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

To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Community Housing Fund will be available.

Departmental budgets for 2021/22 have been confirmed at the recent Comprehensive Spending Review and £4 million in revenue grant funding has been made available to reopen the Community Housing Fund. We are currently considering how these funds should be most effectively deployed. In addition, organisations that are registered as providers of social housing may seek capital funding from the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme operated outside London by Homes England.

The Government recognises that the community-led housing sector offers significant potential for helping to meet housing need across England. In addition to helping increase the rate of delivery of new housing, it will help deliver a range of benefits including diversifying the housebuilding sector, improving design and construction quality, developing modern methods of construction, and sustaining local communities and local economies. The support and close involvement of the local community enables the community-led approach to secure planning permission and deliver housing that could not be brought forward through mainstream development.