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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support the building of new social housing in the (a) North West and (b) Wirral.

We have announced a range of measures to support housing associations and local authorities to build more genuinely affordable homes where they are needed most.

We are providing over £9 billion funding for the Affordable Homes Programme, which will deliver a wide range of housing for a wide range of people.

We have confirmed long-term rent certainty for social landlords in England and announced that we will be providing councils with £1 billion of additional borrowing to deliver homes where demand is greatest. In March we announced plans to consult on options for allowing local authorities more flexibility in the use of their Right to Buy receipts.

We have recently announced a series of Strategic Partnerships between Homes England and housing associations, which will deliver over 1500 additional affordable homes in the North West by March 2022. One partnership solely delivering in the North West is the £29.2 million package with Great Places, which will deliver 750 additional affordable homes, including some at social rent in areas of high affordability pressure. This is a 36 per cent increase on existing plans.

Since 2010, we have delivered over 378,000 new affordable homes including over 273,000 affordable homes for rent. The Department does not publish delivery information on a regional basis.