Capital Projects: Spending

Lord Moylan Excerpts

Thursday 26th October 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Moylan]

To ask His Majesty’s Government why they issued instructions in February requiring the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to obtain sign-off from the Treasury for spending on new capital projects, and whether that restriction remains in place.

[Baroness Swinburne (Con)]

We continue to work within the delegation approach agreed with the Treasury in February, which involves Treasury sign-off on all new capital spend to ensure shared priorities between departments. However, this does not restrict our levelling-up ambition. Since the decision by HMT, we have announced a substantial capital package in the Spring Budget, taking our overall levelling-up funding to more than £11 billion, plus a recent capital investment of £1.1 billion for 55 towns across the United Kingdom.

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

My Lords, it appears that this extra layer of bureaucracy is destined to continue, although no explanation has been given by my noble friend as to why it was introduced. I wonder if it is in any way connected with the fact that the department has announced a £1 billion underspend on the affordable housing programme, as well as underspends on the housing infrastructure fund, the brownfield land fund and the brownfield infrastructure fund? In the light of these underspends, are the Government still confident that they will meet their housing targets?

[Baroness Swinburne (Con)]

The Government remain committed to fully funding and delivering our programmes to level up communities across the United Kingdom, including the full £11.5 billion budget for the affordable homes programme. In line with usual practice, some of the department’s budgets in 2022-23 were reprofiled into future years to reflect latest delivery plans. While all capital programmes have their own specific causes for delays, the challenging economic environment, including the housing market, inflationary pressures and supply-chain constraints, all contributed to the delivery delays last year. However, we remain fully committed to our housing targets.