Written questions by McMurdock.

Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse in (a) Essex, (b) Thurrock and (c) Southend of preparations for mayoral elections in 2026.

Following Ministerial and official consideration, we are minded to hold inaugural mayoral elections for the four Devolution Priority Programme places that are also undertaking local government reorganisation – including Greater Essex – in May 2028 rather than May 2026, so that areas can complete the reorganisation process before Mayors take office. Subject to constituent authorities’ consent, we will establish the Mayoral Strategic Authorities in all areas as soon as possible, to ensure sufficient time for preparatory work ahead of the Mayor taking office and allowing areas to build local collaboration. This was announced to the House on 4 December and communicated to the constituent councils on 3 December. We remain committed to the long-term funding offer to all DPP areas announced on 4 December. We will provide £1 million Mayoral Capacity Funding for all areas following the laying of the secondary legislation, and a minimum of £3 million over the following three financial years. Greater Essex will receive a third of their annual investment fund in both 2026 and 2027, and receive their full annual allocations thereafter. We will establish Mayoral Strategic Authorities as we have proposed. The Greater Essex Combined County Authority’s constituent councils will remain Essex County, Thurrock and Southend on Sea councils. We will continue to encourage constituent councils to work with district councils including Basildon, as well as close collaboration between the new Mayoral Strategic Authorities on the DPP, including ahead of the inaugural mayoral election. We are working with relevant Government Departments to ensure an effective transfer of police and fire function.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of cancelling 2026 mayoral elections on strategic cooperation between Greater Essex and Norfolk and Suffolk.

Following Ministerial and official consideration, we are minded to hold inaugural mayoral elections for the four Devolution Priority Programme places that are also undertaking local government reorganisation – including Greater Essex – in May 2028 rather than May 2026, so that areas can complete the reorganisation process before Mayors take office. Subject to constituent authorities’ consent, we will establish the Mayoral Strategic Authorities in all areas as soon as possible, to ensure sufficient time for preparatory work ahead of the Mayor taking office and allowing areas to build local collaboration. This was announced to the House on 4 December and communicated to the constituent councils on 3 December. We remain committed to the long-term funding offer to all DPP areas announced on 4 December. We will provide £1 million Mayoral Capacity Funding for all areas following the laying of the secondary legislation, and a minimum of £3 million over the following three financial years. Greater Essex will receive a third of their annual investment fund in both 2026 and 2027, and receive their full annual allocations thereafter. We will establish Mayoral Strategic Authorities as we have proposed. The Greater Essex Combined County Authority’s constituent councils will remain Essex County, Thurrock and Southend on Sea councils. We will continue to encourage constituent councils to work with district councils including Basildon, as well as close collaboration between the new Mayoral Strategic Authorities on the DPP, including ahead of the inaugural mayoral election. We are working with relevant Government Departments to ensure an effective transfer of police and fire function.

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to hold a referendum in Essex on the constitution of new councils.

On 2026 elections, I refer the Hon. Gentleman to my answer to Question UIN 94417 of 24 November. Our answer remains that local elections will go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise. The Government announced on 4 December that we are minded to hold inaugural elections for the proposed Greater Essex Mayoral Strategic Authority in 2028 rather than 2026. This is separate to council elections. There is no statutory provision for referendums as part of local government reorganisation. Parliament has already set out in legislation the process for establishing unitary councils in two-tier areas, and a referendum is not part of this process. We understand communities should have their say in the future of local government in their area so we have been clear on the importance of councils engaging with local residents and organisations as they develop their proposals. The Government is now consulting on final proposals for local government reorganisation in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. The Hon. Member’s constituents are able to respond here.

Communities and Local Government, when the initial funding arrangements for Essex's Combined County Authority will be put before Parliament.

On 4 December the Government made a Written Ministerial Statement announcing the funding for all areas on the Devolution Priority Programme, including Greater Essex.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 19 November 2025 to UIN 89916, whether Thurrock's 2026 local elections will be to elect all councillors; and whether he plans to amend the Thurrock (Electoral Changes) Order 2025.

The May 2026 elections to Thurrock Council are for all councillors. We have no plans to amend the 2025 Order.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 19 November 2025 to UIN 89916, whether elections for (a) Basildon Council, (b) Essex County Council and (c) other councils in Essex will be cancelled in 2026.

As I made clear in my answer to Question UIN 87207 on 10 November 2025, our starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise. No local elections in Essex were cancelled in 2025. Elections to Essex County Council and to Thurrock Council were postponed for one year, to 2026. There are no plans to cancel any May 2026 elections except in Surrey where elections to the new councils of East Surrey and West Surrey will replace scheduled council elections, subject to Parliament. Postponements have previously occurred in areas undergoing local government reorganisation only where councils requested or agreed to the postponement.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer given to UIN 89924 on 19 November 2025, whether his Department will require a request from local councils to postpone elections in 2026 to be made before a decision can be taken by his Department to cancel further elections.

As I made clear in my answer to Question UIN 87207 on 10 November 2025, our starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise. No local elections in Essex were cancelled in 2025. Elections to Essex County Council and to Thurrock Council were postponed for one year, to 2026. There are no plans to cancel any May 2026 elections except in Surrey where elections to the new councils of East Surrey and West Surrey will replace scheduled council elections, subject to Parliament. Postponements have previously occurred in areas undergoing local government reorganisation only where councils requested or agreed to the postponement.

Communities and Local Government, how many NSIP applications for data centres have been approved since January 2020 where the relevant local authority submitted a report raising concerns about the development.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 90592 on 21 November 2025.

