Written questions by Cleverly.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Community Recovery Fund: Guidance, published on 18 September 2024, whether councils report to his Department on how the Police Special Grant was spent.

Councils do not report to this Department on how the Police Special Grant is spent. The Police Special Grant is for police and crime commissioners to apply for and is administered by the Home Office.

Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been allocated to councils for local government restructuring over the Spending Review.

The 2025 Spending Review provides over £5 billion of new grant funding over the next three years for local services that communities rely on. This includes £3.4 billion of new grant funding which will be delivered through the Local Government Finance Settlement within financial years 2026-27 to 2028-29. We will publish the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement later this year, which will inform local authorities of their provisional multi-year allocations. In addition, under the local government reorganisation programme, £7.6 million was made available in June, July and August in the form of proposal development contributions, split across the 21 areas that have been invited to submit proposals for unitary local government. This is the first time that such funding has been made available for the development of reorganisation proposals.

Media and Sport, what the terms of reference are for the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund; and over which years that funding will be allocated.

The Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund was launched in January 2023 as an up to £30 million package of funding designed to widen participation in volunteering and tackle loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England. This funding supported people living in disadvantaged areas to connect with others in their community and engage in volunteering, with the aim of improving wellbeing and pride in local areas. In April 2025, the KYN Fund was extended until March 2026, with an additional up to £4.5 million of government funding. This funding will uplift existing grant awards to organisations in the 27 eligible delivery areas that had previously received KYN funding between 2022 and 2025, to enable them to continue delivery up until March 2026. It will build upon the original KYN objectives with funded projects also aimed at reducing loneliness stigma and building community cohesion. The objectives of the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund are, by March 2026:To increase the proportion of people in targeted high-deprivation local authorities who volunteer at least once a month.To reduce the proportion of chronically lonely people in targeted high-deprivation local authorities who lack desired level of social connections.To build the evidence to identify scalable and sustainable place-based interventions that work in increasing regular volunteering and reducing chronic loneliness.To enable targeted high-deprivation local authorities, and the local voluntary and community sector in these places, to implement sustainable systems and processes that encourage volunteering and tackling loneliness.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraphs 24 and 37 of the Pride in Place Strategy, published on 25 September 2025, how much funding he plans to provide for the (a) 76 places and (b) 169 additional places in each of the next 10 years.

On 25 September the Government announced the Pride in Place Programme, supporting 244 of Great Britain’s most in need neighbourhoods with up to £20m each over the next decade. This will serve as the cornerstone of this Government’s support for communities, incorporating the existing 25 trailblazer areas announced at Spending Review and the 75 Phase 1 Plan for Neighbourhoods programme areas that were announced in March. The full funding profile for the initial Phase 1 places is detailed in the prospectus, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/plan-for-neighbourhoods-prospectus-and-tools/plan-for-neighbourhoods-prospectus. Further details about the funding profile for Phase 2 Pride in Place Programme neighbourhoods will be published shortly.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77631 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether his Department has commissioned research on the (a) costs and (b) impact of local government restructuring since 4 July 2024.

I refer the Rt. hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN: 77631 on 13 October 2025.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press release entitled Communities to seize control over high streets and restore pride, published on 24 September 2025, what changes his Department plans to make to (a) use classes, (b) planning policy and (c) planning practice guidance to implement the power to block unwanted shops; what types of shop will it apply to; and what his Department's definition is of unwanted.

Through Pride in Place we will rejuvenate high streets and tackle unwanted shops by giving local communities greater control to influence their high streets. We have announced a suite of tools including a Community Right to Buy for communities to take ownership of local buildings they value and streamlining the compulsory purchase process to help local authorities regenerate high streets.Where units are vacant for a long time, councils can hold a High Street Rental Auction to ensure they are occupied and can choose whether to exclude certain uses to curate more diverse high streets. We will refresh the best practice guidance for councils’ powers under section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which will better enable councils to deal with street frontages in disrepair.And by the end of the year, we will consult on a new set of planning reforms that make the system clearer, more rules-based, and easier to navigate - this includes ways to strengthen the long-term vitality and viability of town centres.

