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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department spent on (a) focus groups and (b) surveys in (i) 2013 and (ii) 2014 to date.

The information is not centrally held in the form requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost, although I am not aware of significant expenditure.

As outlined in the answer of 25 March 2014, Official Report, House of Lords, Column WA99, we have undertaken qualitative research into the experience of tenants who might take up the Right to Buy, to help inform ways of increasing the take-up of the Right to Buy.

We have significantly reduced spending on surveys compared to the last Administration– for example, by abolishing the £4 million Citizenship Survey and the £5 million Place Survey.