Written questions by Hall.

Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the sufficiency of the level of refuge accommodation provision for victims of domestic abuse.

The Government is committed to ensuring victims of domestic abuse and their children can access the support in safe accommodation they need to rebuild their lives. This is part of the Government’s strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, with improved support for victims. Under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, local authorities must assess the need for and provide support to victims and their children in safe accommodation. It is for each local authority to determine the right mix of safe accommodation, including refuges, dispersed accommodation, and sanctuary schemes (in which a victim’s own home is made safe) to meet local needs. To support delivery, MHCLG provided authorities in England with £160 million in 2025/26, a £30 million uplift from the previous year. In the recent Local Government Finance Settlement, MHCLG committed to increase investment by a further £19 million to £499 million over the next three years. The department collects data on the number of refuge bedspaces and the number of individuals supported in safe accommodation. This data is published annually, the most recent data is available here: Support in domestic abuse safe accommodation: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for refuge accommodation under the Safe Accommodation Duty.

The Government is committed to ensuring victims of domestic abuse and their children can access the support in safe accommodation they need to rebuild their lives. This is part of the Government’s strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, with improved support for victims. Under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, local authorities must assess the need for and provide support to victims and their children in safe accommodation. It is for each local authority to determine the right mix of safe accommodation, including refuges, dispersed accommodation, and sanctuary schemes (in which a victim’s own home is made safe) to meet local needs. To support delivery, MHCLG provided authorities in England with £160 million in 2025/26, a £30 million uplift from the previous year. In the recent Local Government Finance Settlement, MHCLG committed to increase investment by a further £19 million to £499 million over the next three years. The department collects data on the number of refuge bedspaces and the number of individuals supported in safe accommodation. This data is published annually, the most recent data is available here: Support in domestic abuse safe accommodation: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle hate crime against British Hindus.

All forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable and have no place in our communities, including that directed at Hindus. This government is committed to protecting the right of individuals to freely practise their religion and we will not tolerate anti-Hindu hatred in any form. We recently announced that the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme, which is accessible for all non-Jewish and Muslim places of worship, will receive an uplift of £1.5 million. This will bring the total available to protect Hindu places of worship and facilities, as well as Christian, Sikh and other faith sites to a record £5 million. The government also provides funding for True Vision – the police hate crime programme and online reporting portal – to encourage communities to report hate crime and reinforce relationships between communities and policing and allow victims of hate to report hate crimes to the police without visiting a police station of call the police. On Monday 9 March 2026, we published our Protecting What Matters plan which details the specific action being taken by government to tackle religious hatred across the country. This can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of levels of child homelessness in Warrington.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 114250 on 2 March 2026.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to increase the supply of homes for social rent.

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statements made on 2 July 2025 (HCWS771) and 28 January 2026 (HCWS1283).

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review planning requirements for converting homes into houses in multiple occupation.

Local planning authorities already have planning powers to limit the concentration or proliferation of HMOs within their locality. They can remove the national permitted development right for smaller HMOs to protect the local amenity or wellbeing of an area by introducing an ‘Article 4’ direction which, once in place, requires all new HMO proposals to secure planning permission. We keep the powers to regulate HMOs under review.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to provide additional funding to local authorities to support rough sleepers during winter 2025–26; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding for rough sleeping.

The Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant (RSPARG) is providing a total of £185.6 million to local authorities across England in 2025/26. The RSPARG gives local authorities the flexibility to determine the most suitable rough sleeping services required to meet local need, this includes providing support over the winter period.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to prevent developers from leaving (a) play areas, (b) green spaces and (c) other shared communal spaces unfinished or to a substandard level.

Local planning authorities (LPAs) already have a wide range of enforcement powers, with strong penalties for non-compliance, which they can use in instances where development has not taken place in accordance with the relevant planning consent. These enforcement powers include the power to issue a completion notice which requires a developer to complete their development if it is left uncompleted. It is for LPAs themselves to decide how and when they use their powers depending on the circumstances of each case. On 25 May, the government published a Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out (which can be found on gov.uk here) inviting views on further action the government should take to speed up homes being built. On the same day, we launched a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve the transparency of build rates from new residential development, which includes proposals to implement provisions in Section 113 of the LURA on the power to decline to determine applications. The consultation can be found on gov.uk here. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the government intends bring forward the regulations to implement these measures at the earliest practical opportunity with the new build out reporting framework coming into force from 2026.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities in adopting AI responsibly in service delivery.

