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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of housing revenue accounts to meet future investment needs in social housing.

The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing. We are investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, which will leverage up to £38 billion of private finance and provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow. We are keen to see local authorities playing a key role in the delivery of this programme alongside Housing Associations. Alongside this we have introduced a package of reforms to give local authorities increased flexibility over how they can spend their Right to Buy receipts on replacement homes. This package will make it easier for authorities to fund homes using Right to Buy receipts including homes for social rent; allow authorities greater flexibility over the types of homes they provide to reflect the needs of their communities; give authorities more time to use receipts and to develop ambitious build programmes; and make sure more new build replacements are delivered instead of acquisitions, contributing to net supply. Government abolished the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap in 2018, enabling local authorities to borrow for building.