Written questions by Stephenson.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the potential cost to (a) the public purse and (b) private developers of constructing 12 new towns.

The government has tasked the New Towns Taskforce, an independent expert advisory panel chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, with developing recommendations to ministers on suitable locations for new towns, as well as how to fund and deliver them. The Taskforce will submit its final report in the near future and the government will subsequently publish both the report and its response. Any hypothetical cost projections associated with the New Towns programme are, at this stage, pure speculation.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the level of funding for Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.

On 3 February, the Ministry published the 2025/26 Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) which sets out funding allocations for all local authorities including fire and rescue to support their operational and capital needs.These allocations, which include the National Insurance Contribution Grant, will see standalone fire and rescue authorities receiving an increase in core spending power of £69.1 million in 2025/26. This is an increase of 3.6 per cent in cash terms compared to 2024/25.For 2025/26, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Authority will have a core spending power of £40.7 million, an increase of £1.6 million (4.0%) compared to 2024/25.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of qualified planners in local government.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 67508 on 21 July 2025 and Question UIN 54911 on 10 June 2025.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2025 to Question 26699 on Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to allow Ministers to change the boundaries of existing strategic authorities.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, introduced to the House of Commons on 10 July 2025, amends provisions in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 and the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 concerning the establishment and expansion of combined authorities (CAs) and combined county authorities (CCAs), respectively. These provisions allow for existing CAs or CCAs to be changed through ‘locally-led’, ‘Secretary of State-led’ and ‘Secretary of State-directed’ routes. The locally-led and Secretary of State-led routes will require local consent. However, where no relevant, viable proposals have been submitted, the Secretary of State may decide to direct the addition of a local government area to an existing CA or CCA. The Government believes that devolution should be locally-led wherever possible and will work with local leaders to agree proposals that have broad support.

Communities and Local Government, whether her proposals for English devolution could require the further re-organisation of (a) NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board and (b) other integrated care boards.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), alongside NHS England, continue to work closely on any proposals to reorganise integrated care boards (ICBs). In areas where Strategic Authorities are known, DHSC, alongside the MHCLG and NHS England, will proceed with integrated care board (ICB) reorganisation to ensure coterminous boundaries wherever feasibly possible.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of building regulations on the speed of development of new towns.

The Building Regulations 2010 are intended to protect people’s safety, health and welfare. They establish minimum legal performance standards for the design and construction of new building work. The government assesses the impact of any proposed changes to building regulations, including the potential impact on development where appropriate and proportionate.The New Towns Taskforce will submit its final report with detailed recommendations on new towns this summer, including on potential locations. We will start building as quickly as possible, with work beginning in some sites by the end of the Parliament.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of delivery timescales for New Towns Development Corporations on the ability of those corporations to build beautiful houses.

Development corporations are well placed to achieve significant volumes of housebuilding at the same time as delivering high-quality and well-designed homes and neighbourhoods.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department’s proposed New Towns will be able to demolish areas of existing housing.

The New Towns Taskforce will submit its final report this summer.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 56032 on Housing: Costs, what steps she plans to take to incentivise developers to build at a level that reduces house prices.

The government’s Plan for Change includes a hugely ambitious milestone of building 1.5 million new homes in England in this Parliament. We have already taken decisive action to increase housing supply, including overhauling the planning system and kickstarting a decade of social and affordable housing renewal. In July 2024, the Home Builders Federation and supporting members issued a joint statement making clear that the housebuilding industry was committed to increase delivery of new homes year on year in this parliament. The statement can be found on the Home Builders Federation website here.

Communities and Local Government, if she will publish the New Towns Taskforce recommendations before 23 July 2025.

The New Towns Taskforce will submit its final report this summer.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the amount of capital funding that public sector bodies will spend on (a) building and (b) purchasing houses between July 2024 and July 2029.

Local authority capital expenditure and financing estimates for the current financial year can be found on gov.uk here.At the Spending Review, we announced £39 billion for a successor to the Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 2 July (HCWS771).The government is also providing £950 million capital for the fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund - the largest round of the fund to date – to deliver up to 5,000 homes.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring landlords to update Efficiency Performance Certificates regularly.

The government is reforming Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) to ensure that people, including tenants, have access to even more reliable and accurate information about the properties they are renting. Having a regularly updated EPC provides tenants with up to date information including relative energy bills and thermal comfort of their homes compared to other rental properties. More information, including the consultation stage impact assessment, can be found in the consultation ‘Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime’ on gov.uk.

Communities and Local Government, whether local authorities will be required to provide funding towards infrastructure for New Towns.

The government has tasked the New Towns Taskforce, an independent expert advisory panel chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, with developing recommendations to ministers on suitable locations for new towns, as well as how to fund and deliver them. The Taskforce will submit its final report this summer.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help support local authorities to increase house building.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question UIN 58440 on 17 June 2025.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of paragraph 55(a)(i) of the report by the Competition and Markets Authority entitled Summary of CMA market study final report into housebuilding, published on 26 February 2024.

The government published its response to the recommendations made by the Competition & Markets Authority market study into housebuilding on 22 October 2024. It can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 55(a)(ii) of the report by the Competition and Markets Authority entitled Summary of CMA market study final report into housebuilding, published on 26 February 2024, what steps her Department plans to take to (a) introduce a consistent set of quality standards for new homes and (b) enable new home buyers to (i) be able to customise their new home and (ii) resolve snags and faults more easily.

The government published its response to the recommendations made by the Competition & Markets Authority market study into housebuilding on 22 October 2024. It can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of paragraph 43 of the report by the Competition and Markets Authority entitled Summary of CMA market study final report into housebuilding, published on 26 February 2024.

The government published its response to the recommendations made by the Competition & Markets Authority market study into housebuilding on 22 October 2024. It can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential alignment of ICBs and mayoral authority boundaries.

The English Devolution White Paper sets out a clear ambition to align relevant public service and strategic authority boundaries over time, including in relation to health. The 10 Year Health Plan for England published on 3 July reiterates this commitment, with a clear intention to align ICB boundaries with strategic authorities, wherever feasibly possible. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care have affirmed their shared commitment to this goal.

Communities and Local Government, how many responses have been received for each of her Department's consultations since 4 July 2024.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 5412 on 11 October 2024 and the answer to Question UIN 16492 on 4 December 2024.

Communities and Local Government, if she has made an assessment of the potential impact of Part O of Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations on her plans to develop beautiful communities.

The intention of Part O is to reduce the risk of overheating in new residential buildings. Overheating in buildings has been highlighted as a key risk for the health and productivity of people and businesses in the UK, and we must ensure that new homes do not increase that risk.The Building Regulations are outcome based and not prescriptive, and two different Part O compliance routes have been put in place to enable design flexibility and allow for innovative, beautiful and compliant designs.As part of the Future Homes and Buildings Standard consultation, which closed in March 2024, we sought evidence on whether current overheating standards are appropriate or require amendment. The Government will set out the evidence it received on Part O during this consultation and its response to this in Autumn 2025, when the Future Homes and Buildings Standard consultation response will be published.