Written questions by Hollinrake.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the guidance document entitled Guidance on planning propriety: planning casework decisions, paragraph 19, updated 16 December 2021, whether substantive representations can be made to the Secretary of State on a (a) called-in planning application and (b) recovered appeal after the planning inspectorate has submitted their report.

Yes, they can. Representations made to the Secretary of State on called in planning applications and recovered appeals planning applications after the Planning Inspectorate has submitted their report are dealt with in accordance with paragraph 19 of the published propriety guidance on planning casework decisions which can be found here.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 21 May 2025 to Question HL7317 on Fire and Rescue Service and Police: Employers’ Contribution, what methodology her Department used to calculate the National Insurance mitigation funding for (a) fire and rescue authorities and (b) fire and rescue services that are part of a county council.

On 3 February 2025, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published the 2025/26 Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) which sets out funding allocations for all local authorities including fire and rescue. At the Settlement, MHCLG announced an additional £515 million of support for local government to manage the impact of changes to employer National Insurance Contributions announced at the Autumn Budget. This addition is now included within the final LGFS. Of this amount, £502 million has been allocated between local authorities in England based on their shares of relevant net current expenditure on the general fund. This includes standalone fire and rescue authorities as well as fire and rescue authorities that are part of a county council. The remaining £13 million has been allocated to mayoral combined authorities, based on an assessment of their share of overall relevant net current expenditure. This includes York and North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, where the mayor holds responsibility for fire and rescue authority functions. Payments to local authorities will be un-ringfenced to allow for discretion over the use of funds in their area. This funding can be used to mitigate the additional costs of employer National Insurance Contributions within direct, commissioned, and externally provided local services, for example.

Communities and Local Government, whether she used her office in 70 Whitehall on 7 November 2024.

The DPM works across multiple locations each week, including 2 Marsham Street and 70 Whitehall. The details of ministerial routines are not shared for security reasons.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2025 to Question 52711 on Visits Abroad: Ethiopia, what the purpose was of her visit to Ethiopia.

The Deputy Prime Minister’s role includes acting in support of the Government’s international agenda – supporting investment and international collaboration is a key focus for the Government.The Deputy Prime Minister carried out diplomatic, business and humanitarian engagements to demonstrate the UK’s commitment to the region and promote ambitions for partnerships and mutual economic growth.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Levelling Up Missions Annual Report 2024-25, published on 21 May 2025, whether she plans to continue collating metrics on well-being.

While this Government has drawn a line under the levelling up missions framework, we remain committed to monitoring well-being and tackling regional inequalities through our five central missions. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport continues to chair the cross-government Wellbeing Analysis Board, which aims to promote and improve the delivery of wellbeing analysis across government. Well-being metrics will continue to be collected through established surveys including the ONS Annual Population Survey and the Community Life Survey.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on taxes.

The Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor work closely together to deliver the government's plan for change. Decisions on tax policy are for the Chancellor.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 16 May 2025 to Question 50511 on MHCLG: Industrial Disputes, if she will publish the correspondence with the PCS trade union on ending location neutral recruitment.

This issue is part of a live trade dispute which PCS have formally notified the department of. As such it would not be appropriate to release correspondence related to that dispute. I can confirm again however that the department has notified PCS that there are no plans to change our current approach to recruitment, as such we believe there is no reason for a dispute to exist on this issue.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 50515 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Offices, if she will place in the Library workplace office attendance figures for each office outside of London in the most recent period for which data is available.

MHCLG publishes quarterly HQ Occupancy Statistics for its headquarters at 2 Marsham Street, London (not proportional attendance). We do not intend to publish regional information or numeric staff attendances.

Communities and Local Government, if she can publish what planning rules have been made by the Planning Inspectorate in relation to asylum hotel accommodation in the last 12 months.

The Planning Inspectorate has not issued any rules specifically concerning the use of hotels for asylum accommodation.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to Annex 7 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Impact assessment, published in May 2025, how many (a) consents, (b) permissions and (c) permits will be required to place an electric vehicle charge point on (i) a public highway and (ii) private land.

Whether a chargepoint requires planning permission, a Section 50 licence, or a permit depends on factors such as size, location, and context. In general, home, workplace, and smaller low-powered installations in off-street parking areas qualify as permitted development and do not require a planning application. However, permission may still be needed for certain existing properties particularly where issues like height, siting, or proximity to listed buildings arise and for larger rapid charging hubs that include electrical cabinets. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduces a measure to replace Section 50s with permits which would make it more efficient and cost-effective for chargepoint operators to install infrastructure. Additionally, to streamline development we have expanded permitted development rights and have launched a call for evidence to explore further improvements.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to Annex 10 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Impact assessment, published in May 2025, in which financial year the 374,000 annual new additions in England will be first achieved.

The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 includes a new Standard Method for assessing housing needs that is aligned to our Plan for Change milestone of building 1.5 million new safe and decent homes in England by the end of this Parliament. The new Standard Method sets a local housing need for England of 370,408. Detail on how individual local planning authorities should plan to meet this updated housing need, including transitional arrangements, is set out in the Framework.Paragraphs 85 to 87 in the summary Impact Assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (and paragraphs 44 to 45 of Annex 10) explain the housing trajectory used and the assumptions underpinning this.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for the Level 7 Chartered Town Planner Apprenticeship on the recruitment of planning officers.

