Written questions by Rosindell.

Communities and Local Government, how many completion certificate applications to the Building Safety Regulator were withdrawn at the applicants request in each month between October 2023 and April 2025 under regulation 40 of the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023.

The Department and the Building Safety Regulator recognise the value to the sector in providing performance data. The BSR will shortly be publishing quarterly data demonstrating the volumes of applications received, recorded outcomes and decision times for determination. Table 1 shows:Number of completion certificate applications to the Building Safety Regulator that were withdrawn at the applicants request between October 2023 and April 2025Total number of completion certificate applications received by the Building Safety Regulator between October 2023 and April 2025Table 2 shows:Number of emergency repair notices received by the Building Safety Regulator between October 2023 and April 2025Table 1: Completion CertificatesYear / monthWithdrawnTotal received 2023 00October00November00December002024040January00February00March00April01May00June04July04August03September05October06November05December0122025 044January08February012March013April011Totalo84 Table 2: Emergency Repair NoticesYear / MonthEmergency Repair Notices20230October0November0December0202471January0February2March0April2May2June5July5August9September7October15November12December12202579January36 February16March11April16Total150

Communities and Local Government, how many completion certificate applications the Building Safety Regulator received in each month between October 2023 and April 2025 under regulation 40 of the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023.

The Department and the Building Safety Regulator recognise the value to the sector in providing performance data. The BSR will shortly be publishing quarterly data demonstrating the volumes of applications received, recorded outcomes and decision times for determination. Table 1 shows:Number of completion certificate applications to the Building Safety Regulator that were withdrawn at the applicants request between October 2023 and April 2025Total number of completion certificate applications received by the Building Safety Regulator between October 2023 and April 2025Table 2 shows:Number of emergency repair notices received by the Building Safety Regulator between October 2023 and April 2025Table 1: Completion CertificatesYear / monthWithdrawnTotal received 2023 00October00November00December002024040January00February00March00April01May00June04July04August03September05October06November05December0122025 044January08February012March013April011Totalo84 Table 2: Emergency Repair NoticesYear / MonthEmergency Repair Notices20230October0November0December0202471January0February2March0April2May2June5July5August9September7October15November12December12202579January36 February16March11April16Total150

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to protect private landlords from repeat non-paying tenants.

The Renters’ Rights Bill will introduce new protections for tenants and landlords when rent is not paid. When tenants temporarily fall into rent arrears, we will support both parties by preventing tenancies which are otherwise viable from ending. We will increase the notice period for an arrears eviction to four weeks and increase the threshold for mandatory eviction to three months’ rent arrears. Landlords will still have access to robust grounds for possession for rent arrears, including the mandatory ground for three months arrears, and discretionary grounds which could be used for cases involving repeat non or late payment of rent that does not meet the mandatory threshold.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to increase the recruitment and retention of trading standards officers within local councils.

Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the recruitment and retention of their own workforces.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure the provision of suitable housing for people with disabilities.

I refer the Hon. member to my previous answer UIN 12990 provided on 25 November 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with the London Borough of Havering on supporting highstreets to provide a broad range of (a) shops, (b) amenities and (c) services.

The Government wishes to promote thriving, mixed use high streets across the country, and through the Plan for Change, is fostering the conditions for economic growth upon which the health of high streets depends. Local leaders also have a vital role in supporting high streets and my department engages with local authorities and other partners regularly. The Mayor of London and London councils have published a growth plan to boost jobs and prosperity. Boroughs like Havering are obliged to promote the health of town centres through the planning system, and the Government has introduced new High Street Rental Auction powers enabling all councils to tackle persistent vacancy on high streets. More widely, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) like the London Riverside BID and Romford Town Centre BID in Havering can also play a role in attracting investment and improving trade.

Communities and Local Government, how much funding was allocated by her Department for infrastructure improvements in Romford constituency in the last two years.

There have been no funds allocated to Romford over the last 2 years from the Housing Infrastructure Fund or from other MHCLG Land and Infrastructure funds. The Greater London Authority was awarded a £63 million grant through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for the 2025-26 financial year to support London's economic development, with a focus on supporting local businesses and improving communities and skills. The GLA is working with London Councils and other partners to allocate these funds.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to work with relevant authorities to prevent wildfires.

