Written questions by Forster.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department is reviewing the rules of Housing Revenue Accounts to support local authorities to (a) safer and (b) more homes.

The government engages regularly with local authorities to understand the pressures on their Housing Revenue Accounts (HRAs) and keeps the rules governing HRAs under review to ensure they are supporting investment in new and existing stock.My Department is considering whether the current threshold for opening an HRA (200 homes) is set at the right level, or if a different threshold would enable local authorities to reach a level of housing provision that would better enable them to meet the costs of opening and managing an HRA.More broadly, we are committed to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding a generation, alongside driving a transformational and lasting change in the safety and quality of homes. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 2 July 2025 (HCWS771).

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of replacing the role of local authorities with committees in planning decision on local representation in those decisions.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill includes a regulation-making power to issue statutory guidance on a national scheme of delegation.On 28 May 2025, my Department published a technical consultation on proposals for reform of planning committees. It can be found on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of new homes are (a) under construction and (b) have been completed since 4 July 2025.

The 4 July 2025 is tomorrow.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to improve future auditing arrangements for local authorities.

This government has implemented a number of measures to improve auditing arrangements for local bodies, including the introduction of statutory backstop dates for the publication of audited accounts. Two of these dates have now passed. As a result, the vast majority of local bodies have published audited accounts for financial years up to and including 2023/24. Where disclaimed opinions are issued as a result of backstops, auditors’ statutory duties – including value for money reporting, making statutory recommendations, and issuing public interest reports – remain a high priority. The government recently announced £49 million in funding to support bodies impacted by the backstop measures. In December 2024, the government set out its strategy to overhaul local audit. The strategy set out proposals to simplify and streamline the system including a clear purpose for local audit and its users, the establishment of the Local Audit Office, proposals for simplified and proportionate financial reporting, improvements to the system’s capacity and capability, and ways to build strong relationships between local bodies and auditors. The government also published a response to its consultation in April 2025, which outlined 16 further commitments to reform the system including simplifying financial reporting requirements and increasing capacity to avoid reliance on a small number of auditors.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the risks of historic local authority accounts that auditors disclaim and have not fully checked.

This government has implemented a number of measures to improve auditing arrangements for local bodies, including the introduction of statutory backstop dates for the publication of audited accounts. Two of these dates have now passed. As a result, the vast majority of local bodies have published audited accounts for financial years up to and including 2023/24. Where disclaimed opinions are issued as a result of backstops, auditors’ statutory duties – including value for money reporting, making statutory recommendations, and issuing public interest reports – remain a high priority. The government recently announced £49 million in funding to support bodies impacted by the backstop measures. In December 2024, the government set out its strategy to overhaul local audit. The strategy set out proposals to simplify and streamline the system including a clear purpose for local audit and its users, the establishment of the Local Audit Office, proposals for simplified and proportionate financial reporting, improvements to the system’s capacity and capability, and ways to build strong relationships between local bodies and auditors. The government also published a response to its consultation in April 2025, which outlined 16 further commitments to reform the system including simplifying financial reporting requirements and increasing capacity to avoid reliance on a small number of auditors.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has considered extending the remit of Woking Borough Council’s Commissioners to assist the new shadow unitary authority in Woking following local government reorganisation.

Commissioners were appointed to Woking Borough Council in 2023 to facilitate recovery and improvement, following historic commercial mismanagement and major governance failures, with the Council having accumulated an extraordinary level of debt, far exceeding usual levels of borrowing for a council of its size. Woking has required a significant programme of change to improve its financial position and ensure it is operating to the required standard; this work is ongoing. I asked that Commissioner input be included in the development of robust unitarisation proposals for Surrey. I am currently considering the submissions for unitary local government that were received on 9 May. As I set out to the House on 3 June in the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS676, I will provide the House with a full update shortly. If there were a decision to implement a proposal for unitary local government in Surrey, I would expect that Commissioners’ input will continue to be important as part of the process of moving towards the establishment of unitary authorities.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help support the construction of new homes in Woking constituency that have planning permission but construction has not yet commenced.

I refer the hon. Member to the Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out (which can be found on gov.uk here) and the technical consultation on implementing measure to improve Build Out transparency (which can be found on gov.uk here) published by the government on 25 May 2025.

Communities and Local Government, whether levels of deprivation in (a) Goldsworth Park, (b) Canalside ward and (c) other areas are taken into account when deciding levels of funding allocated to local authorities.

In the 2025-26 Settlement, the new, one-off, Recovery Grant, worth £600 million, was targeted towards areas with greater need and demand for services, with deprivation used as a proxy for this, and less ability to raise income locally. The metrics used are based on the most recent publicly available data, including the IMD 2019 which is made up of 33,000 lower layer super output area (LSOA) scores. We have used this LSOA data to determine allocations for the Recovery Grant, noting the importance of considering the variance between all small areas that make up an authority. This grant is the first meaningful step towards funding reform starting to correct the unfairness of the current system.The government is planning to use the best available evidence to assess differences in the need for local government services – including deprivation – and resources available to local authorities. We will set this out in more detail through further consultation following the Spending Review, and welcome views from local government representatives and the public.

