Written questions by Morgan.

Communities and Local Government, what proportion of completions funded by Homes England's Affordable Homes Programme were in rural settlements with a population of 3,000 or fewer in each of the last three years.

Homes England publish allocations data for the 2021-2026 Affordable Homes Programme. This can be found on gov.uk here.With regard to their Continuous Market Engagement (CME) activity to the end of March 2023, Homes England made allocations for 1,862 homes in areas with a population of less than 3,000 (10% of all CME allocations).Further updates on allocations, including those with Strategic Partners, which make up a large proportion of programme delivery, will be released in due course.

Communities and Local Government, what proportion of Homes England’s investment programmes was spent in rural settlements with a population of 3,000 or fewer in each of the last three years.

Homes England do not publish a breakdown of rural housing spend or delivery for the Affordable Homes Programme. The Local Authority Housing Statistics [footnote 8] collects the number of new build and acquisitions in populations of less than 3,000. In 2023-24, there were 5,248 new affordable homes in these areas, which accounted for 8% of all new affordable housing. This is an increase of 7% compared to the previous year but lower than a peak of 5,702 in 2018-19. As a percentage, delivery in populations of less than 3,000 has been 8% since 2020-21, lower than a peak of 12% in 2015-16.

Communities and Local Government, what proportion of completions funded by Homes England's Affordable Homes Programme were in rural settlements with (a) a population of 3,000 or fewer and (b) schemes of 15 dwellings or less in each of the last three years.

Homes England publish allocations data for the 2021-2026 Affordable Homes Programme. This can be found on gov.uk here.With regard to their Continuous Market Engagement (CME) activity to the end of March 2023, Homes England made allocations for 1,862 homes in areas with a population of less than 3,000 (10% of all CME allocations).Further updates on allocations, including those with Strategic Partners, which make up a large proportion of programme delivery, will be released in due course.

What support she is providing to local authorities to ensure best practice highway maintenance.

This Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to enabling local highway authorities to maintain and renew the local highway network. In addition to the funding that the Department provides to local highway authorities, it provides and endorses guidance such as the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure. This recommends that local highway authorities take an integrated, risk-based approach to managing their highway infrastructure, and offers advice on all aspects of highway maintenance, from managing vegetation to the frequency of inspections recommended for various types of structures. It makes clear that local highway authorities should consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes. The Department is committed to updating this guidance as soon as possible, and has begun scoping the changes that will be necessary.

With reference to her Department's press release entitled, Seven million more potholes to be filled next year as public urged to report roads in need of repair, published on 20 December 2024, what criteria her Department will use to establish whether authorities are entitled to the 25 per cent uplift.

The Department will provide more details shortly of the criteria that local authorities will need to meet to unlock the full funding uplift in 2025/26. In short, they are likely to be required to comply with certain reporting requirements; toprovide the Department with certain data about their networks and planned roads maintenance expenditure; and to demonstrate that they are complying with best practice.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the quality of road repairs in Shropshire.

This Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to enabling local highway authorities to maintain and renew their local highway networks. At Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced an extra £500 million for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year, a total increase of nearly 50% compared to the current financial year. Funding allocations to English local highway authorities for 2025/26 were announced on 20 December 2024, and Shropshire will receive up to £33.6 million. Shropshire Council is the local highway authority for Shropshire and it is responsible for the condition of its local network. The Government does not set standards for road repairs: it is up to individual local highway authorities to satisfy themselves that they are complying with their responsibilities under the 1980 Highways Act. The Government publishes data annually on the condition of the local road network in England, including Shropshire, and the data is available on gov.uk.

If he will take steps to include contractual obligations for organisations receiving public funding for biomedical research and development to ensure (a) equitable and (b) affordable access to their innovations for (a) people in low- and middle-income countries and (b) other people.

Contracts for researchers funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) have mechanisms to ensure the effective dissemination of research outputs. They also adhere to the NIHR Open Access Policy to ensure academic research is published freely, immediately, and is permanently available online for anyone to read, share, and reuse. The NIHR also uses standard contracts which ensure that intellectual property generated by research benefits the public. Further information on the NIHR Open Access Policy is available at the following link:https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-open-access-publications-funding-guidanceIn addition, all research funded through the Department’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) research programmes delivers direct and primary benefit to the ODA-eligible countries on the Development Assistance Committee list. The scope of the Department’s ODA research is set in consultation with stakeholders in low and middle income countries so that it is relevant, and all research findings are published so that they are available for all. Further information on ODA-eligible countries on the Development Assistance Committee list is available at the following link: https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/oda-eligibility-and-conditions/dac-list-of-oda-recipients.html

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 January 2025 to Question 20325 on Flood Control: Finance, when his Department plans to begin the consultation on a review of the formula that allocates flood defence funding.

We will launch a consultation in the coming months which will include a review of the existing flood funding formula to ensure that the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account when delivering flood protection.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that councils have adequate resources to enforce planning decisions.

