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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on amending the provision of local authority housing finance further to incentivise construction of council houses.

Under the Self-Financing Settlement introduced in 2012, local housing authorities now retain their own rental income. This is a good deal under which local authorities are empowered to make their own spending decisions including the construction of additional housing where they think appropriate. At the same time, local authorities have retained almost £2 billion of Right to Buy receipts for the purposes of replacing stock sold under Right to Buy.