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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of G15 research findings that major London housing associations will deliver up to 3,600 fewer affordable homes a year if the Government implements its First Homes policy.

Polling shows that 88 per cent of people would choose to own their own home given a free choice. This Government is taking action through First Homes to ensure that young people can get on the housing ladder and fulfil the dream of home ownership.

The Government is also committed to increasing the supply of social housing and has made £9 billion available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022 to deliver approximately 250,000 new affordable homes in a wide range of tenures, including Social Rent, Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy. Building on this, we announced at Budget 2020 that we are investing £12 billion to build affordable homes between 2021/22 and 2025/26. This will be the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade.

We welcome the contribution of housing associations to the consultation. We are currently analysing their responses alongside other stakeholders and will issue a Government response in due course.