of-living pressures, we are future-proofing maintenance loans by increasing them in-line with forecast inflation every year and reintroducing targeted means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from 2028/29. This year, we increased maximum maintenance loans by 3.1%, to £10,544 for students living away from home studying outside London, £13,762 for students living away from home studying in London, and £8,877 for students living at home.
Kathryn Mitchell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby, will bring together sector experts and chair the Higher Education Access and Participation Task and Finish Group. Its remit includes developing options to address regional disparities in access for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to encourage universities to work with their local authorities on strategic approaches to meeting student housing needs.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce students’ reliance on paid employment alongside their studies; and how it intends to ensure that students living in rural or employment-scarce areas have equal access to financial security, opportunity, and an acceptable quality of life while in higher education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To help higher education students with cost-of-living pressures, we are future-proofing maintenance loans by increasing them in-line with forecast inflation every year and reintroducing targeted means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from 2028/29. This year, we increased maximum maintenance loans by 3.1%, to £10,544 for students living away from home studying outside London, £13,762 for students living away from home studying in London, and £8,877 for students living at home.
Kathryn Mitchell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby, will bring together sector experts and chair the Higher Education Access and Participation Task and Finish Group. Its remit includes developing options to address regional disparities in access for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to encourage universities to work with their local authorities on strategic approaches to meeting student housing needs.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review how regional cost-of-living disparities are taken into account when calculating student maintenance support, particularly for lower-income students studying in rural university towns with limited housing supply.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To help higher education students with cost-of-living pressures, we are future-proofing maintenance loans by increasing them in-line with forecast inflation every year and reintroducing targeted means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from 2028/29. This year, we increased maximum maintenance loans by 3.1%, to £10,544 for students living away from home studying outside London, £13,762 for students living away from home studying in London, and £8,877 for students living at home.
Kathryn Mitchell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby, will bring together sector experts and chair the Higher Education Access and Participation Task and Finish Group. Its remit includes developing options to address regional disparities in access for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to encourage universities to work with their local authorities on strategic approaches to meeting student housing needs.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an estimate of the number of (a) judges and (b) valuers required to determine market rent determination applications within reasonable timeframes following implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Judges, salaried regional surveyors (valuers), and fee paid valuers assigned to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) Property Chamber can hear any case type in the Chamber, including rent determinations.
The number of judges in post as of 1 April 2025 assigned to the Property Chamber is published in the 2025 Judicial Diversity Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2025-statistics.
2 regional surveyors and 77 valuers in post as of 1 April 2025 are assigned to the Property Chamber as their primary appointment.
We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to assess the impact of the Renters’ Rights Act on the Chamber, including on judicial capacity. Recruitment was completed in 2025 for salaried and fee-paid judges of the FTT, including for the Property Chamber, and further recruitment in 2026 is planned. The independent Judicial Appointments Commission publishes data on the outcomes of these exercises once recruitment is completed: https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/completed-exercises/.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many additional (a) judges and (b) valuers have been recruited in advance of the implementation of the rent review provisions in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Judges, salaried regional surveyors (valuers), and fee paid valuers assigned to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) Property Chamber can hear any case type in the Chamber, including rent determinations.
The number of judges in post as of 1 April 2025 assigned to the Property Chamber is published in the 2025 Judicial Diversity Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2025-statistics.
2 regional surveyors and 77 valuers in post as of 1 April 2025 are assigned to the Property Chamber as their primary appointment.
We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to assess the impact of the Renters’ Rights Act on the Chamber, including on judicial capacity. Recruitment was completed in 2025 for salaried and fee-paid judges of the FTT, including for the Property Chamber, and further recruitment in 2026 is planned. The independent Judicial Appointments Commission publishes data on the outcomes of these exercises once recruitment is completed: https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/completed-exercises/.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) judges and (b) specialist valuers are assigned to residential rent determination cases in the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Judges, salaried regional surveyors (valuers), and fee paid valuers assigned to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) Property Chamber can hear any case type in the Chamber, including rent determinations.
The number of judges in post as of 1 April 2025 assigned to the Property Chamber is published in the 2025 Judicial Diversity Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2025-statistics.
2 regional surveyors and 77 valuers in post as of 1 April 2025 are assigned to the Property Chamber as their primary appointment.
We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to assess the impact of the Renters’ Rights Act on the Chamber, including on judicial capacity. Recruitment was completed in 2025 for salaried and fee-paid judges of the FTT, including for the Property Chamber, and further recruitment in 2026 is planned. The independent Judicial Appointments Commission publishes data on the outcomes of these exercises once recruitment is completed: https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/completed-exercises/.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average cost of determining a market rent application; and what the projected annual cost is following implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It is not currently possible to identify the cost of determining a market rent application. This is one of several types of case heard by the Residential Property Tribunal and currently costs are not apportioned to individual case types.
We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure the Property Tribunal is able to accommodate the impact of the Renters’ Reform Act.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 105434 on Retail Trade: Business Rates, how many retail businesses will be impacted by transitional relief measures.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government publishes data on the number of properties receiving business rates relief. This data can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many civil servants employed by their Department work in roles primarily focused on (a) transgender policy, (b) diversity, (c) equity and (d) inclusion; and at what annual salary cost.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department has 5 or less roles that are primarily focused on Equality, diversity and inclusion. The combined annual salary of these roles is £135,153.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that new asylum seeker accommodation is equitably dispersed between the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The department operates a Full Dispersal model which works to ensure that asylum accommodation is equitably and fairly spread out across regions and nations of the United Kingdom, meaning that a small number of local authorities are not unduly burdened.
To facilitate this, we have developed Asylum Accommodation Plans in partnership with Local Government which set out our approach to the procurement and occupancy of Dispersal Accommodation across the UK.
The Plans are underpinned by an indexing model which weights three key overarching factors. Indexing provides a flexible, transparent evidence-based for the dispersal of the national asylum-seeking population to ensure equity remains at the core. The overarching factors are:
These three factors ensure the plans are evidence- based and strike a balance between equity and availability, as well as for the first time considering various pressures in local areas which we have worked on with The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The plans and indexing are reviewed regularly to ensure the plans are flexible to changing external factors.