The government appreciate that planning departments across the country are experiencing challenges with recruitment, retention, and skills gaps and that in many cases these issues are having a negative impact on service delivery.At the Budget, the Chanceller announced a £46 million package of investment into the planning system as a one-year settlement for 2025-2026. A proportion of this funding will be used to support capacity and capability in local planning authorities, including the recruitment and training of 300 graduate and apprentice planners and developing the skills needed to implement reforms and unlock housing delivery.This will be further underpinned by increases in planning fees that will help improve the resourcing of planning application services, so that local planning authorities can fund the skills they need.More broadly, the Department’s established Planning Capacity and Capability programme is also developing a wider programme of support, working with partners across the planning sector, to ensure that local planning authorities have the skills and capacity they need, both now and in the future, to modernise local plans and speed up decision making, including through innovative use of digital planning data and software.It is for local planning authorities to ensure they have the resources in place to carry out their planning enforcement function.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that all eligible communities receive funding under the Frequently Flooded Allowance.

Protecting all communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. We will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be agreed by the Environment Agency over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.

Food and Rural Affairs, what payments have been made under the Frequently Flooded Allowance; and (a) where and (b) when each payment was made.

The list of projects to receive funding from the first round of the Frequently Flooded Allowance was announced under the previous Government in 2023 and can be found at Frequently Flooded Allowance: Funding for repeatedly flooded communities - GOV.UK. The Environment Agency is best placed to provide detailed information about each project.

Communities and Local Government, when the Flood Recovery Framework has been activated in each of the last 10 years; which local authorities were eligible for support on each occasion; and how much was paid to each local authority area on each occasion.

The Flood Recovery Framework (the Framework) has been activated on four separate occasions in the last 10 years. The Framework was activated in November 2019, February 2020, following Storm Babet in October 2023 and Storm Henk in January 2024.For each activation of the Framework, the following tables lists the names of the local authorities eligible to receive flood recovery relief from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government sponsored schemes and the amounts awarded to date. The Ministry will be making final payments to those local authorities impacted by Storms Babet and Henk that incurred costs up to 31 March 2025, after which both recovery schemes will close.For other associated Flood Recovery Framework grants schemes, the Ministry does not hold information about awards made in relation to the Department for Business and Trade’s Business Recovery Grant scheme, and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Property Flood Resilience scheme.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers affected by flooding who have not received payments under the Farming Recovery Fund.

The Government inherited flood assets in their worst condition on record following years of underinvestment by the previous Government – only 92% of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 high consequence assets are currently at required condition. To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. The government also announced an additional £50 million of investment into internal drainage boards, as part of the one-off £75 million Internal Drainage Board (IDB) Fund, supporting farmers and rural communities from the impacts of flooding, and £60 million in payments to farmers through the Farming Recovery Fund, impacted by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter (October 2023 to March 2024). The new Flood Resilience Taskforce provides oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season. Additionally, Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to cover a range of objectives including support to improve resilience to flooding.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Farming Recovery Fund, if he will publish (a) the number of individual payments made by and (b) total costs of those payment to each local authority area for each year since the fund was established.

Farming Recovery Fund payments are made directly to farmers. The Farming Recovery Fund is activated by the Government of the day and has been activated in 2015, 2019, 2020 and again in 2024 depending on the scale and impacts of the flooding, these are detailed below: - In 2015 when Storm Desmond produced 341mm of rainfall at Honister Pass in Cumbria in 24 hours.- In 2019/2020, a flash flood in North Yorkshire affecting a single parish and the collapse of a flood embankment in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, and widescale flooding across central and eastern England.- In 2024 an expanded fund following Storms Babet, Henk and the exceptional wet weather during the six-month period October 2023 to March 2024 Each iteration of the Farming Recovery Fund is different depending on when, where and what the weather conditions were which caused the flooding. Farmers were able to apply for these funds the details of which are set out below. RegionFRF 2015FRF 2019FRF 2020NumberAmountNumberAmountNumberAmountBerkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire1£9,120.00 Cheshire 1£3,948.94Cumbria530£4,647,445.22 Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 18£78,834.384£28,006.84East Anglia1£1,530.00 East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire8£34,027.492£5,515.781£1,361.30Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area1£2,924.201£21,387.5035£241,976.01Greater Manchester7£33,124.52 Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire 6£52,665.3270£362,580.74Inner London - West1£3,603.00 1£1,730.00Lancashire129£978,167.39 Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 1£5,829.50 Lincolnshire1£19,846.0030£165,887.13 North Yorkshire212£1,507,147.2036£266,871.18 Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear60£425,640.21 Shropshire and Staffordshire1£20,000.00 29£120,655.82South Yorkshire1£514.9012£39,280.42 Tees Valley and Durham15£106,270.76 West Yorkshire27£181,071.49 Total payments to English registered businesses995£7,970,432.38106£636,271.21141£760,259.65Paid for land in England but business registered in other UK country4£31,867.98 3£7,368.36Grand total999£8,002,300.36106£636,271.21144£767,628.01 We will publish data for the 2024 Farming Recovery Fund once payments have been finalised. The 2024 Farming Recovery Fund has paid around 12,700 farming businesses £57.5 million, to date. Recovery payments were always intended as an exceptional intervention. Defra is working with the Flood Resilience Taskforce to develop a longer-term solution to the impacts of our changing climate on the agricultural sector. We are also investing in environmental land management schemes which include actions to improve flood resilience and water management on farms.

