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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that non-governmental public bodies which are allocated funds by his Department are subject to appropriate oversight and are accountable for their use of those funds.

The Department has strong relationship sponsorship arrangements for its Arms Length Bodies, to ensure they manage taxpayers' money in line with the formal budget delegations they receive from the Department, Managing Public Money, and Cabinet Office Spending Controls. All the Arms Length Bodies except for the Homes and Communities Agency are sponsored by a team in Finance set up in January 2014. Due to its scale and complexity of its delivery programmes, the Homes and Communities Agency has a specialist sponsor team, with specific focus on sound corporate governance, financial oversight, and programme delivery.

The relationship the Department has with each of these Bodies is defined by individual Framework Documents and is monitored through formal governance and performance management processes. Aside from this ongoing monitoring, the Accounting Officer for each Arms Length Body is held to account by the Department's Accounting Officer or senior nominee at regular scheduled meetings. In addition, officials regularly attend Arms Length Body Audit and Risk Committees.

Reflecting the Home and Communities Agency's role in delivering large scale capital recoverable investment programmes, both the Department and the Agency has brought in senior level banking and risk professional expertise to manage the proper use of public money.