Each fire and rescue authority is required to plan for the foreseeable risks in their area (including wildfire), through their Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), and having regard to the views of other key local responders.The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the lead government department for wildfire response (from 1 April 2025) and owns the National Risk Register (NRR) wildfire risk, however a coordinated approach is essential to mitigate the impact on people, property, habitats, livestock, natural capital and wildlife, and to plan the most effective response to incidents. MHCLG maintains regular engagement with other government departments including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Cabinet Office, along with National Bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council and England and Wales Wildfire Forum to monitor and review sector led improvements and mitigations. Since 2024 the government has funded a National Resilience Wildfire Advisor to assess what additional wildfire national capabilities might be needed to increase resilience to the wildfire risk and to ensure coordination of approaches across the sector. In December 2021 the Home Office, as the former lead government department for wildfire, published the Wildfire Framework for England. The framework identifies responsibilities, clarifies relationships, and facilitates coordination at the government level and between key wildfire stakeholders, in England. As outlined in the Wildfire Framework for England, Defra maintain responsibility for the review of land management inputs for fuel load management, and for the promotion of wildfire mitigation and adaptation planning to land managers. Landowners and land managers are encouraged to adopt good quality wildfire management plans, use sustainable methods to manage habitat and restore their peatland – wetter, healthy-functioning peatlands are more resilient to the risk of wildfire.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to support housing landlords with tenants in long-term rent arrears.

Financial support is available for tenants facing difficulty paying their rent, including through the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payment schemes. In 2025/26, the government is investing £1 billion into these schemes, which are administered by local authorities in line with local priorities. Free, non-means tested legal advice is available through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service for tenants who are at risk of possession proceedings or loss of their home. Through this service, tenants can receive advice on housing, welfare benefits and debt as soon as they receive written notice that possession of their home is being sought. While support is available to sustain tenancies where appropriate, the government believes that landlords must have robust grounds for possession where there is good reason to take their property back, including where a tenant has accrued long-term rent arrears. Under the Renters’ Rights Bill, there will be grounds for possession for rent arrears allowing mandatory eviction after three months’ arrears are accrued, and discretionary grounds for lesser amounts in situations such as frequent late payment. It is also important that landlords can have efficient access to justice in the minority of cases where court action becomes necessary. We will make the court possession process more efficient for users by digitising it from end-to-end.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure the diversity of (a) shops and (b) service provision on high streets.

The Government is committed to fostering the conditions for prosperous and diverse high streets. The Government has recently introduced High Street Rental Auctions to tackle persistent vacancy and ensure that more business ventures can access commercial property opportunities at a fair market rate. The National Planning Policy Framework also supports town centres by requiring policies and decisions to promote their growth, management and adaptation. The commercial business and service use class provides flexibility for premises between high street uses, including to provide services such as creches or health services, without the need for a planning application.

Communities and Local Government, what proportion of invoices from UK suppliers were paid by her Department within 10 days of receipt between 1 September 2024 and 28 February 2025.

Data on the percentage of invoices paid within 5 days and 30 days is routinely reported under Regulation 113 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. MHCLG publishes this information on Gov.uk and a link to Q3 2024/25 is here MHCLG's prompt payment data 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UKThe data for Q4 2024/25 will be published on Gov.uk by the end of April 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to tackle unsafe living conditions in privately rented properties.

The government is committed to ensuring that privately rented properties are safe, decent and warm. The Renters’ Rights Bill will apply ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the private rented sector, allowing us to set clear legal expectations about the timeframes within which landlords must take action to make homes safe where they contain significant hazards, such as damp and mould. This will ensure that all renters in England are empowered to challenge dangerous conditions. The Bill will also allow us to apply a Decent Homes Standard - a technical standard setting out minimum decency requirements - to the private rented sector for the first time. It provides local authorities with powers to enforce this standard, as well as strengthening their existing powers in relation to hazards. This includes introducing new financial penalties of up to £7,000 for landlords who have failed to take reasonably practicable steps to keep their properties free of serious hazards.

Communities and Local Government, if she will bring forward legislation to allow wheelchair users who have been (a) trapped insider their homes or (b) left outside to claim compensation from freeholders for lift malfunction.

