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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether when determining the high affordability pressure criterion of the additional housing revenue account borrowing programme prospectus he accounts for variations within local authority areas which mean some towns and cities face more significant cost pressures than the local average.

The metric that is used to assess whether a local authority is in an area of high affordability pressure is whether it has a difference of £50, or more, per week between average social and private rents at the local authority level. As this data is only available at the local authority level, bids can not be accepted in respect of geographic areas that are smaller than local authority areas.