Written questions by Hollinrake.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has an annual house building target for England.

I refer the hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 19066 on 20 December 2024.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2024 to Question 17553 on Housing: Ownership, if she will make an estimate of the number of replacement affordable housing units in each of the next five years.

As detailed in the review of the increased Right to Buy discounts introduced in 2012 published on 30 October 2024 alongside the Budget, during the period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2021 the replacement target was 62,485 but only 47,864 replacements were delivered, which means there were 14,621 fewer replacements than the target.The changes this government has made to the Right to Buy, including reducing maximum cash discount levels, allowing local authorities to retain the share of receipts formerly paid to HM Treasury, and increasing the flexibilities on how councils can use their receipts, will improve the ratio of replacements to sales.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Government response to the proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system consultation, published on 12 December 2024, if she will publish the substantive responses to the consultation not sent by individuals.

The Department does not routinely publish responses received to public consultations. Many organisations, including councils, choose to publish their responses on their websites.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2024 to Question 17553 on Housing: Ownership, whether she has made an estimate of potential changes in the levels of Right to Buy sales arising from changes to Right to Buy (a) discounts and (b) eligibility.

A review of Right to Buy discounts was published alongside the Budget. In this review, our modelling suggests a reduction in Right to Buy sales under the new maximum cash discounts with a long run average of c. 1,700 sales annually.On 20 November we launched a consultation on wider reforms to the Right to Buy. The consultation seeks views on eligibility criteria and any policy changes brought forward following the consultation will be subject to appropriate assessment.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2024 to Question 16934 on Devolution: Essex, whether the May 2025 local elections will take place as scheduled.

It is usual for the government to take account of requests for reorganisation, and to decide on the appropriateness of elections taking place to local authorities which are planned to be replaced, usually postponing to allow elections to the new shadow authorities soon after.I will consider any requests I receive to postpone the May 2025 local authority elections in Devon, Essex or elsewhere only where this will help the areas to deliver both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe – either through the Devolution Priority Programme or where reorganisation is necessary to unlock devolution or open up new devolution options. As I set out in my letter of 16 December to those councils, I will need a clear commitment to these aims, including a request from the council(s) whose election is to be postponed, on or before Friday 10 January.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2024 to Question 17562 on Local Government Finance, how the Recovery Grant will be funded.

The government is taking immediate action to begin addressing the challenges facing local government by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most in the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement. We are taking difficult decisions to repurpose a number of grants to improve the value for money and efficiency of the grant funding we provide, including through the new Recovery Grant.The grant is intended to be highly targeted, meaning that not all authorities will receive an allocation. We have published a full methodology alongside the provisional Settlement, and we are consulting until 15 January on allocations. The Recovery Grant will go to places where, weighted by population, deprivation outweighs council tax raising ability. The metrics used are based on the most recent publicly available data: the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation, the mid-2023 population estimate, as published by the Office for National Statistics, and 2024 council taxbase data.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2024 to Question 17560 on Local Government Services: Rural Areas, whether her Department has carried out an environmental principles assessment on repurposing the Rural Services Delivery Grant.

The provisional settlement, published on 18 December, increases the total additional grant funding which will be made available to local councils in England through the settlement to over £2 billion. This Government is absolutely committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities. Places with a significant rural population will on average receive around a 5% increase in their Core Spending Power next year, which is a real terms increase. No council will see a reduction – and new funding will be available to rural areas in 2025-26 through guaranteed EPR payments.The government intends to include a summary of the equalities impacts of its proposals as part of the response to the consultation on the provisional local government finance settlement 2025 to 26. This will be published alongside the final settlement, as usual.The government considered the implications of all decisions made through the provisional Settlement and is of the view that the Rural Services Delivery Grant does not properly account for need. It is important also to note that the Rural Services Delivery Grant was not paid to all local authorities delivering services in rural areas, as such it did not do as it suggested.As set out in the Environmental principles assessment guide, decisions around the spending or allocation of resources within government are exempt from the duty to give due regard to the Policy Statement on Environmental Principles.Annex A of the Rural Services Delivery Grant Determination 2024-25: (No. 31/7256), sets out allocations in 2024-25. The total allocation of Rural Services Delivery Grant 2024-25 to local authorities in England was £104,645,256.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2024 to Question 17562 on Local Government Finance, what deprivation data her Department will use.

