Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to take steps to support local authorities seeking to build social housing to access finance to purchase land being sold by NHS Trusts.

The government is not taking any specific action to support local authorities to purchase land being sold by NHS Trusts.

However, in January we announced that we would extend the ‘preferential’ borrowing rate for council housebuilding from the Public Works Loan Board for another year until the end of March 2027. This will provide councils with greater certainty to increase their supply plans, including through land-led development.