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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of differences in access to low-cost borrowing between local authorities and registered providers of social housing on the ability of councils to build new social rent homes.

Differences in access to low-cost borrowing among registered providers will necessarily have implications for the delivery of new Social Rent homes.

Having carefully considered the fiscal implications of extending our new low-interest loans scheme to local authorities, the government reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that it could not do so.

We will continue to explore further ways we might support councils to expand their stock of social homes, including low-cost borrowing options.