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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of Homes England’s investment programmes was spent in rural settlements with a population of 3,000 or fewer in each of the last three years.

Homes England do not publish a breakdown of rural housing spend or delivery for the Affordable Homes Programme. The Local Authority Housing Statistics [footnote 8] collects the number of new build and acquisitions in populations of less than 3,000. In 2023-24, there were 5,248 new affordable homes in these areas, which accounted for 8% of all new affordable housing. This is an increase of 7% compared to the previous year but lower than a peak of 5,702 in 2018-19. As a percentage, delivery in populations of less than 3,000 has been 8% since 2020-21, lower than a peak of 12% in 2015-16.