Communities and Local Government, whether he collects data on the number of data centre developments consented under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects regime; and what estimate he has made of the total land area associated with those projects.

No data centres have yet been consented under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects consenting process.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the National Planning Policy Framework, updated on 12 December 2024, what steps he is taking to support local planning authorities in assessing the impact of data centre development on (a) electricity grid capacity, (b) land availability and (c) other local infrastructure.

The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that planning policies should pay particular regard to facilitating development to meet the needs of a modern economy, including by identifying suitable locations for uses such as data centres.The Framework also makes clear that Planning policies and decisions should recognise and address the specific locational requirements of different sectors.The availability of land for specific uses and developments is a matter to be considered locally though plan and decision-making.A policy paper on delivering AI Growth Zones was published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 13 November 2025. The paper sets out actions that the government is taking to support proposals for data centres, including through the provision of additional planning capacity, forthcoming updates to national planning policy and a new National Policy Statement for Data Centres to support NSIP applications. The policy paper can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 Novembr 2025 to Question 87207 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether his Department would consider another request to cancel elections on the basis of delivering (a) devolution and (b) reorganisation to be sufficiently strong justification for cancelling local elections in 2026.

The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government. In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2025 to Question 87207 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether considers Thurrock's financial circumstances to be sufficiently strong justification for cancelling the 2026 elections; and whether he considers those circumstances to be equivalent to Surrey's.

On the handling of Thurrock Council’s debt, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 77936 on 13 October 2025.Our starting point remains for all elections in 2026 to go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise.The elections in May 2026 to the new councils of East Surrey and West Surrey will replace scheduled council elections, subject to Parliament. Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock are on a different timeline and I have today updated the House on the consultation on their proposals for unitary councils. We anticipate elections to any new councils in May 2027, with a ‘go live’ date for new authorities of April 2028. We are not cancelling elections in Thurrock in May 2026.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has received requests from (a) Thurrock, (b) Essex, (c) Basildon and (d) any other Essex council to cancel the 2026 local elections.

The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government. In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November to Question 87207 on Local Government: Reorganisation, what democratic safeguards his Department will introduce to ensure that voters are not denied the chance to vote in the 2026 local elections due to their councillors requesting another cancellation.

The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government. In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.

Communities and Local Government, with refence to his Department's oral statement of 5 February 2025 on English Devolution and Local Government, Official Report, col 767, whether it remains his Department's policy that it does not hold elections to bodies that will not exist.

The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government. In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of Question 21 October 2025 to Question 84026 on housing prices, what data he uses to inform targeted housing policy.

My Department uses a wide range of data sources to inform the development of policy. Public sources include the English Housing Survey; ONS datasets on house prices, rents and affordability; and Departmental statistics on housing supply, affordable housing, and homelessness and rough sleeping. Local Authority Housing Statistics provide information on waiting lists, allocations, and lettings, while programme delivery data from Homes England and the Greater London Authority track outputs under the Affordable Homes Programme. Planning and housing supply data, including starts, completions and permissions, are published quarterly. Certain proprietary data cannot be published due to contractual restrictions and commercial sensitivities.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 81148 on Leasehold: Ground Rent and to the Answer of 15 September 2025 to Question 74455 on Ground Rent: Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) identify developments where mortgage lenders are refusing to lend due to rent escalation clauses and (b) require freeholders to offer deeds of variation where leases are already inhibited by such clauses.

Some of the most problematic ground rent terms involving clauses doubling more quickly than every 20 years have already been subject to enforcement action by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as unfair contractual terms. If leaseholders find developers and freeholders are failing to meet these binding commitments to remove ground increases and repay past ground rent increases, they should contact the CMA directly. The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details in due course.

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to publish regular data on Pride in Place Programme spending by intervention type.

From April 2026, following the submission of their Regeneration plans, the 75 Phase 1 places will begin to receive up to £2m a year in programme funding for the next decade. The Phase 2 neighbourhoods announced under the expansion will begin to receive capacity and capital funding from April 2026. As outlined in our Regeneration Plan guidance, there will be a formalised monitoring process for the Pride in Place Programme – this is the process by which places will keep us updated on what projects and activities they are undertaking to deliver on the interventions they outlined in their regeneration plan. Further guidance on what data we will collect will be published in due course.

Communities and Local Government, whether there are regional variations in the planned allocation of Pride in Place programme funding to high street regeneration projects.

On 25 September, the Government launched its overarching Pride in Place Strategy, underpinned by two allocative funding programmes. The flagship Pride in Place Programme will provide up to £20 million in flexible funding and support to 244 places over the next decade. Areas will establish a local Neighbourhood Board, comprised of those with a deep connection to the local area, such as, local businesses, grassroots campaigners, workplace representatives, faith and community leaders and any other relevant organisations. That board will take the decisions over how the funding is spent and what local priorities are addressed. Areas in phase 1 of the programme have begun developing their regeneration plans, and many have indicated an interest in supporting high street regeneration projects. As we continue our work with those phase 1 places, we will develop a clearer picture of how interventions may vary across the country. We have also set out a number of tools and powers that support areas to regenerate high streets in our Pride in Place Strategy.

Communities and Local Government, what criteria he uses to postpone local elections under local government reorganisation.

Our starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise.Postponements have previously occurred in areas undergoing local government reorganisation only where councils requested or agreed to the postponement. The single year postponements in 2025 were intended to help deliver both devolution and reorganisation to the most ambitious timeline possible in the area, and in Surrey, in the context of specific financial challenges.Where an election is postponed, the criteria for that postponement is set out in the Explanatory Memorandum to the required secondary legislation for the consideration of Parliament.