The government is taking immediate action to begin addressing the challenges facing local government by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most in the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement. We are taking difficult decisions to repurpose a number of grants to improve the value for money and efficiency of the grant funding we provide, including through the new Recovery Grant.The grant is intended to be highly targeted, meaning that not all authorities will receive an allocation. We have published a full methodology alongside the provisional Settlement, and we are consulting until 15 January on allocations. The Recovery Grant will go to places where, weighted by population, deprivation outweighs council tax raising ability. The metrics used are based on the most recent publicly available data: the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation, the mid-2023 population estimate, as published by the Office for National Statistics, and 2024 council taxbase data.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2024 to Question 15005 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Buildings, if she will list the address of every departmental office in the United Kingdom which is (a) remaining open and (b) closing by how many staff are assigned to each of those offices.

The address of every departmental office and the number of staff assigned to each of those offices is set out below, together with confirmation of which offices will remain open and which will close. Office LocationAddressStatusStaff assignedBelfastErskine House 20-32 Chichester Street Belfast BT1 4GFRemaining open21BirkenheadRosebrae Court Woodside Ferry Approach Birkenhead Merseyside CH41 6DURemaining open87BristolTemple Quay House Redcliffe Bristol BS1 6HARemaining open169CambridgeFirst Floor Eastbrook Shaftesbury Road Cambridge CB2 8DURemaining open53CardiffTy William Morgan 6 Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1XSRemaining open45DarlingtonFeethams House Feethams Darlington DL1 5BFRemaining open127EdinburghQueen Elizabeth House Sibbald Walk Edinburgh EH8 8FTRemaining open52Hastings1 Priory Square Hastings TN34 1EARemaining open27Hemel HempsteadThe Forum Hemel Hempstead HP1 1DNRemaining open57Leeds7 Wellington Place Leeds LS1 4APRemaining open168LondonFry Building 2 Marsham Street Westminster London SW1P 4DFRemaining open2,222ManchesterPiccadilly Gate Store Street Manchester M1 2WDRemaining open199NorwichRosebery Court Norwich NR7 0HSRemaining open12NottinghamApex Court City Link Nottingham NG2 4LARemaining open70PlymouthSeaton Court 2 William Prance Road Plymouth PL6 5WSRemaining open23Wolverhamptoni9 Building Railway Drive Wolverhampton WV1 1LHRemaining open278Birmingham23 Stephenson Street Birmingham B2 4BHClosing149ExeterThe Senate Southernhay Gardens Exeter EX1 1UGClosing26NewcastleCitygate Gallowgate Newcastle NE1 4WHClosing67Sheffield2 St Paul’s Place 125 Norfolk Street Sheffield S1 2FJClosing51TruroLemon Quay House Lemon Quay Truro Cornwall TR1 2PUClosing15WarringtonRenaissance House 1220 Centre Park Square Warrington WA1 1RUClosing59Grand Total 3,977

Communities and Local Government, whether she has an affordable housing target for this Parliament.

