Written questions by Twigg.

Communities and Local Government, whether the Fair Funding Review will ensure that the most deprived areas of the country will receive the biggest increases in funding.

The government published the local government finance policy statement Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 - GOV.UK and government response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November which set out the government’s plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led system, that will realign funding with need and deprivation. The government has used the most robust and up to date evidence available. On this basis, we are now using data from the recently published 2025 Indices of Multiple Deprivation in our assessment of need. We expect that by 2028-29, the top 10% most deprived authorities will see a significant increase in their Core Spending Power per head, compared to the least deprived. We will publish provisional local authority allocations at the upcoming provisional multi-year Settlement in December. Proposals and allocations will be subject to consultation and the usual Parliamentary process.

Communities and Local Government, How many housing development applications refused by local authorities have had decisions subsequently been overturned by planning inspectors in each year since 2015.

The table below shows housing development applications refused by local planning authorities and subsequently overturned on appeal, as well as total housing development appeal decisions made by the Planning Inspectorate between the years 2015 and 2025: YearTotal overturnedHousing development decisions20151,9776,79320162,6219,06320172,1927,92820182,0187,25620192,0918,62520201,4666,61820211,4435,93320221,3925,49220231,4805,84720241,5616,35320251,2434,532

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to make any changes to the existing bespoke distribution method for the Recovery Grant.

The local government finance settlement for 2024 to 2025 introduced the Recovery Grant, worth £600 million. This was distributed to places with greater need and demand for services (using deprivation as a proxy), and which are least able to fund their own services locally. The grant laid the foundations for funding reform, ahead of our commitment to bringing forward the Fair Funding Review 2.0 from 2026-27. We consulted on the Fair Funding Review 2.0 over the summer, and we will confirm final details of our proposals through a comprehensive policy statement later in the autumn, followed by a consultation for the provisional local government finance settlement, as usual, later in the year.