Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Sharma and Kerry McCarthy

Monday 4th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

9. What assessment he has made of trends in the number of new homes for social rent since 2010.

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Alok Sharma)]

Since 2010, we have delivered 357,000 affordable homes including, as I said earlier, about 128,000 homes for social rent. As I also said previously, we are providing £9 billion for the affordable homes programme, a £1 billion lift in HRA borrowing caps, and rent certainty for social landlords. That will help the sector to build more affordable homes, including social rented homes.

[Kerry McCarthy]

Shelter has found that in the past year developers have used viability assessments to wriggle out of building more than 2,500 affordable homes to rent or buy, including 200 in Bristol. Will the Minister take steps to remove that loophole when he rewrites the national planning policy framework next year by, removing the reference to the need for a competitive return?

[Alok Sharma]

One of the key issues in our consultation on local housing needs, which closed on 9 November, was viability assessments. We will of course review what comes forward, but we have made it very clear that we want developers to build affordable homes.