To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 30 March 2009, Official Report, columns 976-7W, on local government finance, when she expects her Department to conclude its consultation on changes to housing finance rules which would allow local authorities to keep the full income and capital returns on investments in new council housing; and how many responses have been received to date. (270596)

The consultation on excluding new council housing from housing revenue account subsidy and pooling closed on 17 April 2009. We have received 98 written responses. These will be considered and taken into account before decisions are made on how to implement the proposals.