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 construction of new homes and related infrastructure.

The Government continues to work closely with the construction sector to ensure that it is in a position to support the economic recovery. This support includes the work of the Construction Leadership Council’s Coronavirus Task Force, which monitors the supply of products and is working to address disruption to supply chains.

Last year, the Government worked with the industry to produce a clear and simple Charter for Safe Working Practice, and updated Site Operating Procedures have been published by the Construction Leadership Council.

MHCLG’s Secretary of State, alongside the Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation and the Chief Executive of the Federation of Masters Builders, previously wrote to the housing industry to make it clear that housebuilding, and the supply chains that support it, can continue, and that remains the case under every level of restriction

We have introduced a range of measures, such as allowing builders to seek more flexible construction site working hours with their local councils and extended certain planning permissions that would otherwise have lapsed, in order to keep the sector moving.

For infrastructure, the 2020 Spending Review confirmed an initial funding of £7.1 billion for the National Home Building Fund (NHBF) over the next four years to unlock up to 860,000 homes. The Government has also allocated £900 million through the Getting Building Fund, which will unlock up to 41,500 homes, and £1.1 billion in Local Growth Funding, which will support the unlocking of up to 89,000 homes.

Further funding for the NHBF will be confirmed at the next multi-year Spending Review, delivering on the Government’s commitment to provide £10 billion to unlock homes through provision of infrastructure.