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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many social housing starts on site were made in (1) 2008, (2) 2010, (3) 2012, and (4) 2016.

Building more affordable homes is an absolute priority for this Government. On 4 October, the Prime Minister announced an extra £2 billion funding for affordable housing, on top of the £1.4 billion announced last year, increasing the affordable Homes Programme 2016-2021 budget to over £9 billion.

The Department does not hold figures for affordable housing starts before 2009/10, as information was previously only collected by completion.

The number of affordable housing starts on site in England, funded by the Homes and Communities Agency and the Greater London Authority for the requested years are as follows:

• 2010/11: 48,488 starts.

• 2012/13: 35,337 starts.

These figures do not include starts funded solely by local authorities and other sources.

For 2016/17 onwards, the total number of affordable starts also includes starts funded solely by local authorities and other sources. Under this criteria, the following figures are available:

• 2016/17: 49,420 starts.

Figures for the total number of starts on site made specifically by Housing Associations are available in DCLG live table 1000S. However, this live table only shows data from 2016/17 onwards.