Written questions by Cleverly.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 1 September 2025 to Question 69680 on English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, with which mayors his Department has held discussions on the supplementary vote.

Before the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill was introduced on 10 July 2025, all Mayors were invited to a briefing on the Bill, which included discussions on the change back to the supplementary vote.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of whether overseas electors in (a) Australia and (b) UAE can receive postal ballot papers posted from the United Kingdom in line with the legal deadlines for returning them.

The responsibility for arranging the timing and dispatch of postal votes sits with the Returning Officer for each electoral area. As such, it falls to them to assess the likelihood of an elector’s postal ballot pack being dispatched, returned and completed before the close of poll. The Electoral Commission advises Returning Officers to prioritise overseas postal ballot packs. Since 2016, the Government has supported Returning Officers by funding the use of the International Business Response Licence - which expedites the return of ballot packs from overseas, as well as covering any postage costs that might otherwise be incurred. The Electoral Commission also advises that, in cases where it may not be realistic for a postal ballot pack to be dispatched, completed and returned before the close of poll, the Electoral Registration Officer should make the elector aware of this and advise that they vote by proxy instead. The online absent vote application service includes similar advice for electors applying for a postal vote.

Communities and Local Government, under what circumstances would the HM Land Registry not publish title deeds on the gov.uk website following the purchase of a dwelling.

HM Land Registry does not publish title deeds on gov.uk. Instead, it maintains a register, which is the official and definitive record of land and property ownership in England and Wales. Once a property is registered, the register itself serves as proof of ownership. There is no requirement for title deeds to confirm ownership. An official copy of the register or title plan provides a true and legally recognised record of the property’s ownership and boundaries at a specific point in time. While a property is the process of being registered with HM Land Registry, it will not appear on the register until that registration has been completed. However, legal ownership rights are secured and protected from the moment the application is received by HM Land Registry, not at the point at which processing of the application is completed. Applicants can contact HM Land Registry to check on the progress of their application. Processing times for completing different application types can be found on GOV.UK. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, the register, title plan, and certain associated documents are publicly accessible to all. These can be obtained for a small fee via the ‘search for land and property information’ service on gov.uk which can be found here. It should be noted that not all documents submitted during the registration process are retained, and not all retained documents are available electronically. Access to documents is subject to the Land Registration Rules 2003. Some documents—such as identity documents—are classified as “excepted documents” and are not made available to the public.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the guidance entitled Local Regeneration Fund: accounting officer assessment, published on 2 September 2025, which projects were safeguarded following the consultation entitled Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: consultation on implementation of plan-making reforms of February 2025.

A list of the projects safeguarded is published on gov.uk: Local Regeneration Fund Culture Projects.

Communities and Local Government, whether the former Deputy Prime Minister has received a Ministerial severance payment.

Details of such payments are published in departmental annual reports and accounts.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the level of English language proficiency by women from an ethnic minority background; and whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the potential impact of the level of English language proficiency by women from an ethnic minority background on barriers to their employment.

Data on English language proficiency falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. The Census 2021 provides datasets detailing population and proficiency in English. These datasets can be downloaded from nomis. Nomis is a service run on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) by the University of Durham publishing statistics related to population, society and the labour market at national, regional and local levels, including data from current and previous censuses. Data is freely available. Alternatively, you can obtain census data from the ONS. The department is supporting cross-government work to invest in ongoing integration support, including English language training, employment programmes, and social integration initiatives, to ensure that people can fully participate in society well beyond their initial arrival. For example, the department provided £11.5 million of funding for English language courses and employment support for up to 12,500 Ukrainians across the UK through the ‘STEP Ukraine’ programme. We have now launched a follow-up ‘STEP’ programme of £4.2m (excl. VAT) for English language courses and employment support for Ukrainians and Hong Kong British Nationals. The aim is for the programme to reach 4,000 participants.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2025 to Question 73797 on Community Cohesion and Resilience Programme: Finance, how much funding was provided to each local authority; and what information his Department holds on how that funding was spent.

The 44 places that received funding through the Community Cohesion and Resilience Programme were awarded grants of between £55,000 and £557,000. Local authorities have been required to report to the department on how the funding has been spent and, once completed, their project evaluations. Over 300 projects have been supported through the Programme to strengthen community connections and increase resilience to divisive narratives. Examples include school-based workshops on hate crime and extremism, inclusive sports sessions for marginalised groups, interfaith events, creative arts and cultural festivals, and training for community leaders on tackling misinformation and promoting cohesion. To date, local authorities have reported supporting over 25,000 people through community engagement, cohesion, and awareness activities and provided training to over 8,000 people on topics such as community cohesion, countering extremism, and tackling hate crime.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2025 to Question 74221 on Business Rates: Tax Allowance, whether any central government body is responsible for monitoring rate relief fraud across local authorities.

Business Rates are a local tax and local authorities are responsible for decisions on the awarding of relief, ensuring compliance, and tackling fraud. The Government also provides local authorities with data-matching services to help detect fraud and errors in business rates by comparing different datasets, through the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative (NFI).

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 28 July 2025 to Question 65978 on Islamophobia, whether there was a tender process for the True Vision portal.

True Vision is an online service for reporting hate crimes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It sends reports to local police forces and provides information about hate crimes and support. It will record any crime as a hate crime where the victim or any other person perceives it was motivated by hostility or prejudice towards their identity. We provide a non-competitive, direct grant funding of £80,000 to the project.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 28 July 2025 to Question 69052 on Belong: Contracts and with reference to Belong's press release entitled Belong commissioned by MHCLG to develop national cohesion guidance in partnership with the LGA, published on 1 May 2025, how much funding his Department is providing to Belong to develop the national cohesion guidance; and if he will publish the contract for that funding agreement.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 75178 on 12 September 2025.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2025 to Question 71488 on Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion, who the members are of the social cohesion taskforce.

