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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what studies they have commissioned on the benefits of establishing additional social housing units to (1) the economy, (2) crime levels, and (3) regional inequality.

The Government is 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. This includes an additional £2 billion, and the ability for Local Authorities and Housing Associations to bid for funding to build social rent homes.

Since 2010 we have delivered over 464,000 new affordable homes, including 141,000 social homes across England. The social housing waiting list has decreased by 37 per cent since 2012, enabling more people to have the security of their own home.

We will also engage HM Treasury to renew the Affordable Homes Programme, building hundreds of thousands of new homes for a range of people in different places. This will help us prevent people from falling into homelessness while also supporting more people into homeownership.

We listen to the needs of tenants and in 2018 published A New Deal for Social Housing, moving forwards with the upcoming Social Housing White Paper. The White Paper will set out measures to empower tenants and support the continued supply of social homes. This will include measures to provide greater redress, better regulation and improve the quality of social housing

We also engage research and evidence to inform our policy decisions on housing. In 2018 a literature review was commissioned from The Centre for Housing Policy at York University. This review of social housing considered current policies and public attitudes, as well as developments in reducing crime levels, area deprivation and helping to keep residents out of poverty. The review may be found (attached) at: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/136236/1/MHCLG_Green_Paper_Review.pdf