Written questions by Cleverly.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of EU non-regression agreements on the ability of the Government to implement planning reform for nuclear power infrastructure, including the implications of dynamic alignment with the EU single electricity market and ETS.

Regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Review, we will present a full implementation plan shortly, taking account of our international obligations, national security considerations, and planning, environmental and court processes.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Plan for Neighbourhoods: governance and boundary guidance, published on 12 March 2025, what role will community leaders who are not elected representatives or council staff have in the allocation of funding.

Neighbourhood Boards are responsible for making decisions about how £20 million Pride in Place funding will be invested in their area over the next decade. Led by an Independent Chair, Neighbourhood Boards will bring together local people, including residents and community, faith and business leaders, along with the local MP and ward councillor. Further information on Neighbourhood Boards and funding arrangements is set out in our prospectus and supporting guidance.

Communities and Local Government, further to Housing supply: indicators of new supply, England: July to September 2025, published on 15 January 2026, paragraph 2.1, what estimate his Department has made of the number of homes that need to delivered each quarter in order to achieve the 1.5 million housebuilding target in this Parliament.

I refer the Rt.hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 19066 on 20 December 2024.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2026, to Question 103765, on Affordable Housing, what his planned timetable is for the programme to be onboarded on the Government Major Programmes Portfolio; and whether the programme business case will be published on gov.uk.

The Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) is now onboarded on to the Major Programmes Portfolio (GMPP) as a portfolio.In line with HM Treasury guidance for GMPP programmes, the SAHP intends to publish a summary of its Programme Business Case (PBC) within four months of HM Treasury’s formal approval of the PBC.Until that point, my Department will continue to iterate the PBC to ensure it remains robust, up-to-date, and strategically aligned, while protecting commercially sensitive material ahead of publication.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 15 September 2025, to Question 70566 on Chinese Embassy: Planning Permission, if he will publish the reference back correspondence that is listed in the final decision letter.

The Secretary of State's decision letter and the full set of reference back material was deposited in the Library of both Houses on 20 January 2026.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026, to Question 104783, on Planning: Equality, and to the answer of 23 January 2026, to Question 105975, on Planning Permission: Equality, whether a draft equality impact assessment or equality screening was compiled for the Framework draft published on 16 December 2025.

The government is currently consulting on a new National Planning Policy Framework that includes clearer, ‘rules based’ policies for decision-making and plan-making. The consultation will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026 and can be found on gov.uk here. My Department does not routinely publish Public Sector Equality Duty assessments alongside such consultations, but the requirement to consider the impact of the proposed policies on protected characteristics was complied with in the process of deciding to launch the consultation in question. We are seeking views through this consultation on how the proposed policies could affect protected characteristics, and the views we receive will inform our final assessment and the government’s response to the consultation that will be published in due course.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2026, to Question 103294, on Local Government: Elections, whether his Department’s (a) Permanent Secretary private office and (b) HR division is informed whether a civil servant has been given permission to run in the 2026 local elections.

We are not aware of any approvals having been given.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 78185 on Glenigan, what assessment has Glenigan made of the reasons for sites with planning permission not being (a) started and (b) completed.

Glenigan gathers data from the websites of local planning authorities. They supplement this with additional research tracking expected start and completion dates for the construction phase of larger sites. Glenigan undertakes no systematic labelling of reasons why individual sites have not yet started or completed construction, and my Department is not aware of their publishing any assessments in relation to this specific matter.

With reference to the Treasury Select Committee, Work of HM Revenue and Customs - Oral evidence, HC 416, 13 January 2026, Question 442, how many of the additional headcount of 1,000 VOA staff are assigned to work on the council tax surcharge.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is developing its resourcing and recruitment plans for the High Value Council Tax Surcharge (HVCTS) work. It is not yet possible to confirm how many VOA staff will be allocated to HVCTS activity, out of the additional 1000 headcount for HMRC as a whole.

Pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026, to Question 104787, on business rates: tax allowances, what is the estimated increase in business rate receipts from not uprating the (a) £12,000 and (b) £15,000 small business rate relief thresholds in line with the increase in average Rateable Values from the 2026 rates revaluation.

The Government does not hold this information.The Government has already started the work of reforming our business rates system by introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.The Government is also supporting small businesses to grow.  At Budget, the Government announced the extension of Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR) so that businesses opening second premises can retain their SBRR for three years, tripling the current allowance.

Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the datasets and data sources that have been used to calculate the settlements for individual local authorities in the Local Government Finance Settlement.

