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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to amend the local plan process to (a) include a stronger needs assessment for social housing across the plan period and (b) require local authorities to deliver against social housing targets.

On 2 July, the government published a plan setting out the foundations for a decade of renewal in social and affordable housing. This is focused on delivering the biggest increase in supply in a generation, alongside a transformational and lasting change in the safety and quality of homes. The plan includes a “call to arms” to everyone with a role in social and affordable housing – including local authorities – to step up and prove they can deliver at scale and at pace.

We have asked all Council Leaders to examine what role they can play in reinvigorating council housebuilding. Councils will be able to bid for the new 10-year £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme, which is the biggest long-term investment in social and affordable housing in recent memory – with a target to deliver at least 60% of the homes as Social Rent. We also want to make it easier for councils to use their own resources and land to build more homes. For those without a Housing Revenue Account, we are reviewing the threshold of homes they hold at which they need to open one. We will exempt newly built social homes from Right to Buy for 35 years, ensuring councils are not losing homes before they have recovered the costs of building them. We are also allowing councils to retain 100% of the receipts generated by Right to Buy sales with greater flexibility on how to spend them to accelerate and increase delivery of replacement homes.

We are helping councils borrow more cheaply from the Public Works Loan Board until the end of 2025-26 and with the LGA, the government has established a new Association of Directors of Housing to help councils collaborate and share best practice. We have also launched the Council Housing Skills and Capacity Programme, backed by £12 million of funding in 2025-26. This programme will be delivered in partnership with Homes England and the Local Government Association, to support councils to upskill their existing workforces, recruit and retain graduates to specialist housebuilding positions, and enhance their engagement with the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme.

The government’s revised National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that, in their role as local planning authorities, councils are responsible for establishing the need for affordable housing in their area – including for Social Rent homes in particular.

Local authorities who own social housing are required to meet regulatory standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing – including for the quality of accommodation they provide. As part of our commitment to ensuring that all social and affordable housing tenants can live in a warm and decent home, on 2 July we launched consultations on an updated and modernised Decent Homes Standard and on a new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard. These new standards would be binding on local authorities and other registered providers of social housing.

On 3 July the government launched the new Local Government Outcomes Framework, which represents a new approach to outcome-based accountability for councils in England. The Framework includes draft metrics on the year-on-year change in social rented dwellings held in local authorities’ Housing Revenue Account and the proportion of council-owned social housing deemed decent.