Oral Answers to Questions Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: HM Treasury
Tuesday 14th November 2023

(7 months, 3 weeks ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Tim Farron Portrait Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
- View Speech - Hansard - -

There is encouraging news in that the Pension Insurance Corporation has recently announced that it is going to invest in helping to support the building of 1,200 new affordable homes in this city. Does the Chancellor agree that pension funds could be a very important source of capital for developing social rented housing around the country—Eden Housing Association, South Lakes Housing, and Westmorland and Furness Council, for example? Will he look at the rules and bring in greater incentives for pension investment funds to invest in affordable housing across the country?

Jeremy Hunt Portrait Jeremy Hunt
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

We are already working on proposals in that very area. Broadly speaking, we have one of the most robust and resilient pension fund sectors in the world, but we are doing a lot of work to remove the barriers to investing back into the UK. Things such as affordable housing, infrastructure and our growth businesses are areas of great potential.