The government supports the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.My Department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ tool, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDF’s into data. The tool includes a human verification element, and when launched will be accompanied by guidance to support local authorities.We also continue to fund the development of AI solutions in collaboration with local planning authorities via our PropTech Innovation Fund. Previous funding rounds saw a number of AI projects balancing innovation with responsible service delivery and implementation of safeguards. The latest round, which closed June 2025, placed ethical and responsible considerations as a priority criterion for assessment, with applications proposing to develop AI solutions required to set out steps towards responsible delivery and regulatory compliance.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help ensure that local government bodies adopt (a) common data standards and (b) open Application Programming Interfaces.

MHCLG are supporting data standards initiatives to ensure that local government bodies can effectively adopt common data standards and open APIs, to enhance service delivery and interoperability. This includes the Open Referral UK and SAVVI data standards for community services and vulnerable people. MHCLG’s Digital Planning Programme is working with local planning authorities to adopt common data standards; to provide better access to planning data, improve data quality and to make more data open, to achieve our digital ambitions and make the planning system more efficient. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 includes planning data powers, and MHCLG will be introducing data standards for planning data via secondary legislation. MHCLG are supported by the Government Digital Service on the API programme, which publishes API technical and data standards for all public sector organisations to follow, including local authorities.

Communities and Local Government, what account her strategy to tackle homelessness takes of the findings of the report published by Centrepoint entitled Human costs and lost potential: the real cost of youth homelessness.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.The Minister for Homelessness and Democracy has also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.

Communities and Local Government, how she plans to prioritise young people in the new cross-departmental strategy to end homelessness.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.The Minister for Homelessness and Democracy has also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to prioritise ending youth homelessness.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.The Minister for Homelessness and Democracy has also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.

Communities and Local Government, whether the government strategy to end homelessness will include a section on youth homelessness.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.The Minister for Homelessness and Democracy has also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national standard for local authorities on the disposal of the belongings of deceased council tenants.

The government has no current plans to implement a national standard for the disposal of deceased council tenants’ belongings. The repossession of a property is a matter for the landlord concerned. They are best placed to manage what happens to deceased council tenants’ belongings, carefully considering the family’s circumstances. In doing so, we would expect local authorities to deal sensitively with cases before taking action to dispose of any belongings.

Communities and Local Government, what data her Department holds per local authority of the number of times local authorities have had to conduct repairs of private rented sector properties when private sector landlords have failed to do so in each year since 2015; and what the potential cost to the public purse was for each local authority.

The department does not collect data centrally on local authorities conducting repairs of private rented sector properties.

Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the number of assets that were bought by community groups through the Community Right to Bid process since its introduction.

Information about Assets of Community Value listed by local authorities is held locally, and is not collected by central Government. The Government has committed to introducing a stronger Community Right to Buy through the English Devolution Bill, as part of which we are considering any changes to the Assets of Community Value process that are required to ensure the policy functions as effectively as possible.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of setting national (a) standards and (b) timescales for repairs to social housing.

All social homes should be decent, safe and warm. The government have committed to bringing forward the regulations necessary to introduce Awaab’s Law in the Social Rented Sector, and to consulting on a new Decent Homes Standard and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards early next year. We will set out an assessment of the costs and impacts of the relevant requirements alongside each consultation and subsequent consultation response.

Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the number of Assets of Community Value (a) listed by each local authority and (b) rejected by each local authority in the last three years.

Information about Assets of Community Value listed by local authorities is held locally, and is not collected by central Government. The Government has committed to introducing a stronger Community Right to Buy through the English Devolution Bill, as part of which we are considering any changes to the Assets of Community Value process that are required to ensure the policy functions as effectively as possible.