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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that teachers, nurses and social workers can afford to live in areas of high cost housing.

We have strengthened the revised National Planning Policy Framework so that local authorities are expected to have planning policies which identify homes needed for different groups in the community. The Framework acknowledges that essential local workers, including teachers, nurses and social workers, are a group that may require access to affordable housing. Local authorities should consider this when setting local policies. Where there is identified need, local authorities may seek to introduce policies that support the delivery of affordable housing for essential local workers.

The Department for Health and Social Care have taken specific steps to support essential staff in accessing affordable housing in high cost areas. This includes the introduction of a national expectation that, when local NHS estate owners are disposing of surplus land, NHS staff will be offered first refusal on all affordable housing built on the land.