My Department has announced £5 billion of land and infrastructure capital grant funding. This funding, to be administered by a new, single National Housing Delivery Fund (NHDF) that will complement investment from our National Housing Bank, can be used to address viability gaps on brownfield sites.

NHDF funding is delivered by delivery partners including Homes England, established and non-established mayoral strategic authorities, One Public Estate, and others for specific place-based programmes, providing funding across the country.

Homes England will deliver a national programme, drawing on its strong track record of managing major housing and land programmes. Funding has also been devolved to mayoral authorities, with £1.3bn provided to Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, through Integrated Settlements, and £234m to non-established Mayoral Strategic Authorities through the Brownfield Housing Fund. This gives local leaders flexibility to drive delivery in their areas.

The Government’s police reforms will protect and strengthen neighbourhood policing by freeing local forces, including Thames Valley Police, from national responsibilities so they can focus on issues that matter most locally, like anti-social behaviour (ASB). Every police force in England and Wales now has an ASB lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the general public to implement their individual ASB Action Plans, which were published at the start of April. Further information on the Thames Valley Police ASB Action Plan can be found here: https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/asb/asb/antisocial-behaviour/antisocial-behaviour-action-plan/

Through the Crime and Policing Act, we are making our streets and neighbourhoods safer by strengthening the powers available to the police and other agencies to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless adult ASB offenders.

We are also strengthening the powers available to the police and other local agencies by increasing the upper limit for fixed penalty notices for breaches of CPNs and PSPOs from £100 to £500, increasing the time a dispersal direction can be implemented for from 48 to 72 hours and giving registered social housing providers the power to issue closure notices, amongst others.

As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, the Government has committed to delivering 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel by the end of this Parliament.

By February 2026 we delivered 3,123 additional full-time equivalent (FTE)
police officers and PCSOs in neighbourhood roles since March 2025 as part of a drive to tackle the crimes that blight town centres.

This Government continues to support forces to increase the overall number of
neighbourhood policing personnel, with total growth expected to
reach 4,750 neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2027.

The Government’s police reforms will protect and strengthen neighbourhood policing by freeing local forces, including Bedfordshire Police, from national responsibilities so they can focus on issues that matter most locally, like anti-social behaviour (ASB). Every police force in England and Wales now has an ASB lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the general public to implement their individual ASB Action Plans, which were published at the start of April. Further information on the Bedfordshire Police ASB Action Plan can be found here: https://www.beds.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/asb/asb/antisocial-behaviour/antisocial-behaviour-action-plan/.

Through the Crime and Policing Act, we are making our streets and neighbourhoods safer by strengthening the powers available to the police and other agencies to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless adult ASB offenders.

We are also strengthening the powers available to the police and other local agencies by increasing the upper limit for fixed penalty notices for breaches of CPNs and PSPOs from £100 to £500, increasing the time a dispersal direction can be implemented for from 48 to 72 hours and giving registered social housing providers the power to issue closure notices, amongst others.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 91369 on 27 November 2025 and Question UIN 106779 on 27 January 2026. My Department is currently analysing the feedback received to the consultation on the new National Planning Policy Framework and will publish our response in due course.

In December 2024, the government implemented a new standard method for assessing housing needs, that better directs new homes to where they are most needed and least affordable. The new method focusses growth in our city regions – housing need across Mayoral Combined Authority areas increases by over 20% compared to the previous method.

During 2024/25 over 27 hectares of brownfield land were reclaimed on schemes supported by Homes England. Our Brownfield Infrastructure and Land programmes had unlocked capacity for over 51,000 homes by the end of 2024/25. Homes England will be reporting further delivery on brownfield land in its Annual Report and Accounts for 2025/26 to be published later in July.

The £5 billion National Housing Delivery Fund, launched in April 2026, will be the main funding point for brownfield land, through Homes England and devolved allocations.

The government recognises the important economic and social contribution that markets make to our high streets and town centres. Local authorities are empowered to make decisions on running, supporting and investing in local markets in their areas.

However, we want to ensure that markets can thrive where they are established. From 1 April 2026, we introduced permanently lower business rates multipliers for qualifying retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with rateable values below £500,000, including markets.

Communities can also choose to invest in markets through the Government’s Pride in Place programme, which will provide £20 million over 10 years to 284 of the most deprived places in the UK, empowering local people to make decisions about what is important to them, including markets.

Later this year, we will also bring forward a High Streets Strategy, backed by £301 million of support, to help turn the tide on the high streets most in need.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) makes clear that the planning system should support the transition to net zero by 2050 and shape places in ways that minimise vulnerability and improve resilience.

The Framework also sets out that planning policies should be based on robust and up-to-date assessments of the need for open space and opportunities for new provision.

