Written questions by Cleverly.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press release entitled Tougher rules on political interference to keep UK elections secure, published on 12 February 2026, in which local authorities election pilots will take place in May 2026; and what type of pilot will take place in each.

The Government committed in its manifesto to encourage greater participation in democracy. To support this, the Government is exploring ways to make voting in person more efficient, more convenient, and better aligned with the expectations of today’s electors. Orders designating the pilots for May 2026 have been signed and shared with participating local authorities and the Electoral Commission. I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made yesterday, which details participating local authorities and nature of each pilot. No flexible voting pilots are due to be held in local authority areas where elections due to run in May 2026 were previously postponed.

Communities and Local Government, how many (a) legal challenges and (b) judicial reviews his Department has (i) lost in court and (ii) conceded prior to the court hearing since July 2024.

The Department deals with a large variety of legal cases including judicial reviews, statutory challenges in planning cases, Information Tribunal cases and private law litigation. The number and outcome of legal challenges and judicial reviews since July 2024 is not held centrally in the format requested.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Plan for Neighbourhoods: governance and boundary guidance, published on 12 March 2025, what role will community leaders who are not elected representatives or council staff have in the allocation of funding.

Neighbourhood Boards are responsible for making decisions about how £20 million Pride in Place funding will be invested in their area over the next decade. Led by an Independent Chair, Neighbourhood Boards will bring together local people, including residents and community, faith and business leaders, along with the local MP and ward councillor. Further information on Neighbourhood Boards and funding arrangements is set out in our prospectus and supporting guidance.

Communities and Local Government, further to the statistics, Local authority Council Taxbase in England 2025 (revised), 21 January 2026, what assessment he has made of the figure of 71% of local authorities charging a second homes council tax premium, in light of the original policy intent of the policy.

The second homes council tax premium provides local leaders with additional flexibility to address the impacts of second homes and improve the sustainability of local services. It is for individual councils to decide whether it is appropriate to apply the premium in their area. In doing so, councils will consider a range of factors, including local circumstances and the government’s guidance.

Communities and Local Government, whether guidance has been provided to local authorities on entitlement to council tax reduction for people who receive Universal Credit.

I refer the Rt. hon. Member to the answer provided on 4 February 2026 to UIN 109028.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 23 January 2026, to Question 106115, on Business Rates: Luton, what is his department's estimate of the amount of retained business rate income that Luton Borough Council will receive in 2026-27, and whether this amount is affected by the uplift in business rates from the 2026 revaluation of Luton Airport, and introduction of the high value surcharge for hereditaments.

Luton Borough Council reported their estimate of retained business rates for 2026-27 to the department here in the document ‘National non-domestic rates collected in England 2026 to 2027: local authority data’, in the ‘Part 1' tab and on line 14. I refer the Rt.hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 107993 on 28 January 2026, regarding the interaction of the 2026 Revaluation with local authority income. It is long-standing government policy intention that as far as is practicable, local authorities’ income should not be affected by changes to the underlying business rates tax, such as the introduction of the three additional multipliers from 1st April 2026. The government intends to neutralise the impact of new multipliers on local government income from retained business rates from introduction of the three new multipliers from 1st April 2026. More information on how it will do so was published in a policy paper in November which can be found here.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 23 January 2026, to Question 106138, on Local Government Finance, whether his department holds data on the proportion of the £4.3 billion that was subject to the flexible use of capital receipts provisions; and which individual local authorities utilised the flexible use.

The Flexible Use of Capital Receipts general direction was introduced in 2016 by the previous government and remains substantively unchanged. This government has not changed the rules on use of capital receipts; not all capital receipts are eligible for use under the general flexibility. For example, under the direction, eligible capital receipts must be genuine disposals outside of the local authorities’ group structure. Nor does the flexibility override any statutory restrictions that may exist on certain types of assets. The government does not collect specific data on eligible capital receipts held by local authorities.Use of the flexibility is at the discretion of local authorities but must be compliant with the conditions of the general flexibility and their wider statutory duties. The government is clear that its use should represent value for money and be in the best interests of local residents. Use of the flexibility is reported annually. The data for 2024/25 can be found here.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the trends in the level of antisemitism in the City of Bristol.

Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our society, which is why we’re taking a strong lead in tackling it in all its forms, wherever it manifests. We work closely with partners to ensure the safety and security of Jewish communities throughout the UK. This includes working together with the Jewish community to monitor levels of religiously motivated hatred. We continue to closely observe rates of antisemitism across the country and will make the necessary interventions to combat antisemitism in all corners of our society.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 104771 on MHCLG: Remote Working, if he will publish the recorded workplace attendance data for the last quarter, for each of the individual offices outside London.

