Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government, given the increased cost of
living, what actions they will take to ensure that housing is
affordable in relation to household incomes in (1) the private
rented sector, (2) the social housing sector, and (3) for
homeowners with mortgages.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Levelling Up, Housing & Communities () (Con)
My Lords, the Government recognise the cost of living pressures
that people are facing across this country, particularly this
winter. Local housing allowance rates have been maintained at
their increased level following a boost in investment of nearly
£1 billion in April 2020. The Government have also capped social
housing rent increases for 2023-24 at 7% to protect social
tenants from higher rent increases, and last week we published a
mortgage support statement setting out the support available to
mortgage holders.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer to what I know was
quite a broad Question. However, this winter nearly 1 million
private renters are at risk of being evicted, many social housing
tenants struggle despite the Government’s 7% social rent cap and
home owners face high interest rates. If ever there were a need
for a long-term cross-party housing strategy to address the lack
of truly affordable housing, surely it is now. Will the Minister
commit to developing such a strategy, as recommended by the
Archbishops’ housing commission report, Coming Home?
(Con)
I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question, and I think
it is an extremely interesting opportunity. I would like to talk
to her in further detail about that because I have read the
report Coming Home and I think the idea of the five
S’s—sustainable, safe, stable, social and satisfying housing—is a
wonderful thing to aspire to. I cannot offer her a long-term
cross-party review at this time, but I would like to talk to her
further and talk to my officials about that.
(Con)
My Lords, 20% of families in England now rent privately and
one-third of them rely on housing benefit. That is capped by the
local housing allowance, which was fixed on rents in 2019 and has
been frozen for five years, although rents are rising rapidly—by
12% in the last year. This means that a family with a two-bedroom
house faces a shortfall of some £1,500 a year that they have to
meet out of the rest of their benefit. Does my noble friend
recognise the difficulties that this can cause? Is there a case
for the Chancellor, in his forthcoming Budget, reviewing the
decision to freeze the local housing allowance?
(Con)
I think my noble friend understands that I cannot offer anything
on behalf of the Chancellor next spring, but I can say that it is
something that we need to discuss. I shall be taking this issue
back to officials to discuss it fully before we get anywhere near
the Spring Statement.
(Lab)
My Lords, in 1980 some 30% of housing was available for rent as
social housing; now that figure is down to 17%. Given that there
are around 190,000 people on local authorities’ waiting lists for
houses, what are the Government going to do about the acute
shortage of social housing?
(Con)
The noble Lord is right that it is a challenge for this country
and this Government to provide more affordable homes. That is why
we have an £11.5 billion affordable homes programme, which will
deliver tens of thousands of affordable homes right across the
country. It is important that we are delivering that, and we will
continue to do so.
(Con)
My Lords, what are the Government doing in relation to SMEs
working in the housing sector, particularly given inflation and
rising finance costs?
(Con)
The Government have a number of schemes that we are using to
support small and medium-sized house builders to help them to
provide not only social housing but also private housing. I am
happy to write to my noble friend with all that information.
(CB)
My Lords, the Affordable Housing Commission, which I had the
honour of chairing, has recommended a national fund to enable
social housing landlords to acquire and modernise the properties
of those private landlords who now want to exit from the market.
Does the Minister agree that that would produce an enormously
good bang for the buck? Not only would we swiftly get more social
housing that was secure for those who lived in it, but we would
see the modernisation of properties that need to be decarbonised,
thereby reducing fuel poverty at the same time.
(Con)
Yes, I agree with that. We are seeing some difficulties within
the private rented sector because of the issues of the
maintenance of these private properties, but also because of the
expectations, as the noble Lord said, about the decarbonisation
of those properties. That is why we are offering a number of
funding streams to SMEs at the moment in order to do that.
(LD)
My Lords, given the Minister’s earlier answer to the noble Lord,
Lord Young, will she concede that the Government’s refusal to
unfreeze housing benefit and raise the local housing allowance is
ignoring a rental crisis that is already unfolding, particularly
in the private rented sector, and that consequently this winter
homelessness and evictions will increase? Have the Government
done an impact assessment of that decision? More importantly,
will they now consider a temporary ban on no-fault evictions, as
happened during the pandemic?
(Con)
As I think I have answered at this Dispatch Box, we are looking
at Section 21 evictions, and we will certainly bring forward the
private renters Bill in this Parliament. As for doing more to
help people, we have done a huge amount as a Government. In the
Autumn Statement, the Chancellor offered £26 billion more in
support for people across this country, added to the energy price
guarantee that was already there. Then there is the council tax
rebate. The result is that 8 million more vulnerable people will
receive support of at least £1,200 this year. I do not know of an
impact assessment regarding the HCA, but I will certainly find
out if we have done one. Of course we will keep it under review;
that is what we would continue to do at any time.
of Ullock (Lab)
My Lords, to follow up on the noble Baroness’s question, we have
heard that hard-pressed tenants are facing rent increases and
people are really worried about affording their homes,
particularly this winter. The Minister has mentioned the renters
reform Bill. It is really important that we see that soon, so can
she say when we are actually going to see it?
(Con)
I cannot say exactly when, but it remains the top priority for
this Government, as I have mentioned many times before. We will
bring forward that important legislation as soon as we can within
this Parliament.
(Con)
My Lords, looking to the longer term, it is clear that there is a
shortage of housing across the economy, particularly social
housing. We have trillions invested in pension funds. Rather than
the leveraged LDI products, would it not be sensible for the
Government to facilitate and encourage more investment by pension
funds in social housing, which can deliver a reliable income as
well as benefiting the housing supply over the longer term?
(Con)
My noble friend brings up a very interesting point. I have looked
at that in the past from a local authority point of view. I will
certainly take that point back and would like to talk to her more
about it.
(LD)
My Lords, leaseholders living in blocks that are under 11 metres
are also at risk of losing their homes. They were excluded by the
Building Safety Act from any grants for remediation for cladding
and building safety works. The Minister has received from me a
lot of emails from desperate leaseholders looking to the
Government for support and help, to ensure that they do not have
to fund the developers’ problems that were caused. They are at
risk of losing their homes because of the high costs of cladding
removal. Can the Minister now tell us what she and the Government
intend to do to help these desperate leaseholders?
(Con)
I am fully aware of the noble Baroness’s concerns about this
issue. I have a large group of documents from her and am working
my way through those with officials. I will come back to her to
discuss it fully, as soon as I possibly can in the new year.
