Every parliamentary written question tabled by Kevin Hollinrake this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 2,401–2,420 of 2,926 · this parliament
Communities and Local Government, with reference to Written Statement of 18 December 2024 on the Local Government Finance Settlement, HCWS342, what the real terms increase in core spending power is for each local authority.
The Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government. This is a 6.8% cash terms increase or 4.3% real terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department’s policy paper entitled Development and Nature Recovery, published on 15 December 2024, whether she plans to (a) amend and (b) repeal the assimilated EU Habitat Regulation Assessment regulations.
The government does not consider it necessary to repeal environmental legislation to take forward the approach set out in the Development and Nature Planning Reform Working Paper to accelerate housing and infrastructure development whilst going beyond offsetting harm to drive forward nature recovery, although targeted changes may be required. As set out in the King’s Speech, we will only act in legislation where we can confirm to Parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to page 64 of the English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024, what assessment she has made of the impact of the (a) abolition of district councils with existing Local Plans, (b) requirement of new unitaries to develop new Local Plans and (c) development of Spatial Development Strategies on the viability of the delivery of the 1.5 million homes target in this Parliament.
Where an area is going through local government reorganisation, it is essential that individual local authorities continue to deliver services and statutory duties as these remain unchanged up until such time as the re-organisation process is complete.The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended) requires all local planning authorities to identify strategic priorities for the development and use of land in the authority’s area and set out policies to address these in their development plan.New unitary authorities agree to take on this responsibility when they reorganise, and the government expects to see them playing their part in delivering universal coverage of local development plans as soon as possible.The production of Spatial Development Strategies will improve housing delivery by facilitating effective cross-boundary cooperation and enabling the most beneficial use to be made of sustainable development sites with the appropriate infrastructure either present or planned.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 18 December 2024, to Question 18953, on Chinese Embassy: Planning Permission, whether 10 Downing Street asked the Deputy Prime Minister to call in the planning application, further to the Prime Minister’s conversation with President Xi on the matter.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 17009 on 6 December 2024.
Communities and Local Government, how many times the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs has made a representation to her Department on the call-in of a planning application in the last ten years.
Officials do not monitor or track the number of representations made by particular organisations or parties over time. As such, the department does not hold such statistics.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 16 December 2024 on English Devolution, HCWS316, how many areas will be in the first wave of local government restructuring.
On 16th December, I wrote to all councils in two-tier areas and to neighbouring small unitaries alongside the White Paper, to set out our plans. I intend to write soon to formally invite unitary proposals from all these councils. As set out in the White Paper we will deliver an ambitious first wave of reorganisation in this Parliament.
Communities and Local Government, what requests she has received from local authorities to set a council tax referendum threshold for 2025-26 above the draft Local Government Finance Settlement.
I refer the hon Member to the written ministerial made by the Secretary of State (HCWS413) on 3 February 2025.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department’s policy paper entitled Development and Nature Recovery, published on 15 December 2024, whether Delivery Plans will be part of Local Plans.
Delivery Plans as proposed in the Development and Nature Planning Reform Working Paper would be prepared for protected habitats or species and would not necessarily be at the scale of local plans.Proposals for a Nature Restoration Fund are under development for inclusion in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Further information will be set out when the Bill is introduced.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 4.2.2 of the English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024, what formula her Department will use to distribute funding to strategic authorities.
Paragraph 4.2.2 relates to the recovery grant and wider plans to reform funding to local authorities, not Strategic Authorities.Strategic Authorities receive their funding from a variety of sources and different government departments, reflecting their different responsibilities. Allocation methodologies for these funds vary depending on the aims of the funding.To enable greater flexibility and local control, the most mature Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MCAs) are eligible to receive much of their devolved funding through a single Integrated Settlement. The integrated settlements represent a change to the process in which funding from central government is allocated to MCAs, rather than a change to the quantum that the MCAs receive.The formulae are applied to relevant departmental budgets to provide Authorities with a share of funds in scope and seek to deliver the principle that MCAs are not worse off than had the Integrated Settlements not been in place.
If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the decision by the United Arab Emirates to impose sanctions on (a) Cambridge Education and Training Center Ltd, (b) IMA6INE Ltd, (c) Wembley Tree Ltd, (d) Waslaforall, (e) Future Graduates Ltd, (f) Yas for Investment and Real Estate, (g) Holdco UK Properties Limited and (h) Nafel Capital.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to UIN 23462 on the 16th January 2025.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2025 to Question 23337 on Local Government: Debts, what discussions she has had with local authorities on the allocation of council debt following local government reorganisation.