The designation of land as Local Green Space through local and neighbourhood plans allows communities to identify and protect green areas of particular importance to them. Designating land as Local Green Space should be consistent with the local planning of sustainable development and complement investment in sufficient homes, jobs and other essential services.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, we consulted on a new NPPF. That proposed Framework, which can be found on gov.uk here, included policy CC1 which makes clear that local plans should identify opportunities for green infrastructure provision and nature-based solutions which can safeguard and improve carbon storage, support nature recovery and resilience, and which take account of Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

This Government is working to help Gillingham and the wider Medway area thrive. Gilligham has received £20m of Pride in Place funding, out of £60m given to Medway Council. This comes alongside £1.5m of Pride in Place Impact Funding to support high street regeneration in Gillingham and Chatham.

The Government will bring forward a High Streets Strategy later this year backed by £301m, which includes funding for the Pride in Place Community Right to Buy Fund and High Street Rental Auctions. This will empower communities to take control of local assets and bring vacant properties back into use.

High street rental auctions empower councils to auction the lease of persistently vacant premises. Throughout the process the landlord retains ownership and will receive the rent generated through the tenancy, thus financially benefitting from secured occupation.

In June, the Government announced £10 million of funding for local authorities in England to refurbish vacant properties and tackle high street eyesores where landlords cannot meet the cost of repair.

Tax Update 2026 saw the announcement of a number of measures to simplify, modernise, and increase fairness in the tax and customs system. This included measures to support high streets such as the acceleration of reforms to the customs treatment of low value imports and the consultation on the extension of the VAT online marketplace liability.

The customs treatment of low value imports will support a business environment of fair competition between high street and online retailers, and monitoring and evaluation of the policy will be part of final policy design considerations.

The consultation on the extension of current rules for VAT online marketplace liability is only seeking views at this stage. Any future policy decision on reform will be taken in the round and announced at the Budget in the usual way, including consideration of impacts on consumer prices.

Bringing down inflation and easing the cost of living remains a priority for this Government. Following reforms to the customs treatment of low value imports, UK consumers will still have access to a range of affordable goods –means that a t-shirt from an online retailer will pay the same duties and face equivalent controls as one imported in bulk and sold by a high street retailer.

It is in the national interest that all businesses, regardless of how they sell goods to UK consumers, pay the right tariffs to access our advanced and dynamic market and these steps will ensure that. Inflation assessments indicates that this clampdown would have a negligible impact on headline inflation.

The Trees Programme includes a number of schemes that support urban tree planting. We know that lower urban tree cover often correlates with higher socioeconomic deprivation. England’s Community Forests (ECF) help address this by planting trees in and around urban areas; improving wellbeing, tackling climate change and creating places for nature with over 1800 Ha planted in 2025/26.

In line with development of spatial targeting, informed by the Land Use Framework, we are exploring new datasets and tools to better target new trees and woodlands, including future support for urban trees, and how to prioritise areas of deprivation.

CCTV is a long-established and widely used tool across England and Wales, operated by a range of public and private bodies to support crime prevention, public safety and investigations.

The Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC) is responsible for encouraging compliance with the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice. The Code provides guidance on the responsible use of surveillance camera systems, including CCTV, by police and local authorities and voluntary adopters in England and Wales. This ensures public trust and compliance with data protection laws. The Commissioner also provides advice and information to the public and surveillance system operators about the effective, appropriate, proportionate, and transparent use of surveillance camera systems.

The SCC is progressing the delivery of a project to assess how overt surveillance, such as CCTV, can support the Government’s Safer Streets initiative and efforts to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG). The findings and recommendations are anticipated to be published later this year.

We recognise the pressure that housing developments can place upon local health infrastructure. These impacts can be particularly acute for general practice, which is often the first point of contact for people seeking healthcare.

Integrated care boards are responsible for planning and commissioning services to meet the reasonable needs of people in the locality. The National Health Service has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient medical services, including general practices, in each local area. It should take account of population growth and demographic changes.

At a national level, we continue to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure all new and existing developments have an adequate level of healthcare infrastructure for the community. Local planning authorities are responsible for negotiating and agreeing developer contributions to support necessary associated infrastructure when new housing developments are built, including general practices and primary care provision.

The Government recognise the link between mental and physical wellbeing and access to nature. Natural England research shows that we could save the NHS more than £2 billion a year if everyone had good access to green space. Urban green spaces alone support 2.1 million people to meet their weekly physical activity guidelines, avoiding health service costs of around £1.4 billion.

Forest Research has estimated that one additional tree per kilometre of street is associated with 1.18 fewer medical prescriptions per thousand population. If this represents a causal relationship it would translate to a value of £16 million of UK urban street trees through avoided antidepressant costs.

The government has committed £301 million to support high street regeneration and will publish the High Streets Strategy later this year.

We will continue to work with local government, businesses and communities to inform the strategy and will announce more details in due course.