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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to allow housing associations to increase the number of new homes they build.

Building more affordable homes is an absolute priority for this Government, which is why the Prime Minister announced on 4 October 2017 an extra £2 billion funding for affordable housing, on top of the £1.4 billion announced last year, increasing the Affordable Homes Programme 2016/21 budget to over £9 billion.

We have confirmed a long-term rent certainty for social landlords in England - creating a stable environment that is needed to support council and housing associations to build more affordable homes.

Our new Affordable Homes Programme is ramping up. Last year there were over 49,000 housing starts - indicating stronger delivery in 2017/18. The HCA and the GLA have already allocated £3.1 billion to deliver over 104,000 homes. We expect the number of starts to continue to rise.