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 2,541–2,560 of 2,858 · this parliament
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2024 to Question 15443 on Government departments: trade unions, which recognised trade unions in her Department have their membership subscriptions collected via check-off; and how many staff members have their memberships so collected for each union.
120 members of staff pay their trade union membership subscriptions via check off, all are members of PCS.
Communities and Local Government, if she will publish her response to the letter from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China of 4 December 2024 on the consultation process for the Chinese Embassy planning application.
The Department does not routinely publish ministerial responses to representations.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2024 to Question 15929 on Local Government: Standards, what her definition is of regional government; and what the statutory basis is of regional government in England.
The proposed reforms to the local government standards and conduct framework in England would apply to all relevant authorities as defined by Section 27(6) of the Localism Act 2011. This includes bodies such as combined authorities, combined county authorities, and the Greater London Authority.We want to see all of England access this devolved power by establishing Strategic Authorities that can make the key decisions to drive economic growth. Outside of London, these Strategic Authorities should take the form of Combined or Combined County Authorities over areas of genuine strategic scale. The English Devolution Bill will establish in statute a standardised framework of powers for Strategic Authorities.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2024 to Question 15203 on Council Tax: Probate, whether the 12 month period for marketing for sale and let is in addition to the 12 month period for first becoming an empty dwelling before being liable for a premium.
The government’s guidance sets out that the one-year period of marketing for sale or let will begin to run from when the dwelling has first been marketed for sale or let. This period may therefore run concurrently to or immediately following the one-year period during which a dwelling has been empty before the empty homes premium applies.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2024 to Question 15832 on Labour: Civil Servants, whether her Departments holds information on how many civil servants other than special advisers were permitted to attend last year’s Labour Party conference.
Guidance on Party Conferences is published on gov.uk and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-servants-and-party-conferences-guidance.Information on the number of civil servants who attended last year's Labour party conference is not held by the department centrally, in line with the guidance. There is no record in MHCLG of any breach of the guidance.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2023 to Question 15517 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Consultants, if she will publish the savings made on consultancy fees in her Department since 5 July 2024.
MHCLG publishes spend on consultancy as part of its annual report and accounts, at which point the savings achieved in financial year 2024/25 will be confirmed.
Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to integrate the regulatory requirements for private landlords of (a) the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, (b) the Decent Homes Standard, (c) the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, (d) selective licensing and (e) landlord registration.
The government recognises the importance of safe, warm homes for the millions of tenants living in the private rented sector (PRS). Through the Renters’ Rights Bill we will apply a Decent Homes Standard to the PRS to give renters safer, better value homes and remove the blight of poor-quality homes in local communities. The Bill will also apply ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the sector, which will set clear legal expectations about the timeframes within which PRS landlords must make homes safe where they contain serious hazards. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will consult shortly on increasing minimum energy efficiency standards in the domestic private rented sector. The government will consider opportunities for alignment and simplification as we implement these regulations and will support landlords with comprehensive guidance. The Renters’ Rights Bill also includes provides to introduce a PRS Database. The new database service will bring substantial benefits to landlords – providing a single source of information about their legal responsibilities and helping them showcase their compliance. It will operate alongside selective licensing to drive improvement in standards in the private rented sector. We will seek to maximise operational efficiency of the database service and Local Authority Selective Licensing schemes, including through sharing data.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2024 to Question 15932 on Council of the Nations and Regions, for what reason council (a) leaders and (b) mayors were not invited.
The local government membership of the Council of the Nations and Regions is composed of the directly elected Mayors of combined authorities, combined county authorities, and the Mayor of London. New Mayors established through the English devolution process would also be eligible to sit on the Council of the Nations and Regions. The Government is committed to working productively with local government and has established the Leaders Council to bring together other local government leaders and Ministers to identify and tackle the strategic challenges facing local government.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2024 to Question 15453 on Local Government: Accountability, if she will take steps to make the data published under the Transparency Code more (a) accessible and (b) shareable as open data.
We are keeping the Code under review in the context of work to fix the foundations of local government and ensuring that it continues to support local accountability. Our approach to reforming local government is set out in the English Devolution White Paper. This includes fundamentally reforming the local audit system, rebuilding the vital early warning system to recover a key part of our assurance mechanisms, restoring local government standards, and ensuring transparency.We are supporting the Office for National Statistics to lead a refresh of the government’s subnational data strategy, including supporting “ONS Local to gather user needs and understand data gaps, provide data access, analytical support, and capability to local data leaders”.
Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of biodiversity net gain on the sale of land previously used for agriculture.
Mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain was introduced by the previous government through the Environment Act 2021. To support this, an impact assessment was undertaken in 2019 estimating the overall assessed cost of biodiversity net gain to developers and the effect on developable land prices. No subsequent assessment has been made under the current government.
Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for the implementation of the proposals in the English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024.
The deadline for application to the Devolution Priority Programme was 10 January and we will confirm participants shortly after. The English Devolution Bill will be introduced in the first session, subject to parliamentary time. Integrated funding settlements will be provided to Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities at the start of the next financial year (25/26) and four more Mayoral Combined Authorities will follow in the 26/27 financial year. Further changes to funding and programmes will be delivered through the Spending Review process.We intend to formally invite reorganisation proposals in January 2025 from all relevant councils. We expect to deliver new unitary authorities in April 2027 and 2028.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to the English Devolution White Paper, published on the 16 December 2024, what discussions she had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer before setting the population threshold to 500,000 or more for newly formed councils.
Ministers regularly have meetings with colleagues across government.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2024 to Question 15451 on Renters’ Rights Bill, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Impact Assessments (a) receive clearance from the Regulatory Policy Committee and (b) are published no later than the First Reading of a Bill.
The Department aims to publish Impact Assessments in a timely manner, in line with the ‘Better Regulation Framework’ guidance, which states that an Impact Assessment ‘should be published alongside relevant legislation when it is laid before Parliament.’In exceptional circumstances this may not be possible, for example, where the legislation is urgent, further work is needed following concerns expressed by the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) or where the assessment is with RPC for review. In those circumstances, the Department works with the RPC to ensure the Bill Impact Assessment and RPC opinion is published as soon as possible.
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) family-owned businesses and (b) changes to Business Property Relief on the economy of local communities.
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government took a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to restore economic stability, fix the public finances, and support public services. These were tough decisions given the situationwe inherited from the previous administration, but the Government has done so in a way that makes the tax system fairer and more sustainable. The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms. In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.
Communities and Local Government, what the (a) full time equivalent and (b) headcount number of staff assigned to work in each of her Department’s offices is.
The location of every departmental office and the number of staff assigned to work in each of those offices as at 31 December 2024, in both (a) full time equivalent and (b) headcount, is set out below.Office LocationFTEHeadcountBelfast2121Birmingham144147Birkenhead8791Bristol163167Cambridge5053Cardiff4445Darlington125127Edinburgh5152Exeter2426Hastings2326Hemel Hempstead5658Leeds163168London2,1632,220Manchester196201Newcastle6667Norwich1212Nottingham7072Plymouth2424Sheffield4851Truro1415Warrington5659Wolverhampton269277Grand Total3,8673,979
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 16200 on Local Government: Productivity, for what reason her Department does not routinely publish letters issued to local authorities. .
In line with the practice of successive previous governments, MHCLG does not regularly publish non-public correspondence between Ministers and local authorities. Local authorities are free to publish these letters if they believe it is beneficial to do so.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2024 to Question 15441 on Local Government: Staff, how the Local Government Workforce Development Group members will be selected; and whether the membership will be politically balanced.
Membership of the Workforce Development Group is composed of officers from both national and local government organisations. The group is focussed on the common interest of tackling local government workforce issues and is not party political. The inaugural meeting was chaired by the Minister for Local Government, and future meetings will be chaired by a senior official from MHCLG.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 6 December 2024 to Question 16892 on Regional Planning and Development: Finance, what her Department's policy is on the (a) continuation of the Thames Estuary Growth Board and (b) coordination of planning across the Thames Estuary area.
At the Autumn Budget, the Government confirmed that it would consult on its minded to decision to cease funding for pan-regional partnerships at the end of this financial year. The consultation sought to gather views from all interested parties on the impacts of this decision, should it be taken forward, and closed on 16 December. The Department is currently considering the responses received and will confirm a final decision shortly.The English Devolution White Paper, Power and Partnership: Foundations for Growth, published in December 2024, confirmed our commitment to strategic planning through the production of Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs) covering all of England. Legislation to enable this will be introduced in 2025 through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
What steps her Department is taking to support small high street businesses reliant on Small Business Rate Relief.
Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set rateable value. Eligible properties under £12,000 receive 100 per cent relief, which means over a third of businesses in England (more than 700,000) pay no business rates at all. There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000. The Government has no plans to withdraw SBRR, which is a permanent relief set down in legislation. As highlighted in the Transforming Business Rates Discussion Paper, the Government is interested in hearing stakeholders’ views on the extent to which the current system acts as a barrier to investment and specifically, whether the current eligibility criteria for SBRR impacts businesses' incentives to invest and expand into a second property.
Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to introduce replacement legislation for the Vagrancy Act 1824.
The Government views the Vagrancy Act as antiquated and no longer fit for purpose. No one should be criminalised for simply sleeping rough on the streets.We will carefully consider the Vagrancy Act and other relevant legislation in developing our new cross-government homelessness strategy.