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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to assist local authorities in acquiring necessary skills, partnerships and capacity to utilise the increased borrowing allowed against the Housing Revenue Account.

The Coalition Government has reformed the outdated council housing finance system with the introduction of self-financing in 2012. This has given the 167 stock-holding local authorities a stable source of funding with which to make long-term business plans, including the provision of new affordable homes.

This Government has also made available £300 million of extra Housing Revenue Account borrowing to help stock-holding local authorities build new affordable homes. The first allocations of £60 million across fifteen local authorities was announced on 7 July alongside a second round of bidding to ensure councils make full use of this opportunity.

Each scheme was assessed individually against a range of criteria including value for money and deliverability as well as the track record of the local authority to ensure they had the technical capacity to deliver the schemes or with a partner organisation. We have also encouraged councils to work closely with their Local Enterprise Partnership in support of local growth strategies, to increase the supply of housing locally.

House building is a key part of this Government's long-term economic plan; council house building starts are now at a 23-year high and more council housing has been built since 2010 than in the previous 13 years.