Communities and Local Government, how many (a) social and (b) private homes were started in London in the first half of 2025.

My Department publishes a quarterly release entitled ‘Housing supply: Indicators of New Supply, England’, which includes estimates of new build starts and completions in London. Statistics to the quarter ending June 2025 can be found in Table 217 on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of not facilitating the creation of new directly elected council mayors on mayors for single foundation strategic authorities.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill makes provision to prevent the creation of any new directly elected local authority mayors, whilst allowing for the continuation of 13 existing ‘legacy’ directly elected council mayors. The English Devolution White Paper made clear that single foundation strategic authorities will be non-mayoral. The Government will consider non-mayoral devolution arrangements for a single local authorities by exception. The Government’s preference remains for strategic authorities which bring together more than one local authority over a larger, strategic geography.

Communities and Local Government, with reference his Department's policy paper entitled English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024, whether he plans to amend the proposed (a) minimum population and (b) geographic area of new (i) unitary and (ii) combined authorities.

The English Devolution White Paper and the Statutory Invitation set a guiding principle that new unitary councils should have a population size of 500,000 or more. We have been clear on the need for flexibility and there may be exceptions to ensure new structures make sense for an area. For the areas going through local government reorganisation, decisions will therefore be taken individually and proposals will be carefully considered against the criteria set out in the invitation letter of 5 February, alongside the responses to the consultation, all representations and all other relevant information to assess the proposals. The White Paper also set out that the default assumption is for Strategic Authorities to have a combined population of 1.5 million or above, but we accept that in some places, smaller authorities may be necessary. Decisions on strategic authorities will also be on a case-by-case basis. Instead of presenting a top-down solution for each area, our starting point is to support and empower local leaders and to respect their knowledge, expertise and insight.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77636 on local government finance, if he will (a) list each local authority that has had a disposal flexibility request approved since 4 July 2025 and (b) the value of each.

The Flexible Use of Capital Receipts general direction was introduced in 2016 by the previous government and remains substantively unchanged. As set out in the general direction and guidance, local authorities intending to use the discretionary freedoms must provide the government with details of their planned use of the flexibility. This is to make sure that the government is adequately sighted on the use of the flexibility and can monitor how it is used. Government does not, however, approve the plans or any specific use of the flexibility. Local authorities remain responsible for appropriately complying with the direction and guidance, and ensuring their decisions are in the best interests of local residents. Since 4 July 2025, MHCLG has received new and updated plans from 16 local authorities. The government does not publish a list of authorities that have submitted plans or details that authorities have provided on the intended use of the flexibility – in some cases authorities may have chosen not to make this information public for reasons such as commercial sensitivity.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) remaining in and (b) leaving the Aarhus Convention.

The Government remains committed to the effective implementation of its international obligations and to the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention of access to environmental information, participation in environmental decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. We remain committed to working with the Convention's mechanisms to ensure it functions effectively and upholds these principles.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the initial Government response to the independent report entitled New Towns Taskforce, published on 28 September 2025, what the (a) budget and (b) timetable is for the (i) strategic environment assessment and (ii) habitats regulation assessment.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the government’s initial response to the independent New Towns Taskforce report published on 28 September which can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the policy paper entitled Licensing policy sprint: joint industry and HM government taskforce report, published on 14 August 2025, whether he plans to implement the recommendations in the section entitled Planning – permitted development.

The government published its response to the Licensing Taskforce Report on 14 August. We continue to keep permitted development rights under review.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department subscribes to planning starts data produced by Glenigan.

My Department purchases data from Glenigan covering planning applications for residential developments. While the data contains some information on site starts, we do not judge this to be a robust and comprehensive picture of building starts and therefore do not use the data for this purpose.

Communities and Local Government, how many long-term empty dwellings received funding through the New Homes Bonus in each year since the creation of that scheme.

