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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to undertake a value for money assessment of funding allocated to local authorities for garden settlement projects; and if he will make a statement.

We have provided or committed £22 million of capacity funding to fund dedicated staff teams and key studies and assessments to underpin delivery of our garden towns and villages. Local authorities are expected to spend capacity funding allocated through the Garden Communities programme on activities for which the funding was awarded. Homes England undertakes day-to-day monitoring of projects on MHCLG’s behalf, and decisions on ongoing funding take account of scheme performance in relation to previous capacity funding awards.