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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that councils can make use of any additional flexibility made possible by the removal of the cap on councils' borrowing against their Housing Revenue Account assets to finance the construction of new homes without undue bureaucracy.

The Autumn Budget announced the complete abolition of the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap with immediate effect. Following consultation, we have issued a determination that revoked the previous determinations specifying local authority limits on indebtedness, and as a result local authorities can now borrow for housebuilding in accordance with the Prudential Code. We want to see local authorities seize this opportunity and build a new generation of council housing.