Communities and Local Government, how many of the (a) rejected and (b) withdrawn applications to the Building Safety Regulator under the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023 were in Woking constituency since October 2023.

Building Safety Regulator officials have confirmed that there have been no building control applications for approval (regardless of application status or outcome) in any of the postcodes that make up the Woking constituency (GU18-24 and KT14-18).

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to prevent leaseholders from absorbing the cost of increases in insurance premiums for buildings undergoing remediation works for flammable cladding.

Leaseholders are usually responsible for paying for buildings insurance, according to the terms of their lease. Buildings insurance premiums for all buildings have risen considerably since the Grenfell tragedy; some leaseholders in buildings with fire safety defects are facing extremely high premiums. A Financial Conduct Authority report stated that premiums have risen by 94% for buildings without flammable cladding between 2016 and 2021, and by 187% for buildings with identified flammable cladding. My officials are working with the insurance industry, as announced in the Remediation Acceleration Plan, to consider whether, for the duration of remediation programmes, government might support industry to reduce fire related liabilities, in order to reduce the high insurance bills some leaseholders are facing. In addition to this, my Department has consulted on how to best ensure that landlords, freeholders and property managing agents do not receive excessive and opaque buildings insurance commissions at leaseholders’ expense as part of implementing the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act. We will publish our response to this consultation in due course.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of charging Council Tax on properties which have received planning permission but where no construction has commenced after a year.

Council tax is a tax on domestic properties based on their capital value in 1991. The Valuation Office Agency is responsible for allocating council tax bands in England, and upon completion will assign a band to newly constructed properties. The government has no plans to change this.

Communities and Local Government, how new unitary authorities will be required to (a) merge their existing local plans and (b) set new local plans following reorganisation.

The legal status of local plans is not impacted by local government reorganisation. Where reorganisation occurs new unitary authorities are expected to promptly prepare a local plan covering the whole of their area. Until that new plan is adopted, existing constituent local plans remain in force as part of the development plan for their area. New unitary authorities have the discretion to progress emerging constituent local plans.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the classification of (a) non-statutory and (b) statutory services provided by councils, in the context of the closure of (i) public toilets and (ii) other non-statutory services following council bankruptcies.

Good provision of non-statutory services, such as public toilets, is an important issue which local leaders are best placed to make decisions on based on the needs of their communities. The English Devolution White Paper, as well as the recently published Local Government finance settlement, set our plans to give councils more autonomy and financial stability to plan and make these decisions.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the effectiveness of (a) compliance by contractors with and (b) enforcement measures by the new Building Safety Regulator with the Building Safety Act 2022; and if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of compliance by (i) clients and (ii) contractors with the provisions of that Act.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) takes action to ensure that applications that do not meet the regulatory standards of building safety are rejected. We understand that the introduction of the new regulatory regime initially resulted in a lot of poor quality and incomplete applications from industry. BSR continue to support applicants to meet the functional requirements of the building regulations. It is worth noting that the requirements in the regulations are not new and rejected applications contribute to the processing time of compliant applications.BSR officials are also working with MHCLG officials on setting up a dedicated Remediation Enforcement Unit within the Building Safety Regulator. The Remediation Enforcement Unit is designed to hold owners of ACM clad buildings to account, enforcing remediation where necessary, and will be essential to meet the government’s priority for remediation of unsafe Higher-Risk-Buildings (HRBs). We are considering further options to ensure compliance with the building safety regulations as part of the ongoing spending review.The Building Safety Act 2022 also requires that within five years of the Act coming into force, the Secretary of State appoint an independent person to carry out a review. This includes reviewing the effectiveness of the regulator, and provisions made by or under the Building Act 1984 such as the dutyholder duties and enforcement measures.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to (a) tackle fraudulent EWS1 forms and (b) support affected homeowners.

EWS1s (External Wall System Fire Review) are not a legal or regulatory requirement. Their use is a commercial decision by mortgage lenders and subject to their individual lending criteria. EWS1 forms are completed by competent members of relevant professional bodies. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) provides guidance on competence for professionals carrying out EWS1. The Department takes seriously any claims of fraud and would advise evidence of any such concerns should be notified to the relevant professional body and RICS, for investigation, and to take any appropriate action.The absence of a correctly completed EWS1 should not be a blocker to mortgage lending, where a leaseholder can provide alternative evidence of the safety of their building, or that the building is in a remediation scheme or that the leaseholder qualifies for the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act.We are working closely with the RICS, UK Finance and the lending industry to ensure the market continues to function for leaseholders in properties with building safety issues.Leaseholders should contact the building owner or person responsible for fire safety if they have concerns about the fire safety of their building.

Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to introduce a moratorium on Right to Buy sales before proposed changes come into effect.

The government does not intend to introduce a moratorium on Right to Buy sales before any further changes come into effect.