Asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark To ask Her Majesty’s
Government what assessment they have made of the contribution that
offsite manufactured housing can make to their proposals for fixing
our “broken housing market”. Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab
Co-op) My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in
my name on the Order...Request free
trial
Asked by
-
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have
made of the contribution that offsite manufactured housing
can make to their proposals for fixing our “broken housing
market”.
-
(Lab
Co-op)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my
name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare an interest
as a councillor of the London Borough of Lewisham and a
vice-president of the Local Government Association.
-
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Communities and Local Government and Wales Office (Lord
Bourne of Aberystwyth) (Con)
My Lords, building more homes needs a modern homebuilding
industry. New technology has improved productivity, quality
and choice in a range of sectors, but housing has yet to
catch up. That is why the housing White Paper talked about
specific measures to stimulate the growth of modern methods
of construction, including offsite. For instance, on top of
providing financial support to builders, we are creating a
pipeline of opportunities in the sector and setting up a
specific working group on modern methods of construction.
-
My Lords, offsite manufactured housing could play a bigger
role in helping to solve the housing crisis in the UK, as
it has done elsewhere. I refer the Minister to the Building
Societies Association report Laying the Foundations for
Modern Methods of Construction. What are the Government
prepared to do to further deal with the problem that supply
is low because lenders cannot or will not routinely lend on
such properties because they do not fully understand the
risks, and builders will not build more of this type of
housing because mortgage lending is in limited supply, as
is home insurance? This type of building has the potential
to help to solve the crisis, but more support is needed to
help the sector.
-
My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord’s analysis that there
is scope here, but already 15% of new housing—a statistic
that surprised me—is produced by modern methods of
construction, which is a considerable amount. As I said, we
are setting up a modern methods of construction working
group, which will have its first meeting in the first half of
December. The noble Lord referred to difficulties with
mortgages. Already, through the Buildoffsite Property
Assurance Scheme, mortgage lending is being taken more
account of and freed up. In the meantime, the pipeline of
opportunities, to which I referred, is creating UK jobs on
modular production.
-
(Con)
My Lords, I declare an interest in that I was on the GLC and
responsible for a lot of housing at that time. Is the
Minister aware that, even at that stage, prefabs, as they
were then called, were used in part and in whole? In areas
such as Dagenham, everyone was able to have a new kitchen and
bathroom added on to their house, because it was
pre-constructed and could just be put in there. Is not it
also important to upgrade existing buildings? That means
that, instead of people needing to move on, they could have a
home that allowed for an expanding family—or else a new place
or prefab. It could certainly reduce production time very
much, although it would need to be tested thoroughly.
-
My Lords, at the risk of appearing ungallant, I think that
the type of prefab now has changed massively. Modern methods
of construction have opened up that area considerably. But I
take my noble friend’s point about looking at the existing
housing stock and seeing whether we can add to that and
improve it as well. That is something that I shall take back.
-
The (CB)
I welcome the Government’s White Paper on housing, with its
increasing attention to our need to supply housing to
families in this country. Would the Minister expect much of
this provision, or a proportion of it, to be directed at
families on low incomes who rent property? Furthermore, is it
correct to say that 120,000 children in this country live in
temporary accommodation, in hotels or bed and breakfasts,
with a risk to disruption to their education as a
consequence?
-
My Lords, I know that the noble Earl is very expert in this
area, so I am sure that that statistic is correct. He is
absolutely right that we need to ensure that a good
proportion of the property coming on line is for the families
that he spoke about—I am sure that that will be the case—and
across a range of tenures.
-
(LD)
My Lords, the Government’s ambitious target of 300,000 new
homes a year will require a doubling of the current
production. Does the Minister agree that the huge additional
public spending that that will need gives the Government a
very powerful hand in driving the long-term investment needed
to deliver modern methods of construction, which will improve
productivity, allow the industry to flourish and make at
least some contribution to replacing the many EU workers
being driven out by careless talk of a hard Tory Brexit?
-
First, the noble Lord is absolutely right about the need for
people from overseas to help with the construction side; that
is a point identified by the Government which is being taken
up and acted on. In relation to investment opportunities, as
I have mentioned already, there is considerable growth in the
economy in this area. We have Laing O’Rourke, L&G and
Swan producing modular housing in the country at the moment,
in Worksop, Leeds and Basildon respectively. In Chatham, we
have homes already being built with that type of investment,
and over seven sites in London are taking this up. It is
right to say there is great potential here, and we intend to
ensure that it is used.
-
(Con)
My Lords, might not the Government tackle the oligopoly that
exists among the big housebuilders, which results in land for
which there is planning permission not being built on? Also,
might we expect the Government to respond to the
recommendation from the Economic Affairs Committee that we
end the absurdity whereby local authorities can borrow to
build swimming pools but not council houses?
-
My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely correct about the
issue of land banking, although he did not call it that; it
is certainly something identified in the White Paper.
Borrowing is there already. I do not want to pre-empt the
Budget, as I do not know what will be in it myself, but
obviously it is an issue that will be looked at by the
Government.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, what are the Government going to do about the
shortage of pensioner properties? With the demographic
changes taking place, surely there is a need to boost that
sector?
-
My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right. He will be
aware that this was the first Government ever to identify
that issue, in the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017. We have
ensured that the needs of senior citizens are identified in
legislation for the first time, so planning authorities have
to act on that.
-
(GP)
Could the Government look into the possibility of using
offsite manufactured housing for places that at the moment
are unsuitable for traditional housebuilding—for example, on
brownfield sites? Some of the 1945 prefabs are still in good
use, and looking good as well.
-
On the last point, the noble Baroness is absolutely right. On
the earlier point, I shall take it away since it is a
specific one. I shall write to her and ensure that a copy is
placed in the Library.
|