It is the responsibility of councils to manage their budgets, and it is standard for councils to borrow and to hold debt, which they will do in the normal course of business. Local government re-organisation does not change this.Previous Secretaries of State used statutory powers to intervene in a small number of councils failing their Best Value Duty partly associated with high levels of unsustainable debt.We will work with local leaders to explore how best to support local government reorganisation where there has been failure. We will continue to work with Best Value Commissioners in these councils to support the councils’ financial recovery.
Communities and Local Government, how much funding each council will receive from the Rural Services Delivery Grant in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 20652 on 27 December 2024 and the answer to Question UIN 22380 on 15 January 2025.We have published the latest Core Spending Power figures which includes a breakdown of Rural Services Delivery Grant funding for individual councils here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-table-provisional-local-government-finance-settlement-2025-to-2026.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to the policy paper entitled Local Government Finance Report 2025 to 2026: draft, published on 18 December 2024, how much and what proportion of additional funding will be provided to deprived councils.
The final Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.This included introducing a new ‘Recovery Grant’, worth £600 million, which will go to places where, weighted by population, deprivation outweighs council tax raising ability.As a result of this and other measures, the most relatively deprived areas of England (the upper decile of the Index of Multiple Deprivation) will receive 23% more per dwelling in available resource through the 2025-26 settlement than the least deprived areas.
Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to paragraphs 17 and 60 of the policy paper entitled Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery, published on 15 December 2024, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of those policies on great crested newts.
At this stage, the Government has not yet finalised its assessment of how it can further support local authorities to tackle litter. Any new announcements will be announced in the usual way.
Pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2025 to Question 22044 on Council of the Nations and Regions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of inviting (a) councillors and (b) council mayors to the Council of Nations and Regions.
As set out in its Terms of Reference, the Council of the Nations and Regions is a central, driving forum that brings together governments and authorities with devolved responsibilities to determine actions for tackling some of the biggest and most cross-cutting challenges the country faces. On 16 July 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister wrote to all areas in England that do not have a devolution agreement to invite them to come forward with a proposal. New mayors established through this process will be eligible to attend the Council of Nations and Regions.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in response to the question from Hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner during the Urgent Question on Community Engagement Principles and Extremism Definition of 21 January 2025, Official Report, Column 967, what the Government’s policy is on engaging with (a) people who and (b) organisations which publicly condone criminal activity.
The government does not knowingly engage with any individual or group that condones criminal activity.
Communities and Local Government, how many office-to-residential prior approval planning applications there have been in each quarter of the last 24 months.
The office to residential permitted development right (Class O) was subsumed into the commercial, business and service uses to residential permitted development right (Class MA) in August 2022.Using the most recently available published data, in each quarter between October 2022 and September 2024 there were 248, 297, 296, 290, 352, 297, 410 and 476 prior approval applications under the new right.The government continue to keep permitted development rights under review.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department’s policy paper entitled Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery, published on 15 December 2024, and pursuant to the Answer of 3 January 2025 to Question 20226 on Environmental Impact Assessment, whether she plans to introduce the new regime through (a) secondary legislation under the Levelling up and Regeneration Act 2023 and (b) primary legislation.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 gave the government powers to bring forward Environmental Outcomes Reports.The detail of the new system will be set out in secondary legislation through regulations as well as in guidance.Until a new system is implemented current legislation on environmental assessment and its supporting guidance continues to apply.
Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to retain office-to-residential permitted development rights.
The office to residential permitted development right (Class O) was subsumed into the commercial, business and service uses to residential permitted development right (Class MA) in August 2022.Using the most recently available published data, in each quarter between October 2022 and September 2024 there were 248, 297, 296, 290, 352, 297, 410 and 476 prior approval applications under the new right.The government continue to keep permitted development rights under review.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 3 January 2025 to Question 20640 on Housing: Ownership, what estimate she has made of the number of new build replacements in (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27.
As set out in the answer given to Question UIN 17553 on 11 December 2024, our modelling suggests a long-run average of c. 1,700 sales annually under new maximum discounts. As a result, we believe local authorities will now be in a stronger position to replace the homes that are sold.