Written questions by Vickers.

What steps her Department is taking to support regional economic growth across the UK.

Kick starting economic growth and ensuring that growth is felt in all regions of the UK is the number one mission of this Government. The government’s approach to regional growth will drive growth in city regions, towns and communities and make the most of the opportunities in each part of the country, to make everyone better off. There is excellence right across the country and this government is backing it: lifting living standards and putting more money in people’s pockets. The recent Spending Review set out £15.6bn for some of our largest city-regions via the Transport for City Region settlements, with Tees Valley Combined Authority receiving £1bn funding improvements to Middlesbrough station and other local priorities. For places outside city-regions, the Local Transport Grant is receiving a fourfold increase in funding by 2029-30 compared to 2024-35. The new £410m Local Innovation Partnerships Fund will drive innovation excellence across the country, delivering R&D co-creation between local leaders and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Our new long-term local growth programmes which will invest in 350 deprived communities across the UK, funding interventions across community cohesion, regeneration and improving the public realm. We are also funding at least £725 billion of economic and social infrastructure across the country over the next decade, as set out in our new Infrastructure Strategy.

What information her Department holds on the number of (a) millionaires and (b) ultra-high-net-worth people who have relocated to other countries since 2020.

The Government has removed the outdated concept of domicile states from the tax system and implemented a new residence-based regime from 6 April 2025. The new residence-based regime is more compatible for new arrivals than the previous rules. The Government published a Tax Information and Impact Note for this policy on 30 October. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-changes-for-non-uk-domiciled-individuals/reforming-the-taxation-of-non-uk-domiciled-individuals. There have always been relatively large flows of non-doms in and out of the UK every year. The latest HMRC statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-non-domiciled-taxpayers-in-the-uk/statistical-commentary-on-non-domiciled-taxpayers-in-the-uk--2. These show the number of non-domiciled taxpayers in each tax year up to 2023/24. We anticipate that some non-doms ineligible for the new regime will exit the UK in response to the changes. Taking this migration response into account, the OBR expects the non-dom reforms to raise £33.8 billion over the next five years to help fund the public services and investment projects needed to drive growth.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of simplifying the tax code.

As set out at Autumn Budget 2024 and Spring Statement 2025, the government is committed to simplifying the tax and customs systems to help support economic growth. In April, the government announced a package of measures to reduce administrative burdens, so businesses and individual taxpayers can spend less time on tax and customs administration and more time adding value to the economy. These changes were developed through close engagement with stakeholders and the government will bring forward further simplification proposals in the future.

What recent assessment she has made of the impact of inflation on household disposable income.

Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) per person includes all sources of household income, net of taxes and inflation.In the year to Q1 2025 (2024/25) RHDI per capita was 2.9% higher than in the year prior (2023/24), the fastest pace of financial year growth since 2015/16.HM Treasury does not prepare forecasts for the UK economy. Forecasts, including for real household disposable income per person, are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). These forecasts are published by the OBR as part of their Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO). According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s March 2025 forecast, RHDI per person was forecast to grow at an annual average of 0.5% over this parliament (Q3 2024 – Q2 2029).

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department has taken to support community (a) cohesion and (b) integration.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is leading cross-Government efforts to develop a longer-term, more strategic approach to community cohesion and integration working in partnership with communities and local stakeholders to rebuild, renew and address the deep-seated issues.The Government is providing communities with the resources and capacity to deliver on this – in June we announced funding for up to 350 places, which will serve as the cornerstone of this Government’s support for communities, incorporating the existing 75 Plan for Neighbourhoods areas that were announced in March, and the 25 trailblazer neighbourhoods announced at Spending Review, who will receive up to £20 million over the next decade.This funding will support improvements people can see on their doorstep, champion local leadership, foster community engagement and strengthen social cohesion.

Whether he has had discussions with the British Blockchain Association on the potential of blockchain technology to (a) reduce fraud, (b) enhance transparency, (c) improve costs and (d) provide efficiency in cross-border trade and commerce.

