Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he will take to help ensure improved local authority (a) processes and (b) housebuilding in areas where social housing development is low.

The Government has provided a range of tools to support councils to respond to the needs in their areas. This includes our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme and more freedom on how councils can spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales. In addition, Government abolished the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap in 2018, allowing councils to borrow to build more homes.

We also recognise the importance of councils having an effective, up-to-date plan in place to enable them to plan for meeting housing requirements, including for social housing development. The Government is therefore seeking to simplify the content of local plans and standardise the process for producing them to make plans easier to find, understand and engage with.