Capital Projects: Spending

Lord McLoughlin Excerpts

Thursday 26th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Swinburne (Con)]

It is fair to say that, with all the projects I have already spoken about, there is a distinct strategy for housing in this country by this Government. The supplementary estimates mean that the underspend is there for everyone to see, and I think it is very clear that the economic environment has impacted much of that spending. The department is doing as much as it possibly can to rectify this.

[Lord McLoughlin (Con)]

Does the extra requirement of Treasury authority apply to the devo deals that are done with the metro mayors, or are the Government being open with the metro mayors, as they said they would be, by giving them greater delegation in their budgets?

[Baroness Swinburne (Con)]

In the first instance, this applies only to all new spending and all new capital. It does not apply to anything that was previously done before February. HMT is taking a proportionate approach to approving business cases. That means that the new delegation approach has not yet caused any delays to DLUHC’s ability to deliver on levelling up, or, as I understand, our partners’.