The New Homes Bonus has been paid in respect of over 2.9 million net additional homes since its introduction in 2011. This includes over 745,000 affordable homes and 65,000 long-term empty properties returned to use.

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review Document O building regulations for windows, in the context of encouraging house building.

Part O of the Building Regulations ensures new housing is built to mitigate the risk of overheating. This came into effect in June 2022.Since October 2023, the Building Safety Regulator has a statutory duty under the Building Safety Act 2022 to keep the safety and standard of buildings under review. This includes continuous review of the Building Regulations and the Approved Documents, which provide statutory guidance on how to meet the functional requirements on the Regulations.In the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation, which ran from December 2023 – March 2024, the Government sought views on whether the current overheating standards are appropriate or require amendment. We are reviewing proposals and feedback from the consultation and will publish the Government response in the coming months.We are also engaging with industry via the Future Homes Hub to gain greater insight into how Part O is being implemented in practice.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 16 September 2025 to Question 76608 on Local Government: Elections, (a) what types of information cannot be shared and (b) which (i) regulators and (ii) enforcement authorities information is shared with.

The Electoral Commission currently lacks an explicit statutory gateway to share information with other regulators and enforcement authorities, making routine information-sharing burdensome and impeding effective cooperation.Alongside other proposals in the Elections Strategy, further details will be set out in legislation which will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 October 2025 to Question 75992 on Combatting Hate Against Muslims Fund, which organisations submitted an application.

The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government received 34 applications to the Combating Hatred Against Muslim Fund. All applicants were required to submit a detailed business plan as well as provide answers to questions related to 16 criteria. More information on the 16 criteria which applications were assessed against can be found on the fund’s prospectus here. The prospectus for the Combatting Hate Against Muslims Fund did not indicate that the names of applicants would be made public and applications were not submitted on this basis.

Communities and Local Government, whether he has received recent representations from relevant stakeholders on the closure of the (a) Smithfield and (b) Billingsgate market.

The Secretary of State has not received recent representations from relevant stakeholders about Smithfield or Billingsgate market.

Communities and Local Government, if he will set out the differences in (a) scope and (b) the terms and reference between the (a) Community Cohesion and Resilience Programme and (b) Community Recovery Fund in 2024-25; and if will list the local authorities that received funding from both in 2024-25.

The scope and terms of reference of the Community Cohesion Resilience Programme was set out in my response to Parliamentary Question UIN 78216. Those for the Community Recovery Fund are set out on GOV.UK Community Recovery Fund: Guidance - GOV.UK including the Councils receiving the funding. The Councils to receive funding through the Community Cohesion Resilience Fund were:Birmingham City CouncilBlackburn with Darwen Borough CouncilBolton Metropolitan Borough CouncilBrent London BoroughBurnley Borough CouncilBury Metropolitan Borough CouncilCalderdale Metropolitan Borough CouncilCity of Bradford Metropolitan District CouncilCity of Doncaster CouncilCoventry City CouncilDerby City CouncilDover District CouncilDudley Metropolitan Borough CouncilEaling London BoroughEnfield London BoroughGateshead Metropolitan Borough CouncilHaringey London BoroughHillingdon London BoroughHounslow London BoroughHull City CouncilHyndburn Borough CouncilKirklees CouncilLeeds City CouncilLeicester City CouncilLiverpool City CouncilLuton Borough CouncilManchester City CouncilMiddlesbrough CouncilNewcastle City CouncilNewham London BoroughNorth Lincolnshire CouncilOldham Metropolitan Borough CouncilPendle Borough CouncilRedbridge London BoroughRochdale Metropolitan Borough CouncilRotherham Metropolitan Borough CouncilSandwell Metropolitan Borough CouncilSheffield City CouncilSouth Tyneside CouncilStoke-on-Trent City CouncilSunderland City CouncilTower Hamlets London BoroughWalsall Metropolitan Borough CouncilWolverhampton City Council