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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to maintain payments of the New Homes Bonus at the current rate for those local authorities which use the funds received from that bonus to cover the cost of adult social care.

The Government has introduced changes to the New Homes Bonus to sharpen the incentive effect of the Bonus to increase the delivery of new homes, whilst freeing up resources to be recycled within the local government settlement to support authorities with particular pressures in adult social care. We chose to take a moderate approach from the options we consulted on and to stage the changes to give authorities time to adapt their plans. The changes will apply to all authorities in the same way. Those areas who deliver the most housing growth will continue to benefit most from the Bonus under the new scheme and bonus payments will remain un-ringfenced so authorities can chose how to allocate the funding to meet local priorities The Government has given local authorities access to up to £7.6 billion in dedicated social care funding over the Spending Review period 2016/20. Taken together with the funding announced at the Spending Review 2015, these new changes mean that local government will have access to the funding it needs to increase social care spending every year in this Parliament.