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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that major property developers provide affordable housing in urban areas.

National planning policy requires local planning authorities to identify and plan for the market and affordable housing needs in their area. Each Local Plan is examined to ensure that it has robust policies on affordable housing, which may be criteria-based or through specific site allocations. It is then for each local authority to determine, based on the requirement in the Local Plan and the specific viability of individual proposals, the appropriate level of affordable housing for each site on a case-by-case basis.

We will ensure 275,000 new affordable homes are provided between 2015 and 2020. This means we will build more new affordable homes than during any equivalent period in the last twenty years. The Government’s 2011- 2015 Affordable Homes Programme exceeded expectations, delivering nearly 186,000 affordable homes since April 2011, 16,000 more than originally planned.