Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help councils (a) re-establish Housing Revenue Accounts and (b) become the direct provider of new council homes.

If a local authority has over 199 social and affordable homes, it must open a Housing Revenue Account (HRA), and we invite any council that is considering this to engage with the Department.

We know from our engagement with non-HRA holding councils, that many would like to increase their current levels of housing delivery, but that the cost of opening a HRA can make this difficult. That is why I have asked my officials to explore whether the current threshold is set at the right level, or if a different threshold would enable councils to reach a level of housing provision that would better enable them to meet the costs of opening and managing an HRA.

In 2023-24, councils delivered just over 8,950 affordable homes. We want to support all councils – both HRA holding and non-HRA holding – to boost their levels of direct delivery so that we can achieve the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. We have begun this process through a series of measures designed to enhance councils’ capacity, capability, and confidence to build again at scale, as detailed in my answer to Question UIN 31737 on 27 February 2025.