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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to roll out the First Homes scheme in (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire.

We recently launched the first batch of First Homes in Bolsover, Derbyshire. This is the first step in making this manifesto commitment a reality. We will be bringing more pilots out in other areas across England, and will shortly be launching a larger grant-funded programme aiming to deliver 1,500 First Homes from the end of the year. This will be open to bids to support First Homes in Wakefield and West Yorkshire from developers, local authorities and housing associations, and we hope to see strong bids from the area so that residents can benefit from First Homes as soon as possible.

Additionally, on 24 May we issued a written ministerial statement implementing new planning policy to ensure that First Homes will be delivered in all parts of England in the future.