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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to allow the Affordable Homes programme to offer a pre-development grant to smaller community housing providers that lack the working capital to bring forward schemes for capital funding bids; and if he will make a statement.

The Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) provides capital grants for new homes.

The Government values the role of smaller housing providers in delivering housing supply where it is most needed. The AHP enables smaller providers to access grant funding through a Continuous Market Engagement (CME) function, which is designed to support individual schemes. Providers can be paid on a cashflow basis, which supports them to make initial investment in developing new sites before they start building work.

Since the most recent round of the Community Housing Fund closed in March 2022, the Government has been considering what support it may provide to the community-led housing sector and we will make a decision in due course.