Asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark To ask Her Majesty's
Government how many homes to be offered for let at a social rent as
opposed to an affordable rent they expect to be built in the next
12 months. Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab) My Lords, I beg
leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
In doing so, I declare that I am a...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty's Government how many homes to be
offered for let at a social rent as opposed to an
affordable rent they expect to be built in the next 12
months.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my
name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare that I am a
locally elected councillor and a vice-president of the
Local Government Association.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Communities and Local Government and Northern Ireland
Office (Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth) (Con)
My Lords, on a daily basis social rent will continue to be
delivered by developers and housing associations across
England through agreed Section 106 contributions with local
planning authorities. The number and tenures of homes to be
built outside government funding will depend on housing
providers’ assessments of local needs and markets, which
are agreed through negotiation of a Section 106
contribution. The Government’s current £7.1 billion
affordable homes programme runs affordable rent. The
Government introduced affordable rent in 2012 to maximise
government investment, enabling us to build more homes for
every pound of public spending. This has allowed us to
build around 333,000 affordable homes since 2010.
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My Lords, the English Housing Survey produced by the noble
Lord’s own department and published earlier this year tells
us that:
“The number of families in the private rented sector has
increased; and the number of families in the social rented
sector has decreased”.
It goes on to say that those in the private rented sector,
“spend a significantly greater proportion of their … income
on their housing costs”
than do social renters or those buying with a mortgage. Of
the 46,328 building starts in the housing association
sector up to June 2017, only 3,726 were at a social rent.
Can the noble Lord tell the House why the Government are so
opposed to social rented housing playing its full role in
dealing with the housing crisis, as evidenced by the
Government’s own funding programmes and policies?
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My Lords, we are not opposed to it. We are discussing it
frankly with the London mayor—indeed, we discussed it with
him last week. I absolutely accept that more needs to be
done, but there has been an increase in affordable housing
starts. We are looking at the social housing programme,
particularly in the larger cities, and particularly in
London. In the meantime, we are increasing the number of
houses being built.
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(Con)
Can my noble friend say what Her Majesty’s Government are
doing to support those who need help accessing housing?
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My Lords, my noble friend will be aware that the recent
housing White Paper sets out many of the things that we are
doing. In addition to the affordable homes programme to which
I referred, there is a housing infrastructure fund of £2.3
billion, new town development corporations delivering garden
towns, and a land release fund that was launched in August
2017—just last month. Increased planning fees are coming on
stream, which will help, and we are doing bespoke housing
deals as well.
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(Lab)
My Lords, how do the Government define affordable housing?
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My Lords, the noble Lord raises an interesting point.
Affordable housing is at about 80% of market rates. That is
the rough assessment.
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(LD)
My Lords, I remind the House of my entry in the register of
interests. Is the Minister aware that the number of
government-funded new homes built for social rent fell in
2016-17 to just 1,102? Does he agree that there is a much
bigger role for local government in driving forward the
building of social housing? Will the Government lift the cap
on borrowing so that local authorities can build a great deal
more social homes for rent?
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My Lords, the noble Lord will be aware that there is a
difference between social housing and social rents. The
amount of social housing is something to which we have
committed in the White Paper, and we are looking at that. As
I indicated, we are discussing the situation in London with
the London mayor. In the meantime, most social housing—about
94%, I think—is at social rents. The noble Lord referred to
the borrowing limit. At the moment, there is plenty of
headroom for local authorities in that regard, and there is
no indication that it needs raising. We are obviously alive
to the fact that in the future that might be the case but it
certainly is not at the moment.
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(CB)
My Lords, has the Minister heard, as I have, the housing
associations say with great regret that although they were
founded to house the poorest people in society, increasingly
they are having to move upmarket and are having to turn away
the poorest households because rents have risen with lower
grants and benefits have been cut? If the housing
associations cannot house the poorest households, how can we
expect private landlords to do so, and does not that simply
mean more homelessness?
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My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right to raise the
considerable housing challenge that we face. In the meantime,
we are building more than has been built in the years since
2008. I think that we are now running at record levels in
relation to new starts. The noble Lord is right about
particular issues with people and affordability. We are
analysing the consultation on the National Planning Policy
Framework, which is about building in the right place. I
believe that that will make a difference when we respond to
that consultation.
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(Lab)
My Lords, can we go back to the original Question of my noble
friend Lord Kennedy, in which he asked not about affordable
rents, which is what the Minister has emphasised, but about
social housing and social rents? Will the Minister confirm
the figures given just now on the number of new starts in
social housing at social rents? What is the Government’s
estimate of how many we need in the next three years and how
many the Government expect to see provided?
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My Lords, to reiterate my point, there is of course a
difference between social housing and social rents. The
question is about social rents. I indicated that these are
being delivered via Section 106 contributions. In 2015-16,
the last year for which we have figures, 6,800 of the homes
delivered by such contributions were for social rent. I will
endeavour to find figures for the earlier years, if that
would be helpful. I will write to the noble Lord on that and
will circulate it. However, there is a big difference between
social housing and social rent.
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