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, whether he has made an estimate of the time taken for businesses to amend computer billing systems to implement the new pub relief.

As is usual the government has worked closely with local authorities and their software providers to ensure that billing systems can be updated to take into account the Pubs and Live Music Venues Relief business rates relief ahead of issuing bills for the 2026/27 financial year. The government will undertake a new burdens assessment and fund the associated new burdens including the administrative and software costs of implementation.

Communities and Local Government, further to Housing supply: indicators of new supply, England: July to September 2025, published on 15 January 2026, paragraph 2.1, what estimate his Department has made of the number of homes that need to delivered each quarter in order to achieve the 1.5 million housebuilding target in this Parliament.

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

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2026, to Question 103765, on Affordable Housing, what his planned timetable is for the programme to be onboarded on the Government Major Programmes Portfolio; and whether the programme business case will be published on gov.uk.

The Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) is now onboarded on to the Major Programmes Portfolio (GMPP) as a portfolio.In line with HM Treasury guidance for GMPP programmes, the SAHP intends to publish a summary of its Programme Business Case (PBC) within four months of HM Treasury’s formal approval of the PBC.Until that point, my Department will continue to iterate the PBC to ensure it remains robust, up-to-date, and strategically aligned, while protecting commercially sensitive material ahead of publication.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 15 September 2025, to Question 70566 on Chinese Embassy: Planning Permission, if he will publish the reference back correspondence that is listed in the final decision letter.

The Secretary of State's decision letter and the full set of reference back material was deposited in the Library of both Houses on 20 January 2026.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026, to Question 104783, on Planning: Equality, and to the answer of 23 January 2026, to Question 105975, on Planning Permission: Equality, whether a draft equality impact assessment or equality screening was compiled for the Framework draft published on 16 December 2025.

The government is currently consulting on a new National Planning Policy Framework that includes clearer, ‘rules based’ policies for decision-making and plan-making. The consultation will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026 and can be found on gov.uk here. My Department does not routinely publish Public Sector Equality Duty assessments alongside such consultations, but the requirement to consider the impact of the proposed policies on protected characteristics was complied with in the process of deciding to launch the consultation in question. We are seeking views through this consultation on how the proposed policies could affect protected characteristics, and the views we receive will inform our final assessment and the government’s response to the consultation that will be published in due course.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2026, to Question 103294, on Local Government: Elections, whether his Department’s (a) Permanent Secretary private office and (b) HR division is informed whether a civil servant has been given permission to run in the 2026 local elections.

We are not aware of any approvals having been given.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 78185 on Glenigan, what assessment has Glenigan made of the reasons for sites with planning permission not being (a) started and (b) completed.

Glenigan gathers data from the websites of local planning authorities. They supplement this with additional research tracking expected start and completion dates for the construction phase of larger sites. Glenigan undertakes no systematic labelling of reasons why individual sites have not yet started or completed construction, and my Department is not aware of their publishing any assessments in relation to this specific matter.

Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the datasets and data sources that have been used to calculate the settlements for individual local authorities in the Local Government Finance Settlement.

Details on how funding allocations were calculated, including datasets and sources, were published in the Final Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029, under the methodology for the Fair Funding Review reforms section, linked here.

Communities and Local Government, whether there is a plain English guide and formula for business owners to calculate if their premises is eligible for Supporting Small Business Relief.

Local authorities are responsible for the administration of business rates, including decisions on the awarding of and eligibility for various reliefs. Guidance for local authorities on the administration of Supporting Small Business relief was published on 15 December on gov.uk here.The government provides business-facing information on a range of business rates reliefs on gov.uk. Information on Supporting Small Business relief can be found here.Ratepayers should contact their local authority if they have any questions about their business rates bill including reliefs they may be eligible for.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2026 to Question 101747 on Business Rates: Tax Allowances, what estimate he has made of the number of hereditaments that claimed Retail, Hospitality and Leisure rate relief in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26; and whether that estimates includes data on herediatments (i) above and (ii) below the £110,000 cash cap.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 106116 on 23 January 2026.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the A National Plan to End Homelessness, 11 December 2025, CP1452, whether the new requirement for social housing landlords to rehouse statutory homeless households referred by the council will apply to former asylum seekers who have been given leave to remain.

Asylum seekers are not eligible for social housing or homelessness support. If granted refugee status, they become eligible but have their needs considered on the same basis as other households owed a homelessness duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.