Social Rented Housing: Construction

(asked on 20th April 2022) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to assist local authorities with a significant deficit with the Housing Revenue Account to be able to borrow to build new social housing.


Answered by
Stuart Andrew Portrait
Stuart Andrew
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This question was answered on 27th April 2022

In 2018 the Government removed the cap on Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing, freeing councils to borrow to build new housing stock, or to undertake major repairs, or other capital work on existing stock. All councils, including those with HRAs carrying significant debt, nevertheless have to maintain their borrowing within prudential limits


The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing, our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country should economic conditions allow and we are keen to see local authorities playing a key role in the delivery of the AHP alongside housing associations.

We have also given councils greater flexibility in how they spend retained receipts from Right to Buy sales to support their plans to develop and deliver new social housing.

Reticulating Splines