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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to promote the construction of affordable housing in Cornwall.

Affordable housing is a Government priority. That’s why we are:

• Investing £9 billion in our Affordable Homes Programme to March 2021 to help councils and housing associations to build more homes, including social rent homes.

• Providing rent certainty to 2025 to support stable investment environment.

• Supporting councils with an extra £1 billion of borrowing to build more homes where demand is greatest.

• Supporting all developers by continuing to reform the planning system to ensure that we plan for and build enough of the right homes in the right places.

The Homes and Communities Agency has allocated around £31 million funding from the Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21 in Cornwall, and last year we saw a 60 per cent increase in the number of affordable housing starts and an 18 per cent increase in completions.