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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to work with local authorities to increase the rate of building affordable social homes.

The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing, and has taken a number of steps to support councils to deliver new homes. In March 2021 we announced a package of reforms to give councils more freedom in how they can spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales on replacement homes, including homes for social rent. In May 2021, Homes England launched its Local Government Capacity Centre to provide councils with practical support to build their development skills and capacity.

This is on top of the removal of Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap in 2018, enabling local authorities greater flexibility to borrow for building. To further support the delivery of new homes we are investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme. Councils are eligible for funding through the Affordable Home Programme and we want to see local authorities playing a key role in the delivery of this Programme, using it and the range of tools available to deliver a new generation of council housing.