Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of processes by which local authorities can be (a) incentivised and (b) held accountable to meet their social housing targets.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
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 £12m 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.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
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.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the Public Works Loan Board lending cap on local authority investment strategies.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government increased the aggregate limit for Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) lending to £135 billion in November 2024. The increase in the limit has ensured that local authorities (LA) can continue to access loans to support their investment strategies in line with the PWLB lending guidance and the Prudential Framework for local government capital finance.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to support local authorities in receipt of exceptional financial support to resolve funding issues in the long term.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises the significant pressures that councils are facing. The Spending Review provides over £5 billion of new grant funding over the next three years for local services that communities rely on. The £3.4 billion, when taken together with a 3% core council tax referendum principle and a 2% adult social care precept, results in an average overall real terms increase in local authority core spending power of 2.6% per year over the next multi-year settlement (2026-27 to 2028-29).
The government is committed to fixing the foundations of local government through ambitious reform. The Fair Funding Review 2.0 is open from 20 June to 15 August and seeks views on the approach to local authority funding reform through the Local Government Finance Settlement from 2026-27.
In line with our commitment to support councils’ receiving Exceptional Financial Support to improve, as a condition of the support agreed councils will be subject to additional external assurance to give them independent and expert help to drive local improvement and manage their financial position.
Finally, we also followed through on our commitment to not make borrowing more expensive for those councils in the most financial difficulty, by removing the condition requiring a 1% premium on borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB).
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2025 to Question 41232 on Internal Drainage Boards: Cambridgeshire, from where is capital funding sourced to (a) repair and (b) replace pumping infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) are Risk Management Authorities. Expenses are primarily funded by local beneficiaries through drainage rates, special levies on authorities, and contributions from the Environment Agency.
Each IDB sets an annual budget for planned work and future investments, governed by Section 36 of the Land Drainage Act 1991. In addition, IDBs are eligible to bid for and receive allocations of FCRM Grant in Aid (GiA) funding for capital projects.
The Environment Agency administer the allocation of Government GiA funding. There are more projects than funding available, therefore schemes are prioritised in accordance with government policy.
IDBs have also been able to bid into the £91 million IDB Fund during 2024/25 for delivery by March 2026, which is funded by Defra.
IDBs can also apply for loans via the Public Works Loan Board operated by the UK Debt Management Office.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have had discussions with local authorities regarding the prospect of providing interest repayment holidays on loans issued to local authorities by the Public Works Loan Board.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government engages regularly with local authorities on a range of issues and is committed to working in partnership with local authorities to deliver for their residents. The Public Works Loan Board lending facility provides cost-effective loans to local authorities and the terms of lending and requirements for interest repayments are set out in published guidance.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) trends in the level of local authority borrowing costs and (b) rent-setting policies on the ability of local councils to build and maintain housing stock.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government recognises that access to low-cost borrowing and the certainty provided by a long-term rent settlement are essential to the ability of local authorities to build and maintain housing stock. To this end, the government is helping local authorities borrow more cheaply from the Public Works Loan Board until the end of 2025-26.
Local authorities are responsible for their own capital strategies and have wide freedoms to use borrowing to support local investment. Under the current framework, they must ensure borrowing is prudent, affordable, and sustainable.
The government recently consulted on a long-term rent settlement that would allow social housing rents to increase above inflation (by up to CPI + 1%) each year for five years from 2026. The consultation closed on 23 December and my officials and I are giving careful consideration to all the responses received. The government will issue its response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government has received representations from local authorities to write off the Public Works Loan Board debts of Woking Borough Council.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Previous Secretaries of State used statutory powers to intervene in a small number of councils failing their Best Value Duty partly associated with high levels of unsustainable debt, including Woking. We continue to work with Best Value Commissioners in these councils to support the councils’ financial recovery.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing financial borrowing rules for local authorities for council house building.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities set their own capital strategies and are free to determine their own borrowing limits within the Prudential Framework.
The government is helping local authorities borrow at a reduced cost from the Public Works Loan Board to support council housebuilding in the Housing Revenue Account. The preferential rate of gilts+0.4% rate will be in place to the end of 2025-26.
We will bring forward details of future government investment in social and affordable housing at the multi-year Spending Review this year.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to review Public Works Loan Board rates offered to councils.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The PWLB lending facility exists to provide cost effective loans to local authorities to support investments and service delivery. HMT keeps all PWLB rates under review, including the discounted rate for investment in social housing which we extended in Autumn Budget to the end of 2025-26 to give LAs certainty with their capital plans for the year ahead.