As the Chancellor set out her Mansion House Speech on Tuesday, we recognise the transformative potential for digital assets and blockchain technologies to drive economic growth in the UK and increase efficiencies across financial markets. We are proceeding with proposals to create a new financial services regulatory regime for fiat-backed stablecoins.This will support growth in the UK by giving cryptoasset firms the regulatory certainty needed to invest here, and to help drive innovation in our financial services sector whilst at the same time including rules on regulation, safeguarding and market integrity.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) support and (b) increase domestic food production.

The Government’s commitment to farming and food security remains steadfast, which is why the Government is investing £2.7 billion a year into sustainable food production and nature’s recovery, with funding for our Environmental Land Management schemes increasing by 150%. Towards a Good Food Cycle, the UK Government food strategy for England, published on 15 July, sets out the Government's plans to transform the food system. A UK government food strategy for England - GOV.UK The food strategy will deliver wide ranging improvements to ensure it is able to feed the nation, realise its potential for economic growth, protect the planet, and nourish individuals. The strategy will build the resilience of national food supply to shocks and chronic risks and will be considering levels of domestic food production as part of this.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers transitioning to sustainable land management.

We are providing farmers and land managers with the support needed to help restore nature, which is vital to safeguard our long-term food security and build resilience to climate change. There are currently record numbers of farmers taking part in farming schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. As of April 2025, these schemes supported 885,000 hectares of arable land being farmed without insecticides; 330,000 hectares of low input grassland being managed sustainably; and 85,000 kilometres of hedgerows being protected and restored. In the recent spending review, we allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history. This means:Funding for the Environmental Land Management Schemes paid to farmers will increase by 150% from £800 million in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.Overall farmers and land managers will benefit from an average of £2.3 billion a year through the Farming and Countryside Programme.And up to £400 million from additional nature schemes, including those for tree planting and peatland restoration.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the delivery of affordable housing targets in 2023–24.

My Department published an update on targets for the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme on 30 July 2024. This covers the 2023-24 period under the previous government. It can be found on gov.uk here.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve flood defences in high-risk areas.

We inherited flood defences in their worst state on record – the condition of key flood defences in England was at the lowest it had been since the Financial Year 2009/10. Delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, we’re investing a record £2.65 billion over two years (2024/25 and 2025/26) to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. At the Spending Review on 11 June, the Government announced a further record £4.2 billion investment over three years (2026/27 to 2028/29). This is a 5% increase on the current average. The Government’s Infrastructure Strategy announced £7.9 billion capital commitment into flood defences for the next 10 years, to March 2036. We launched a consultation on 3 June on proposals to reform the way we fund flood and coastal defences. This will ensure funding for flood defences is distributed more effectively across the country – protecting properties across all communities, including high-risk areas.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to provide support to councils with high levels of financial distress.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 60682 on 24 June 2025 and to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 20 June 2025 entitled Fair Funding Review 2.0 and Modernising and Improving the Administration of Council Tax (HCWS724).Any council that has concerns about its ability to set or maintain a balanced budget should approach MHCLG in the first instance where we will treat all discussions in confidence, with respect and determination to find a solution together.

Communities and Local Government, how many brownfield housing starts have been recorded in the last 12 months.

Figures on the number of housing starts specifically on brownfield sites are not centrally collected.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she has taken to increase local planning capacity.

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, what steps her Department plans to take to improve the quality of private rented accommodation.

The Renters’ Rights Bill enables the Decent Homes Standard to be applied to the private rented sector for the first time and provides local authorities with effective and proportionate powers to enforce it.The Bill will allow ‘Awaab’s Law’ to be applied to the private rented sector. It will enable timeframes to be set out in regulations within which private rented sector landlords and licensors must make homes safe where they contain serious hazards.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve water quality in (a) rivers and (b) coastal areas.

The levels of water pollution are unacceptable. That is why cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas is a priority for the Government. We are taking action to address agricultural pollution and support farm businesses. We are, as a priority, working with farmers and environmental groups to improve farm pollution regulations to ensure they are simple and effective. We are also doubling funding for Environment Agency farm inspections to work with farmers to raise standards and have issued amended Statutory Guidance on the Farming Rules for Water to set clearer expectations on enforcing the rules. We continue to invest in our farmers through Environmental Land Management schemes. Additionally, water companies are investing over £11 billion in PR24 (2025-2030), to improve nearly 3000 storm overflows across England and Wales.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle agricultural pollution in protected areas.

