Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to require all new build homes to be (a) social or (b) affordable housing until the current demand for housing is met.

Increasing the provision of affordable housing is a central pillar of the Government's levelling-up agenda - enabling us to end the housing crisis, tackle homelessness and provide aspiring homeowners with a step onto the housing ladder.

Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme runs from 2021 to 2026, and will deliver up to 180,000 affordable homes, should economic conditions allow. Around half the homes will be for affordable and social rent. The 2021-2026 programme will deliver more than double the amount of social rent homes (around 32,000) compared to the 2016-2023 programme that came before it.

The Government wants to see local authorities playing a key role in the delivery of social housing, alongside housing associations. Government has given councils more freedom in how they can spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales on replacement homes, as well as abolishing the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap to help them achieve this.

Ultimately, the country needs a mixture of different types and tenures of housing. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that local planning authorities should assess the type and tenure of homes needed and reflect this in their local planning policies.