To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to (a) support local authorities in building new social housing and (b) review the funding model for building new social housing.

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using Compulsory Purchase Orders to secure more land for (a) social housing and (b) public use.

We are supporting local authorities to continue to deliver new and existing supply plans for council housing. In March we announced a preferential borrowing rate for council housebuilding from the Public Works Loan Board. We have also recently introduced a package of reforms on how councils can spend their Right to Buy receipts to give them increased flexibilities to make local housing decisions. Local authorities continue to benefit from our £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme, which will deliver tens of thousands of affordable homes for both sale and rent, right across the country.

Local authorities have a range of compulsory purchase powers available to them which they may use to acquire land for social housing or a public use. The Government is seeking to reform the compulsory purchase compensation regime to support local authorities to acquire land at reduced value for social housing, providing there is justification in the public interest. A new power has been introduced by the Government in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill that will allow local authorities to request a direction to acquire land for social housing without payment of hope value.