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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the cap for the number of homes that a council can own without the need for a housing revenue account from 200 to over 1000 on the number of council homes in England.

The government recognise that the cost of opening a Housing Revenue Account (HRA) can deter non-HRA holding councils from increasing their current levels of housing delivery.

As a result, we are already exploring whether the current 200 social and affordable home threshold is set at the right level, or if a different threshold would enable councils to reach a level of housing provision that would better enable them to meet the costs of opening and managing an HRA.