Tabled by Lord Shipley To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is
their estimate of the number of social homes that will be built as
a consequence of the Budget Statement. Baroness Grender (LD) My
Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Shipley, and at his
request, I beg leave to ask the...Request free trial
Tabled by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of
the number of social homes that will be built as a
consequence of the Budget Statement.
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My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend , and at his
request, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his
name on the Order Paper.
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My Lords, this Government’s priorities are to boost
housing supply and to build more affordable homes,
supporting the different needs of a wide range of people.
This is why we have recently announced £2 billion of
additional funding for social rent in our flexible
affordable homes programme, increasing the budget to over
£9 billion, and a £1 billion lift to the housing revenue
account borrowing cap in areas of high-affordability
pressure. This allows providers to have the flexibility
and agility to respond to local needs and markets,
building the right homes in the right places. The precise
number of homes and tenure types will depend on the bids
received.
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As this Government promised an increase in social housing
in both the 2015 and the 2016 Budgets, but built less
social housing last year than at any time since the
Second World War—indeed, it has fallen by 50% in the last
three years—why on earth should we believe them this time
and this year, when every social home not built last year
means another family homeless this Christmas? Why not
lift the cap on all local authorities and allow council
house building to begin again?
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My Lords, first, the noble Baroness is right that this is
a significant challenge. The reason that she and noble
Lords should accept that this measure is genuine is the
£2 billion uplift in the Budget. In the new year, we will
announce proposals for how that will be spent, and what
measure of it will be on social housing. The noble
Baroness should also bear in mind that, although there is
great pressure on social housing in areas of high
affordability, we are able to build more affordable
houses with a certain amount of money than social
houses—so it is a question of getting the balance right.
That is why we are focusing this measure on areas of high
affordability rather than applying it across the country
as a whole, as she suggested.
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My Lords, as welcome as extra social houses are, will my
noble friend and the Government ensure that we build
attractive homes? Just because homes are affordable does
not mean they have to be ugly. We should pay as much care
and attention to the surroundings and well-being of those
in social homes as we do to those in the private sector.
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My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right. As she
will have appreciated, there is support from around the
House for that very valid point. I think that the noble
Baroness, Lady Andrews, led a debate on this very issue
of design and the importance of the environment. The
department is going through a process of appointing
somebody who will take this very much on board. It is a
subject very close to my heart. It is very important in
terms of well-being and our environment that we do just
as my noble friend suggested.
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My Lords, the targets the Government have set will not be
met unless more land is made available. Could the
Minister say what the Government intend to do about
making available public land in particular? A number of
government departments are sitting on large amounts of
brownfield land which could be made available for
housing. Could it be made available at a price that
housing associations and local authorities are likely to
be able to afford so that they can build the social
housing that is needed?
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The noble Baroness is right, and I will write to her
about the detail of this. However, there a £45 million
budget at the land release fund; we have had bids in
relation to that and we will announce the progress of
those bids early in the new year. I will write to the
noble Baroness with details of the progress on that and
will make the letter available in the Library.
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My Lords, will the Minister agree that the first thing to
do is to reduce the number of vacant dwellings, and,
secondly, to increase the supply of social housing,
particularly by local authorities and housing
associations? Will the Government try to emulate the
achievements of Prime Minister Macmillan in his day?
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My Lords, on the first point the noble Lord made about
empty properties, the Government have indeed been
tackling that issue: in the last Budget we increased the
powers for local authorities to charge more council tax
for empty properties, which is an important move in that
direction. However, I agree with the noble Lord about the
importance of targets, and particularly about the record
of Macmillan in the 1960s. As I say, the Government’s
target would take us back to what seem like the halcyon
days of 1970, when we were building far more houses than
we are now.
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Can my noble friend advise what steps the Government are
taking to ensure that social houses, when built, are
energy efficient?
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My Lords, obviously there are building regulations that
have to be complied with, which have been tightened in
the past to ensure that they are greener—that is
important. We have strict, ambitious and appropriate
climate change goals following the COP 21 climate change
conference in Paris some two years ago, which are very
much part of the Government’s thinking—and again, I think
that they have cross-party support from around the House,
which is not always the case in other countries in
Europe.
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My Lords, on the related topic of affordable housing,
will the Minister explain to the House how the Government
propose to tackle—as I understand they do—the frankly
disreputable practice of a lot of developers of adding
onerous ground rent conditions to ostensibly leasehold
properties, and other practices which are not in the
interests of people attempting to secure housing?
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I thank the noble Baroness very much for raising that
issue, not least because there is a Written Ministerial
Statement on that subject today—so we are taking that
forward. The noble Baroness will appreciate that we have
been consulting on this; it has perhaps got lost in
today’s news but it is certainly the subject of a Written
Ministerial Statement, which will be available, and I
encourage Peers across the House to look at that. We are
taking it forward.
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My Lords, I undertook a review of adult mental health in
this country, which showed that too many people were
stuck in mental health hospitals and that the single
biggest issue was lack of housing. Can the Minister
please let us know how the Government are aligning their
policies on housing with their policies on mental health,
and what they are doing to ensure that appropriate
housing is available for people with mental health
problems?
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My Lords, the noble Lord raises an important question
about helping those who have mental health issues, and he
is right that many of them are inappropriately housed.
The recent announcement we made, I think by Written
Statement at the end of October, does things in relation
to supporting housing grant that makes the position of
people with mental health problems in supported housing
much easier. We hope that that should lead in an uplift
in the number of people in supported housing, as it is
much more appropriate that they are housed there.
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