With reference to his Oral Statement of 15 January 2025 on Winter Update, if he will publish a list of the locations of the 24 critical incidents declared in the week of 6 January 2025.

On 7 January 2025, there were a total of 24 active critical incidents reported, as referenced by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in his oral statement of 15 January 2025. The following table shows a list of the 24 National Health Service organisations where the critical incidents were declared:NHS organisationMid and South Essex NHS Foundation TrustCambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation TrustSomerset NHS Foundation TrustNHS England East of England RegionUniversity Hospitals of North Midlands NHS TrustMersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS TrustRoyal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation TrustTorbay & South Devon NHS Foundation TrustUniversity Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation TrustNHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Integrated Care BoardJames Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation TrustNorth West Anglia NHS Foundation TrustSouth Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation TrustEast Midlands Ambulance Service NHS TrustLiverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation TrustHampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation TrustNHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care BoardUniversity Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation TrustUniversity Hospitals Plymouth NHS TrustNorth Middlesex University Hospital NHS TrustSouth Warwickshire University NHS Foundation TrustRoyal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation TrustGreat Western Hospitals NHS Foundation TrustNHS Devon Integrated Care BoardAs of 21 January 2025, 23 of the critical incidents declared above have been stood down. Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust remains active. University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Foundation Trust also declared a critical incident on this date but stood down the next day.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to employers' National Insurance contributions on specialist colleges.

The department is receiving compensation in recognition of the increase in National Insurance contributions (NICs) paid by institutions it funds, including colleges, schools and other state-funded special educational needs and disabilities provision. Work is in progress to determine how that funding will be distributed, and more information will be provided as soon as is practicable. This NICs funding will be in addition to the £300 million and £1 billion funding increases announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 for further education and young people with high needs respectively, in 2025/26.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it compulsory for developers to form agreements with water companies for the adoption of new-build drainage systems.

Section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act has not yet been implemented in England. Should it be implemented, all new sewerage will be built to an agreed standard and automatically adopted. The powers to adopt existing sewerage have now expired. Therefore, new legislation will be required to enable mandatory adoption of this sewerage. Water companies can currently adopt sewerage voluntarily. The Government has included private sewerage in the terms of reference for the forthcoming review of the water sector and will examine how best to address the problems caused by unadopted sewerage. The Government is committed to using legislation to reform the water sector and will continue to do so where necessary. As set out in the written ministerial statement by the Housing Minister, this Government is determined to end the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ estates. We will consult on the best way to achieve this in 2025 and we will include options to reduce the prevalence of private management of these estates - which are the root cause of the problems faced by homeowners.

Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to Question 20371 on Sewers: Private Sector, tabled on 16 December 2024.

A response to Question 20371 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the Honourable Member.

With reference to his statement of 6 January 2025 on Health and Social Care Reform, Official Report, columns 595 to 598, what steps he is taking to ensure equal access to healthcare in rural and urban areas.

The Government recognises the health inequalities faced by rural communities in England, particularly around access to healthcare services. In response, we are working closely across the department, with NHS England and regional Directors of Public Health to develop approaches that address these inequalities so that no person or community is left behind.The Government is committed to putting patients first, including in both rural and urban areas. This means making sure that all patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, part of the Government’s Plan for Change, which sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week Referral to Treatment target by the end of this Parliament. The plan sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure that patients are seen on time and have the best possible experience during their care. A copy of the plan is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/reforming-elective-care-for-patients.pdfWe have set an ambition to make progress on the 18-week standard in 2025/26, to 65% nationally and for all trusts to deliver a minimum five percentage point improvement by March 2026. At the end of November 2024, the rate at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust was 48.5%.

With reference to his statement of 6 January 2025 on Health and Social Care Reform, Official Report, column 597, what his definition is of working class areas.

The Department is committed to improving health outcomes across geographies and demographic groups to ensure that there is no two-tier system for healthcare in this country, where those who can afford it pay to go private, and those who cannot are left behind.The Index of Multiple Deprivation, produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, is most commonly used as the means to determine the most deprived areas of the country, which are often where health needs are greatest. As an example of targeted support, the Further Faster 20 (FF20) initiative will support 20 trusts with long waits in areas of highest economic inactivity to tackle their waiting lists by improving productivity. Trust teams will work with the FF20 team of clinicians and managers to look at their pathways and ways of working with the aim of improving the way that outpatients, diagnostics, and theatres are run.On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, part of the Government’s Plan for Change, which sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target by the end of this Parliament. The plan sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure that patients are seen on time and have the best possible experience during their care. The Plan for Change commits that by the end of this parliament, 92% of all patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks for treatment following a referral.The Elective Reform Plan sets out a range of new measures to address health inequalities, including that people living in disadvantaged areas are 1.8 times more likely to wait over a year than someone living in one of the least deprived areas. This is why the plan commits not only to make progress on the 18-week standard in 25/26, to 65% nationally, but for all trusts to deliver a minimum five percentage point improvement by March 2026, recognising that we must have high expectations for progress across the country.