Written questions by Hayes.

Communities and Local Government, how many agency staff were employed by his Department in each of the last five years.

Awaiting answer.

Communities and Local Government, other than special advisers if his Department has appointed anyone from outside the civil service since July 2024.

Awaiting answer.

Communities and Local Government, how many political appointees have been made by his Department since July 2024.

We have taken ‘political appointees’ to mean special advisers. A list of special advisers by department is published each year in the Annual Report on Special Advisers which is laid in parliament. The Annual Report on Special Advisers 2026 will be publish...

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has hired external public relations consultants since July 2024.

Awaiting answer.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department permits civil servants employed in the UK to work from overseas on a regular basis.

While it is possible to support employees who want to work from outside of the UK there is no right to do so and in many cases support will be impossible. The department does not allow people to work from outside of the UK without assessing risk on a case...

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department permits (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials to use (i) Chat GPT, (ii) Google Gemini, (iii) Claude, (iv) Deepseek and (v) Grok as part of

The Government is committed to harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve the productivity of the Civil Service and the quality of public services. Departments provide officials, Ministers and special advisers with access to secure, ent...

Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help support the level of footfall on high streets in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

This Government is fully committed to rejuvenating our high streets. Later this year, we will bring forward a High Streets Strategy, backed by £301 million of support, to help turn the tide on the high streets most in need. The funding will support the cr...

Communities and Local Government, how much his Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.

This information is not held in the requested format and could only be collated at a disproportionate cost.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that survivors of domestic abuse are able to move from refuge accommodation into suitable permanent housing.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 105656 on 23 January 2026.

Communities and Local Government, if he will provide a list of training programmes used by civil servants in his department since 2020.

We define ‘training programmes’ as a broad term covering both individual courses (e.g. Advising and Briefing) and a collection of interventions under one scheme ‘banner’, (e.g. Beyond Boundaries). The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) provides training programmes for civil servants through a combination of cross‑government, departmental and locally procured learning alongside apprenticeships and structured development schemes. Since 2020, Departmental capability-building activity has included learning accessed through Civil Service Learning and the Government Campus, which bring together core, functional and profession‑specific training across government. During this time, the Department has offered learning programmes covering topics including core skills, leadership and management, and specialist and domain-specific skills. The Department does not hold a single centrally maintained list of all individual training courses undertaken, as learning is delivered by a range of teams. This includes a central Capabilities team, teams delivering profession-specific learning, and teams sharing domain-specific knowledge and best practice.

Communities and Local Government, whether their Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the past 12 months.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have rolled out Microsoft Copilot across the Department to enhance efficiency and support the work of all staff, including policy professionals. The rollout was accompanied by training and guidance which states that all work produced by AI must be checked with an appropriate level of rigour to ensure trustworthiness, reliability, and to avoid bias. Copilot is used by staff across the department including legislation and policy teams. The department is clear that document authors are fully accountable for policy judgement and conclusions and compliance with departmental, legal, and information governance, irrespective of whether or not AI has been used to assist with drafting.

Communities and Local Government, how many households were living in temporary accommodation in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire in each year since 2020.

The government collects data on the number of people in temporary accommodation as a quarterly snapshot. To compare the number of the number of people in temporary accommodation in South Holland and Deepings and Lincolnshire year-on-year, you can compare the latest data from 30 September 2025 here with the same day in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Communities and Local Government, how many new shared ownership homes were built in Lincolnshire in each of the last ten years.

The number of shared ownership new build completions, as well as new delivery through acquisitions, is available in the Affordable Housing Supply open data found on gov.uk here. The data is available by financial year only.

Communities and Local Government, how much his Department has spent on special severance payments in each of the last three years.

The total value of severance payments is set out in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts, which are available for the last three years.

Communities and Local Government, how many households in Lincolnshire were successful in applications from the Disabled Facilities Grant in each of the last three years.

The total Disabled Facilities Grant allocation to Local Housing Authorities in Lincolnshire for the last three years is shown below. Disabled Facilities Grant Allocation 2023-20242024-20252025-2026Lincolnshire£7,585,253£8,656,686£9,265,453 This information is publicly available on the website of Foundations, the National Body for Disabled Facilities Grants and Home Improvement Agencies here: Disabled Facilities Grant Annual Allocations. It is for local authorities to decide how to spend their allocation and deliver adaptations to eligible disabled and older people. Government does not hold data on how many households have received Disabled Facilities Grant funding. This Government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment. This is why we boosted Disabled Facilities Grant funding to £711 million for each of 2024-25 and 2025-26, with a further £50 million in year top up this year, bringing total funding for 2025-26 to £761 million.

Communities and Local Government, whether any civil servants hired by his Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.

Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition. Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes Recruitment Principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow.

Communities and Local Government, how many staff in his Department are reliant on a visa for employment.

Currently MHCLG have 6 employees who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK and 39 employees who require a visa.

Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of rough sleepers are not British nationals.

The government recently published the annual rough sleeping snapshot count for autumn 2025 and the latest management information providing data from September – December 2025. Both of these publications include data on the nationality of people sleeping rough and can be accessed through gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, whether HM Land Registry has a duty to report if property in the UK is purchased by other nation states.

HM Land Registry records show that The People’s Republic of China is the registered proprietor of 58 registered titles in England and Wales. Two further titles are registered in the name of The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, and four titles are registered in the name of The National Tourism Administration of the People's Republic of China. Although HM Land Registry does not have a formal duty to report new acquisitions of UK land registered in the name of foreign states, this information is held by HM Land Registry and can be accessed where required by government and others subject to the general law relating to data protection and freedom of information.

Communities and Local Government, how many properties registered with HM Land Registry are owned by the People's Republic of China.

HM Land Registry records show that The People’s Republic of China is the registered proprietor of 58 registered titles in England and Wales. Two further titles are registered in the name of The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, and four titles are registered in the name of The National Tourism Administration of the People's Republic of China. Although HM Land Registry does not have a formal duty to report new acquisitions of UK land registered in the name of foreign states, this information is held by HM Land Registry and can be accessed where required by government and others subject to the general law relating to data protection and freedom of information.