Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what consideration was given to the number of right to buy sales in local authorities when determining the methodology used to determine their eligibility to bid for the Additional Housing Revenue Account Borrowing Programme.
The metric used to assess whether a local authority is in an area of high affordability pressure and therefore eligible to make an application under the Additional HRA Borrowing Programme is whether it has a difference of £50 or more per week between average social and average private rents at the local authority level. The Programme is therefore directed at local authorities where rents are most unaffordable and families are struggling to pay their rents. We want to see the Programme heavily subscribed. We will review how local authorities respond to this opportunity, and consider whether any further action is needed.