As outlined in my response to Question 71488, the Social Cohesion Taskforce is an internal Civil Service team comprised of civil servants.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to Answer of 19 September 2025 to Question 75610 on Anti-muslim Hatred/Islamophobia Definition Working Group, whether the working group (a) received and (b) accepted responses from extremist organisations.

The Working Group launched a Call for Evidence to build on the extensive engagement they had undertaken. The Call for Evidence closed on Sunday 20 July. It was open to the public and any individual or organisation was able to submit evidence. The Working Group did not engage with any organisations that are subject to the Government’s non-engagement policy.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 September 2025 to Question 75610 on Anti-muslim Hatred/Islamophobia Definition Working Group, if he will publish the (a) individuals and (b) organisations that the group's secretariat has recorded the working group as having met.

Alongside drawing on their own expertise, the independent working group engaged widely to ensure the definition accounts for the variety of backgrounds and experiences of communities across the United Kingdom. To build on the extensive engagement they had undertaken, the Working Group launched a Call for Evidence which closed on Sunday 20 July. It was open to the public and any individual or organisation was able to submit evidence.

Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the new homes target his Department expects to be (a) flats and (b) family homes; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of incentivising the construction of dwellings with (i) multiple bedrooms and (ii) gardens.

The government has not made an estimate of the proportion of new homes to be delivered in this Parliament which will be flats and houses.The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that local planning authorities should assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community, and reflect this in their Local Plans. This includes considering the need for family homes, in addition to need for other forms of housing such as student housing and older persons housing.The government believes that these matters are best determined locally, and so it is for local authorities to consider if there is a need for particular types of housing in their area.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to construct new housing for asylum seekers.

As allocated as part of the Spending Review, the Government is investing £500 million in a new, more sustainable asylum accommodation model, developed in consultation with local authorities. This funding will be delivered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in partnership with the Home Office and councils, to deliver better outcomes for communities and taxpayers.This fund will support councils to make available basic alternative accommodation so that it can be used on a temporary basis to house asylum seekers waiting for their cases to be processed. In the longer term, our ambition is that this investment will leave a lasting legacy of housing for local communities and reduce pressure on local housing markets.We continue to engage with local government on options for design of the fund and the best way to deliver this accommodation in different areas. We will confirm further details in due course.

Communities and Local Government, how many special advisers he plans to hire.

The government publishes an annual statement to Parliament setting out the numbers, names and pay bands of special advisers, the appointing minister and the overall paybill.

Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment his Department has made of the balance between supply and demand of student accommodation in university towns.

My Department has not made a specific assessment of the balance between the supply and demand of student accommodation in all university towns.MHCLG and the Department for Education regularly engage with a range of stakeholders in the student accommodation market and will continue to do so.The government recognise the concerns of some students about the availability and cost of accommodation in university towns across the country. We expect higher education providers to work collaboratively with local authorities to ensure there is adequate accommodation for their students, and we expect universities and private landlords to review their accommodation policies to ensure they are affordable, fair, clear, and promote the interests of students.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2025 to Question HL8844 on Affordable Housing: Finance, what measure of inflation was used to provide the statistical basis for the valuation of the programme.

At the Spending Review, the government announced £39 billion for a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. The Spending Review document sets out that spend on the SAHP will reach £4 billion per year in 2029-30 and rise in line with inflation subsequently. The programme follows the financial appraisal as set out in the HM Treasury Green Book guidance and uses HMT’s GDP deflator which can be found on gov.uk here. My Department will continue to publish capital spend figures in its Annual Report and Accounts.

Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the estimated value of the 2026-2036 Affordable Homes Programme after discounting for (a) the GDP deflator using OBR’s estimates and (b) the Treasury’s Social Time Preference Rate.

At the Spending Review, the government announced £39 billion for a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. The Spending Review document sets out that spend on the SAHP will reach £4 billion per year in 2029-30 and rise in line with inflation subsequently. The programme follows the financial appraisal as set out in the HM Treasury Green Book guidance and uses HMT’s GDP deflator which can be found on gov.uk here. My Department will continue to publish capital spend figures in its Annual Report and Accounts.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's document entitled Planning applications in England: April to June 2025 - statistical release, published on 18 September 2025, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the declines of (a) 5 per cent for planning permission applications compared to the same quarter last year, (b) 5 per cent in granted decisions compared to the year ending June 2024, and (c) 9 per cent in granted residential applications compared to the year ending June 2024.

The individual factors affecting changes in quarterly planning statistics are complex and difficult to disentangle. My Department’s initial assessment is that a combination of structural, economic, and operational factors best explain the Q2 2025 results. These include a rise in financing costs, which particularly impacts SME developers, and capacity constraints within local planning authorities which affect decision-making timescales. It should be noted that the planning statistics in question do not separately identify outline planning applications. It is also the case that other data sources indicate a more positive position. For example, TerraQuest figures on residential planning applications outside of London suggest a 68% increase in the number of new homes included in residential applications in Q3 this calendar year. The government expect that the changes made to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in December 2024, alongside other reforms to the planning system enacted since, will feed through into a higher level of planning applications and decisions. In its March 2025 outlook, the OBR estimated that the revised NPPF alone would increase net additions by 170,000 over the forecast period 2024/25 to 2029/30, or 120,000 in the Parliament – delivering the highest level of UK housebuilding in 40 years. Once it receives Royal Assent, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will further streamline planning processes, improve certainty for applicants, and unlock and accelerate more housing and infrastructure delivery. Through our capacity and capability programme, we are giving local planning authorities the resources needed to provide a more efficient and responsive planning service, including in respect of making timelier decisions.