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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of former office blocks that have been converted to residential units under permitted development rights for use as temporary accommodation.

The permitted development right for change of use from office to residential is making an important contribution to the delivery of new homes and has delivered over 42,000 homes to buy or rent in the three years to March 2018. We do not collect information on how many are sold or rented.

We have taken important steps to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We have committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period, and have implemented the most ambitious legislative reform in this area in decades, the Homelessness Reduction Act, which will mean people will get the help they need sooner.