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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his written statement of 26 June 2018 on Affordable Housing, Official Report, WS797, what progress his Department has been made on delivering (a) 23,000 new affordable homes and (b) a new generation of council houses; and if he will make a statement.

Our £9 billion Affordable Homes Programme is on track to deliver 250,000 homes by March 2022. This includes the 23,000 affordable homes, of which at least 12,500 will be social rent homes in areas of high affordability pressure, announced in June 2018.

Since the announcement, we have abolished the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap, freeing up councils to double delivery to around 10,000 new homes a year by 2021/22, and have confirmed a longer-term rent deal for 5 years from 2020 that will provide councils with a stable investment environment to deliver new homes.