Details on how funding allocations were calculated, including datasets and sources, were published in the Final Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029, under the methodology for the Fair Funding Review reforms section, linked here.

Further to the urgent question of 19 January 2026 Official Report, Column 25 on Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure, whether it is her policy that business support for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure is reduced relative to 2024-25 levels.

The Government is introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties. The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since the pandemic. Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.

If she will list the overseas conferences that Valuation Office Agency officials have attended since July 2024.

The VOA attends a small number of overseas conferences which are an important part of sharing expertise, innovation and best practice. Since July 2024 they have attended the following:Aug 2024 IAAO Conference, Denver;Oct 2024 COVA Conference, Dublin;Dec 2024, International Research Symposium, IAAO, Amsterdam;Mar 2025, IAAO GIS Valuation Technologies Conference, Columbus, Ohio;Sep 2025 IPTI Halifax, Nova Scotia

Whether granting of a planning permission for airport expansion, which has not yet been (a) started or (b) completed, would be deemed a material consideration in the business rates valuation of an airport by the Valuation Office Agency.

The Valuation Office Agency would not deem granting of planning permission for the physical expansion of an airport, which has not yet been (a) started or (b) completed, a material consideration in their valuation of that airport.

Pursuant to the answer of 12 January 2026 to Question 103000 on Retail Trade: Business Rates, what is the evidential basis for the £100 million figure on large distribution warehouses, how many of those hereditaments are paying more, and what is the mean increase in 2026-27 per warehouse.

Details on how large distribution warehouses are impacted by the new high-value multiplier can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier

Further to the Treasury Select Committee, Work of HM Revenue and Customs - Oral evidence, HC 416, 13 January 2026, Question 465, if she will list the Office for National Statistics datasets that the Valuation Office Agency is using.

The Valuation Office Agency is using the following data from the Office of National Statistics: Census geographies and House Price Index.

Whether it is her policy to replace the business rates system.

The Government has already started the work of reforming our business rates system by introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.The Government is also supporting small businesses to grow. At Budget, the Government announced the extension of Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR) so that businesses opening second premises can retain their SBRR for three years, tripling the current allowance.The Call for Evidence, published at Budget, focuses on how reform of the business rates system can be used to incentivise and secure more investment by Britain’s businesses. This Call for Evidence builds on the findings of the Transforming Business Rates: Discussion Paper and asks stakeholders for more detailed evidence on how the business rates system influences investment decisions.Any reforms taken forward will be phased over the course of the Parliament.

Pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 105303 on Business Rates: Valuation, on what dates were the summaries of the effect of the 2026 revaluation provided by the VOA to her Department.

The VOA is responsible for valuing non-domestic property for business rates purposes. They are required by law to compile and maintain up-to-date rating lists for non-domestic properties in England and Wales, impartially and independent of central government. On 1 April 2024, the VOA began the process of revaluing over 2.1 million non-domestic properties for the 2026 Revaluation. HM Treasury does not receive the full ratings list owing to taxpayer confidentiality. The Treasury worked closely with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government before Budget once the VOA shared the results of the changes in rateable values. That is why the Government introduced a support package at Budget worth £4.3 billion, to protect ratepayers seeing large bill increases. The VOA published its draft 2026 rateable values on gov.uk on 26 November 2025.

What data HMRC holds on (a) stamp duty revenues for residential dwellings which are primary homes raised and (b) the number of transactions, by local authority area in the last financial year for which figures are available.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not collect data via the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) return on whether a residential property will serve as a primary residence. However, the Higher Rates for Additional Dwellings (HRAD) apply when an individual acquires a residential property while already owning another piece of residential property anywhere in the world. SDLT paid on homes which did not pay HRAD on a local authority basis can be calculated using Table 4a and Table 4c of the Annual Stamp Tax statistics publication available here: Annual Stamp Tax Statistics - GOV.UK SDLT paid on homes which did not pay HRAD is calculated by subtracting HRAD receipts from Residential receipts and the number of transactions is calculated by subtracting HRAD transaction counts from Residential property counts. Please note that the statistics publication covers the temporary thresholds period ending 1 April 2025 so the HRAD share may be higher than usual.

Pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 104889 on Council tax: surcharge, whether the Valuation Office Agency’s internal calculations for the 1% figure are broken down by local authority.

Fewer than 1% of properties in England are expected to be above the £2 million threshold – this estimate is not broken down by local authority. The Valuation Office Agency will be conducting a valuation exercise using industry standard techniques to identify properties with a value of £2m or above, including their location.