Written questions by Dixon.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to Answer of 16 April 2025 on Question 43378 on HM Land Registry, what recent progress he has made on reducing backlogs in the Land Registry application system.

Improving speed of service remains a top priority for HM Land Registry (HMLR). All the services that people need from HMLR before they move property are either instantaneous or within its usual 3-day standard. Once they have moved, the purchase needs to be registered with HMLR. Around a third of all registrations are automated and near instantaneous. Most take around 12 weeks. The age of the oldest outstanding registrations has now more than halved from a peak in 2023 to under 11 months today. HMLR processing times are publicly available on gov.uk here. If a delay to an application may cause financial, legal, or personal problems or put a property sale at risk, it can be fast tracked (expedited) free of charge. HMLR processes over 1,500 expedited applications every day, with more than 95% of these processed within 10 working days.

Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for introducing the technical consultation on the M4(2) requirement in building regulations.

Housing is one of this Government’s top priorities. Everyone deserves to live in a decent home that is suitable for them and meets their needs. The revised National Planning Policy Framework, published on 12 December 2024, requires local planning authorities to assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community, including those of older and disabled people, and to reflect this in planning policies. Where an identified need exists, plans are expected to help bring forward an adequate supply of accessible housing. The Government will shortly set out its policies on accessible new build housing, reinforcing our commitment to ensuring everyone has access to a safe, suitable home.

Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for publishing the outcome of the technical consultation on the reform of planning committees.

We are considering responses to the consultation in question and will publish a response in due course.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to extend the time limit on exceptions to council tax premiums for category G properties to cover the full period for which a property is being actively marketed for sale for (a) long-term empty homes, (b) second homes and (c) leasehold retirement properties.

The government has published guidance on the implementation of council tax premiums and exceptions to those premiums. This is available gov.uk here. The government does not have any plans to change the exceptions to the council tax premiums.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of raising the baseline accessibility standard for new build homes to Part M4(2) of the building regulations.

I refer my Hon Friend to my answer to Question UIN 12990 on 25 November 2024.

Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to abolish leasehold marriage value.

As outlined in the King’s Speech, the Government will 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. This includes a new valuation scheme that leaseholders must follow to calculate how much they should pay to enfranchise and includes measures such as removing the requirement to pay marriage value, capping the treatment of ground rents at 0.1% of the freehold value in the calculation, and prescribing rates for the calculation. A small number of provisions came into force on 24 July, two months after Royal Assent, relating to rentcharge arrears, building safety legal costs and the work of professional insolvency practitioners.The Government will further reform the leasehold system by enacting remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, and removing the disproportionate and draconian threat of forfeiture. We will also 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.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2024 to Question 3887 on Conveyancing, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) speed up and (b) reduce the cost of conveyancing.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 3887 on 10 September 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what criteria her Department will use to determine which stage (a) one and (b) two levelling up bids will be allowed to proceed.

The Chancellor’s July ‘Public Spending: Inheritance’ speech forecasted an overspend of £21.9 billion above limits set by the Treasury in the Spring. We understand that will have caused uncertainty about the status of some projects and the challenge that presents locally. We must, however, ensure that we are making responsible decisions on public spending. Decisions that have fallen on this government to take. In this context, the Chancellor has set out a path to confirming plans for this year and next at the forthcoming Budget on October 30th.