The government has not set an affordable housing target to date, but we are committed to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. With regard to grant funded affordable housing, the government will set out details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for Social Rent. In addition, the provision of affordable homes will be supported by our ‘Golden Rules’ for Green Belt development. Prior to development plan policies for affordable housing being updated in accordance with the revised NPPF, the affordable housing contribution required to satisfy the ‘Golden Rules’ is 15 percentage points above the highest existing affordable housing requirement that would otherwise apply to the development, subject to a cap of 50%. We estimate that under this model, the median Green Belt local planning authority affordable housing requirement will be 50%.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 14994 on Chinese Embassy: Planning Permission, if he will publish a summary of any discussions with President Xi on 18 November 2024 on the planning application for the Chinese Embassy not included in the gov.uk readout.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 4 December, Official Report, 14994. The official read-out is a summary of the issues discussed at their meeting.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 14994 on Chinese Embassy: Planning Permission, if he will provide a readout of the Prime Minister's discussions with President Xi on the planning application for the Chinese Embassy.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 4 December, Official Report, 14994. The official read-out is a summary of the issues discussed at their meeting.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the letter to her from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China of 4 December 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of involvement of the United Front Work Department in the planning process for the called-in Chinese Embassy planning application.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question HL3240 on 19 December 2024.

How many hereditaments were classified per individual special category codes within the shops sub-sector special category code grouping by the Valuation Office Agency in each of the last ten years for which figures are held.

As part of its official statistics, the Valuation Office Agency publishes the number of hereditaments by special category code under the shops sub-sector for England and Wales for the past 10 years. This can be found under the stock of non-domestic properties collection here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/non-domestic-rating-stock-of-properties-collection For each year from 2019 onwards, the table ‘Stock Scat’ shows the data as at 31 March each year. Prior to 2019, the data is shown within the ‘NDR Stock of Properties’ tables.

Whether officials from 10 Downing Street had discussions with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on the call-in of the Chinese Embassy planning application prior to the decision being taken.

I refer the Hon Member to my Hon Friends answer of 6 December, Official Report, 17009.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2024 to Question 16572 on Chinese Embassy: Planning Permission and with reference to paragraphs 18 and 19 of her Department's Guidance on planning propriety: planning casework decisions, whether the call-in representations are being made available to the interested parties in the called-in planning application.

We do not routinely make requests to call in planning applications available to interested parties.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 26 July 2024 to Question 1315 on environmental assessments, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of repealing the environmental assessment regimes originating from the (a) EU Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and (b) Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Directive.

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 16 December 2024 (HCWS317), the government will, in due course, replace the current systems of environmental assessment with Environmental Outcomes Reports.

Whether he has had recent discussions with participants at the UK Investment Summit 2024 on the status of their planned investments in the context of the Autumn Budget 2024.

The International Investment Summit brought together the world’s most important companies and investors to showcase the UK’s strengths and opportunities. Since it took place, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade has been working closely with the Chancellor and the Minister for Investment to follow up with participants, unlock new investment commitments, and ensure that planned investments are supported, including through the Office for Investment.

Whether any recent proposals to (a) build and (b) expand prisons have been affected by nutrient neutrality rules.

Within the prison expansion programmes, the Rapid Deployment Cells Programme has been affected by nutrient neutrality rules at four sites. Developments in these catchment areas need to either secure nutrient credits or other nutrient mitigation for planning permission to be granted. To date, mitigation has been secured at three of the four sites.The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill proposes a more strategic approach to nature recovery, which we expect would streamline the process for nutrient neutrality mitigation.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 16139, on Hospitality Industry and Leisure: Business Rates, and to the Answer of 10 December 2024, to Question 17139, on Business Rates, on what basis and using what methods her Department has determined that the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by online giants, will be subject to the higher multiplier which her Department plans to apply to properties which have a Rateable Value above £500,000.

To deliver our manifesto pledge, from 2026-27, the Government intends to protect the high street by introducing permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with Rateable Values below £500,000. This permanent tax cut will ensure that RHL properties benefit from much-needed certainty and support. This tax cut must be sustainably funded, and so the Government intends to introduce a higher rate on the most valuable properties from 2026-27, that is, those with a Rateable Value of £500,000 and above. These represent less than one per cent of all properties, but include the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by online giants. The Valuation Office Agency publishes a breakdown of the Non-domestic Rating Stock of Properties by Sector, Sub-Sector and Special Category (SCat). This includes a ‘large distribution warehouses’ category, which is SCat 151.