The government recognise that Chartered Town Planner Apprenticeships (Level 7) are a valuable entry point into planning careers. However, the government has decided to prioritise levy funding for young people entering the labour market, who need skills and training to get started in their careers. We will continue to fund Level 7 apprenticeships for those aged 16-21 when they start their apprenticeship; support apprentices already on a Level 7 apprenticeship through to completion; and ensure local authorities can still access the Level 7 apprenticeship route for those aged 22 and over until 1 January 2026. Supporting local planning authorities to attract, retain and develop skilled planners is crucial to ensuring they provide a proactive, efficient planning service for local communities and that new developments are well designed and facilitate local growth. The government appreciates that planning departments across the country are experiencing challenges with recruitment, retention, and skills gaps and that in many cases these issues are having a negative impact on service delivery. At the Budget last year, the Chanceller announced a £46 million package of investment into the planning system as a one-year settlement for 2025-2026. Our manifesto committed us to appointing 300 new planning officers into LPAs. We are on track to meet that commitment through two routes, namely graduate recruitment through the Pathways to Planning scheme run by the Local Government Association and mid-career recruitment through Public Practice. On 27 February 2025, the government announced funding to support salaries and complement graduate bursaries. Further information can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 27 February 2025 (HCWS480). On 25 February 2025, the draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 were agreed. These regulations increase planning fees for householder and other applications, with a view to providing much-needed additional resources for hard-pressed LPAs. More broadly, the Department’s established Planning Capacity and Capability programme is also developing a wider programme of support, working with partners across the planning sector, to ensure that LPAs have the skills and capacity they need, both now and in the future, to modernise local plans and speed up decision making, including through innovative use of digital planning data and software. Lastly, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill includes provisions that will allow LPAs to set planning fees or charges at a level that reflects the individual costs to the LPA to carry out the function for which it is imposed and to ensure that the income from planning fees or charges is applied towards the delivery of the planning function.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Housing Ombudsman press release entitled, Housing Ombudsman urges Hackney Council to avoid positivity prism as it drives performance improvement, published on 22 May 2025, what steps her Department is taking to respond to the findings of (a) maladministration and (b) failures in housing services.

The Department welcomes the Housing Ombudsman’s report on Hackney Council, published on 22 May 2025, and takes its findings seriously. Issuing such reports is part of the Housing Ombudsman Services’ role in using insights from individual cases to identify systemic issues and drive improvements in landlords’ complaint handling and service delivery. The Ombudsman has issued orders and recommendations to Hackney Council and has committed to working with Hackney during a monitoring period to track progress against these recommendations. They also highlighted the availability of resources through the Centre for Learning to support the Council in implementing improvements. More generally, in August 2024, the Regulator of Social Housing issued a regulatory judgement identifying significant failings in delivery of the outcomes set by the consumer standards by Hackney Council. Since then, the Regulator has been engaging intensively with the Council to secure assurance that the necessary improvements are being made.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has issued guidance to local authorities on offering loans to developers at (a) less than market rate and (b) on preferential terms.

It is for councils to determine their own capital strategies, as they are best placed to understand local needs and are accountable to the local electorate. In doing so, local authorities have a duty to comply with the Prudential Framework and must have regard to statutory guidance to ensure plans are prudent, affordable, and sustainable. Guidance for local authorities on investments was published under the previous government – a copy can be found here.

Communities and Local Government, if she will list the (a) title and (b) topic of each environmental principles assessment that has been produced since 4 July 2024

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 51403 on 19 May 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what her Department's policy is on consulting on substantive changes to (a) practice and (b) policy in relation to the Planning practical guidance.

There is no statutory duty to consult prior to making changes to the National Planning Policy Framework and/or associated planning guidance. That said, the Secretary of State keeps the matter of consultation under active consideration ahead of making any changes to planning policy alongside any legal obligations including those under the Equality Act 2010 and the Environment Act 2021.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department collects statistics based on gender rather than sex.

The Department collects and publishes a number of statistical releases - of these, a small number include questions relating to sex and/or gender identity where relevant. These follow the previous Office for National Statistics (ONS) best practice of recording both sex and gender identity except for occasional exceptions which collect gender instead of sex. These are where it is important to collect gender but due to reporting or collection constraints it is not possible to additionally collect sex. The Department continues to engage with the ONS’ wider sex and gender identity harmonisation work to ensure all of government works towards a consistent way of collecting data on sex and gender identity.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has issued guidance on the use of grampian conditions in planning permissions relating to the non-occupation of new build properties before sewage capacity is in place.

The Department’s Planning Practice Guidance provides guidance on the use of negatively-worded planning conditions (often termed Grampian conditions) which restrict the occupation of a development until a certain action has occurred such as the provision of infrastructure (like sewerage upgrades) required for the development.This is contained in the Use of Planning Conditions section which can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2025 to Question 50169 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Public Expenditure, what changes have been made to those thresholds.

The thresholds have been aligned with Cabinet Office guidance.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2025 to Question 52273 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Aviation, what journeys comprise the (a) £33,025 and (b) £1,878 spending on domestic flights.

I will arrange for this information to be deposited in the House of Commons Library.