This Government is firmly committed to safeguarding every aspect of our natural environment, including through reducing agricultural pollution. This approach aims to protect all areas, including our most protected areas.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many farms have applied for grants under the Environmental Land Management Scheme in the last 12 months.

The Rural Payments Agency published their Annual Report and Accounts for 2024-25 on 17 July 2025, which includes the most recent verifiable summary of Environmental Land Management scheme uptake. Following the success of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 23 scheme, the SFI 24 Expanded Offer was launched in June 2024 where customers were invited to apply via an Expressions of Interest exercise similar to its predecessor. Once the scheme was opened to the wider public, 18,080 applications were submitted by 11 March 2025 when the scheme was closed to further applications. 12,081 livestock farmers applied for agreements worth £4.6 million for a vet to visit their farm for an Animal Health and Welfare review. As of January 2025, there were approximately 45,000 live Countryside Stewardship agreements. This total includes over 13,500 Capital only agreements and around 31,500 Revenue agreements, of which just over 20,000 also include Capital options. This figure includes approximately 7,948 new Capital agreements received for the 2024 scheme year. ** Farm Businesses can apply for multiple Grants under the Environmental Land Management Scheme. The RPA ARA includes information up to 31 March 2025.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of changes to inheritance tax on social mobility.

The estates of all individuals benefit from a £325,000 nil-rate band for inheritance tax. The residence nil-rate band is a further £175,000 and is available to those passing on a qualifying residence on death to their direct descendants, such as children or grandchildren. This means qualifying estates can pass on up to £500,000 and the qualifying estate of a surviving spouse or civil partner can pass on up to £1 million without an inheritance tax liability. This is because any unused nil-rate band or residence nil-rate band is transferable to a surviving spouse or civil partner. The combination of nil-rate bands, exemptions, and reliefs means less than 10 per cent of estates across the UK are forecast to have an inheritance tax liability in 2029-30. However, inheritance tax still makes an important contribution to the public finances and it is now forecast to raise more than £14 billion in 2029-30 to help deliver public services. This includes over £2 billion more in 2029-30 from changes to the inheritance tax system announced at Autumn Budget 2024.

Whether she has had discussions with representatives of Family Business UK on the findings of their June 2025 report on inheritance tax reform.

The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992. Where inheritance tax is due, those liable for a charge can pay any liability on the relevant assets over 10 annual instalments, interest-free. The analysis undertaken by CBI Economics was commissioned by Family Business UK and is based on a self-selecting online survey from members of representative groups campaigning against the reforms. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) certified the costing at Autumn Budget 2024 as ‘reasonable and central’. The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The OBR does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information about the costing in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024. The OBR published more detail on the costings on 22 January 2025. This material is all available on the OBR’s website. Information from claims is not recorded in a manner to enable regional or national breakdowns of the number of estates expected to be affected. However, the reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, paying more inheritance tax in 2026-27. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data. The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to pay more inheritance tax in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. Around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those estates only holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27. The rules relating to valuation at death are long-standing and well-established in legislation, including for business property, and guidance is available. More information is available at www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm09701 and in the section on valuation in the guide to completing inheritance tax accounts at www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-inheritance-tax-account-iht400.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of changes to Business Property Relief on family-owned businesses in (a) the North East and (b) the UK.

The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992. Where inheritance tax is due, those liable for a charge can pay any liability on the relevant assets over 10 annual instalments, interest-free. The analysis undertaken by CBI Economics was commissioned by Family Business UK and is based on a self-selecting online survey from members of representative groups campaigning against the reforms. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) certified the costing at Autumn Budget 2024 as ‘reasonable and central’. The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The OBR does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information about the costing in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024. The OBR published more detail on the costings on 22 January 2025. This material is all available on the OBR’s website. Information from claims is not recorded in a manner to enable regional or national breakdowns of the number of estates expected to be affected. However, the reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, paying more inheritance tax in 2026-27. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data. The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to pay more inheritance tax in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. Around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those estates only holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27. The rules relating to valuation at death are long-standing and well-established in legislation, including for business property, and guidance is available. More information is available at www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm09701 and in the section on valuation in the guide to completing inheritance tax accounts at www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-inheritance-tax-account-iht400.