Written questions by Mohamed.

Communities and Local Government, how they plan to encourage developers to include swift bricks in new buildings.

The government recognises that swift bricks are a vital means of addressing the long-term decline of the breeding swift population. While swift brick coverage is increasing, we made clear during the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that we were committed to doing more to drive up swift brick installation. The government is currently consulting on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), including a new policy that would require all developments to include swift bricks into their construction unless compelling technical reasons would prevent their use or make them ineffective. This is a significant strengthening of expectations already in place and we expect the end result to be at least one swift brick in every new brick built house unless there are legitimate reasons why installation would not be appropriate. The consultation on changes to the NPPF is available on gov.uk here and will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure clear and accessible fire safety regulations for leaseholders and residents in managed buildings.

Article 21A of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 makes clear that the person responsible for fire safety in blocks of flats must communicate the risks identified in the fire risk assessment to residents (including whenever this is updated) as well as the precautions taken to address these risks. They are not required to share the whole assessment as there is an expectation that they summarise the risks given the potentially technical nature of the assessment. On 4 July 2025, we launched a wide-ranging consultation on proposals to hold landlords and managing agents to account for the services they provide and the charges and fees they levy. This consultation closed on 26 September 2025, and we are analysing responses.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of public information on leaseholders’ legal rights.

Leaseholders involved in disputes can contact the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) which provides free initial legal advice and information on leasehold, building safety, commonhold and park home issues for consumers. More than 1.5 million consumers visit the LEASE website each year and access its comprehensive resources. LEASE also offers bespoke advice from its legally trained advisers.

Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to require managing agents to provide leaseholders with monthly service charge and expenditure accounts, with a comprehensive breakdown of charges.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 89138 answered on 21 November 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help remove barriers preventing leaseholders from exercising the Right to Manage, including ensuring ease of contact between leaseholders within a building.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 90259 on 21 November 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a cap on property management fees.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 77534 on 17 October 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to prevent landlords from imposing additional fees on leaseholders without adequate (a) scrutiny and (b) regulation.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 89138 answered on 21 November 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to provide long-term support and advice for leaseholders on maintenance and dispute processes.

Leaseholders involved in disputes can contact the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) which provides free initial legal advice and information on leasehold, building safety, commonhold and park home issues for consumers. More than 1.5 million consumers visit the LEASE website each year and access its comprehensive resources. LEASE also offers bespoke advice from its legally trained advisers.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department is taking steps to require publicly accessible listings of property management details for residential blocks.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 77534 on 17 October 2025.

Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of clarifying the responsibilities of developers and property management companies in new-build and mixed-tenure developments.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 80700 on 20 October 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to prevent landlords from imposing additional fees on leaseholders for profit without adequate scrutiny or regulation.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 77534 on 17 October 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing transparency in property management fee increases, including appointing a body responsible for monitoring the justification for those increases.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 77534 on 17 October 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing regulation of property managing agents.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 77534 on 17 October 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that critical cavity nesting bird habitats are mandated in new housing developments.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question UIN 22080 on 15 January 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to (a) increase the availability of emergency housing and (b) build more social rent homes.

This government is taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. We have committed £500m to the third round of the Local Authority Housing Fund to enable local authorities to obtain better quality temporary accommodation. We have allocated an additional £30 million for local authorities in England to provide support in safe accommodation for victims of domestic abuse and their children who need to flee their homes, bringing the total to £160 million in 2025/26. We have made changes to the Right to Buy scheme, allowing local authorities to retain 100% of the receipts generated by Right to Buy sales and have consulted on a new five-year social housing rent settlement to provide the sector with the certainty it needs to invest in new social and affordable housing. In October 2024, we announced an immediate one-year cash injection of £500 million to the 2021-2026 Affordable Homes Programme and we announced a further £300m boost on 12 February. We will set out details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for Social Rent.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating more funding to build social rent homes as part of the Spending Review.

We will set out details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for Social Rent.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to improve national oversight of local commissioning of (a) specialist led-by and (b) domestic abuse services.

Local authorities have a duty to commission services under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The statutory guidance is clear that local authorities must assess the needs of all victims, including those requiring specialist support, and ensure sufficient support is available to meet identified need. Support should be delivered by knowledgeable and experienced specialist domestic abuse providers. The guidance is also clear that commissioning processes should not exclude smaller voluntary organisations, such as those run ‘by and for’ groups with particular protected characteristics.To further support local authorities in meeting these responsibilities, £160 million has been committed for support in safe accommodation in 2025/26, which includes a £30 million uplift to strengthen domestic abuse support services.My department works closely with local authorities, supporting delivery of these duties, including monitoring through quarterly and annual data collections. My officials regularly liaise with organisations such as Women’s Aid, and I am establishing a new Domestic Abuse Housing Group, to be co-chaired by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, to oversee delivery. This will help ensure that services remain responsive, effective, and aligned with the needs of domestic abuse victims.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of her Department's policies to build new homes on the UK’s carbon budget.

Carbon Budgets are set over a five-year period, so far six Carbon Budgets have been set in law. Government will continue to monitor our suite of policies to ensure we are on track to meeting our Carbon Budgets.Future standards next year will set our new homes and buildings on a path that moves away from relying on volatile fossil fuels and ensures they are fit for a net zero future. These homes will be future proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency. No further energy efficiency retrofit work will be necessary to enable them to become zero-carbon over time as the electricity grid continues to decarbonise.To reduce the embodied carbon of buildings, we must decarbonise every part of the supply chain in their construction, from the manufacture and transport of materials to the construction processes on site. The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy and the Transport Decarbonisation set out how large sectors of the economy will decarbonise.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure new homes help the UK meet its net zero commitments.

Carbon Budgets are set over a five-year period, so far six Carbon Budgets have been set in law. Government will continue to monitor our suite of policies to ensure we are on track to meeting our Carbon Budgets.Future standards next year will set our new homes and buildings on a path that moves away from relying on volatile fossil fuels and ensures they are fit for a net zero future. These homes will be future proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency. No further energy efficiency retrofit work will be necessary to enable them to become zero-carbon over time as the electricity grid continues to decarbonise.To reduce the embodied carbon of buildings, we must decarbonise every part of the supply chain in their construction, from the manufacture and transport of materials to the construction processes on site. The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy and the Transport Decarbonisation set out how large sectors of the economy will decarbonise.

Communities and Local Government, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of giving leaseholders more powers to establish their own management companies.

The Government intend to act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. These include measures that will make it easier for leaseholders to exercise their right to take over the management of their properties; enable the introduction of a new valuation scheme that leaseholders must follow to calculate how much they should pay to enfranchise, which includes the removal of the requirement for leaseholders to pay marriage value; and deliver reforms to drive up the transparency of service charges to make them more easily challengeable if leaseholders consider them to be unreasonable. We will set out details in due course about the extensive programme of secondary legislation needed to bring the Act into force. An impact assessment for the Act, including on the removal of marriage value, was published in December 2023 and received a green rating from the independent Regulatory Policy Committee.Over the course of this Parliament, the Government will further reform the leasehold system. We will enact remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, reinvigorate commonhold through a comprehensive new legal framework, and ban the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure. The Government has made clear it intends to publish draft legislation on leasehold and commonhold reform in this session so that it may be subject to broad consultation and additional parliamentary scrutiny. We will announce further details in due course.