The government recognises the importance to wheelchair users of having properly functioning lifts in residential blocks.Landlords are responsible for maintaining lifts and for carrying out periodic thorough inspections to ensure those lifts operate safely.Landlords who breach the terms of their lease may be challenged by leaseholders in the courts.Leaseholders may also challenge the reasonableness of service charges where work is carried out to a poor standard and can apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a manager in cases of serious management failure.The government has no plans to introduce a statutory compensation scheme.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure new build housing allows for sufficient soundproofing against external noise pollution.

The Government is continually assessing the efficacy of Building Regulations to ensure that our new homes and buildings are safe and provide healthy living environments for their occupants. Part E of the Building Regulations requires protection against sound from other parts of a building, adjoining buildings and within a dwelling-house, and prevention of unreasonable reverberation in common internal parts of buildings with residential flats or rooms. For guidance on reducing the passage of external noise into buildings the government published the National Model Design Code: Part 2 – Guidance Notes (MHCLG, 2021) and we encourage designers to note the Association of Noise Consultants’ Acoustics, Ventilation and Overheating: Residential Design Guide (2020). Installing background ventilators such as trickle vents, may increase noise pollution where façades face noisy environments. Approved Document F, volume 1 recommends that noise attenuating background ventilators are fitted in these circumstances.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure new build housing follows high build standards.

We need historic levels of housebuilding to address the housing crisis. It is vital that the homes we deliver are high-quality, well-designed places where people can work and thrive.The Building Safety Act enables the design and construction of more high quality homes and aims to ensure that all new homes meet stringent safety standards. It also requires the Building Safety Regulator to keep the safety and standard of buildings under review. Government is continually assessing the efficacy of Building Regulations to ensure that our new homes are safe and provide healthy living environments for their occupants.Building control procedures that came into force in October 2023 also provide strengthened regulatory oversight of Building Regulations before, during, and on completion of higher-risk building work. This will ensure safer, better-quality buildings, without systemic defects.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help improve mutual twinning arrangements between local authorities and the British Overseas Territories.

With the support of funding from the UK Government, Hampshire County Council is twinned with Anguilla and St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, and Suffolk County Council is twinned with Montserrat. These partnerships are focused on learning and support in children and adults social care and education.Links between local authorities in the United Kingdom and with British Overseas Territories are principally a matter for those authorities themselves. However, the Government recognises that such links, as well as those between local authorities in the United Kingdom and abroad more generally can be beneficial to those authorities, bringing with them learning and best practice from all over the world as well as creating and deepening ties between people and communities. The Government is therefore supportive of more and better such links.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help support local authorities to tackle rodent infestations in public buildings.

Funding for local authorities is available through the Local Government Finance Settlement. The Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25. The majority of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced recognising that local leaders are best placed to decide how resources should be used to deliver local priorities, including providing pest control services.

Communities and Local Government, how many instances of religiously aggravated criminal damage were reported in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency in the last 12 months.

We are absolutely clear that all forms of racial and religious discrimination are completely unacceptable, including that directed at Christians, and we committed to protecting the right of individuals to freely practise their religion. Churches and Christian charities occupy a valuable position in society through their access to active citizens, their role within local communities and their good relationships with other faith groups. Government and police routinely assess potential threats to ensure that protective measures are in place to protect Christian communities and their places of worship against terrorism and hate crime. Government however does not hold detailed hate crime data broken down per constituency.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking with relevant organisations to help tackle anti-Christian religiously-aggravated criminal damage.

We are absolutely clear that all forms of racial and religious discrimination are completely unacceptable, including that directed at Christians, and we committed to protecting the right of individuals to freely practise their religion. Churches and Christian charities occupy a valuable position in society through their access to active citizens, their role within local communities and their good relationships with other faith groups. Government and police routinely assess potential threats to ensure that protective measures are in place to protect Christian communities and their places of worship against terrorism and hate crime. Government however does not hold detailed hate crime data broken down per constituency.

Communities and Local Government, how many anti-Christian hate crimes were reported in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency in the last 12 months.

We are absolutely clear that all forms of racial and religious discrimination are completely unacceptable, including that directed at Christians, and we committed to protecting the right of individuals to freely practise their religion. Churches and Christian charities occupy a valuable position in society through their access to active citizens, their role within local communities and their good relationships with other faith groups. Government and police routinely assess potential threats to ensure that protective measures are in place to protect Christian communities and their places of worship against terrorism and hate crime. Government however does not hold detailed hate crime data broken down per constituency.