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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of utilising unallocated funds from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to directly fund delivery of new social homes.

The £4.2 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) is now fully allocated to HIF projects. As of the end of June this year, £1.8 billion had been drawn down by local authorities.

The Department estimates that HIF has unlocked c260,000 homes. Local Authorities report starts and completions on housing developments facilitated by HIF investment to Homes England and the Department. Based on these returns, c29,000 homes have been started of which c18,500 have been completed.

It should, however, be noted that these Local Authority returns are not verified by government and should not be regarded as official statistics.