Housing Strategy

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Wednesday 24th March 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con) [V]]

My Lords, as a member of the Greater London Council, I had comprehensive involvement in housing. The newly built Harold Hill estate in Havering was one of my responsibilities. We had regular meetings with the residents. I was shocked by information from a bride-to-be that she had set out her wedding dress on the large bed only to find that it was beyond use as green sludge had fallen from the ceiling and straight on to it. Investigation revealed that the fault was a lack of ventilation and the turning off of the heating system when the residents when off to work. Every flat in the whole development had to have ventilation introduced.

We all know the importance of housing to our physical and mental well-being, and that this pandemic has put even more strain on people and housing alike. To build more housing or to make more of it available, we need both funds and land. It is the latter aspect that I want to talk about. In her more recent days as a local councillor in London, my daughter talked about her frustration with a number of large development sites in her ward that had already secured planning permission but were coming back for yet another application, and then another. She had at least two large sites with three or four live planning permissions, yet still the applicant did not build. Every time, they returned to the council seeking more and more on the land for commercial gain, constantly pushing the boundaries, yet the growth in affordable housing was minimal by comparison.

I know that the Local Government Association has estimated that more than one million homes have been given planning permission but have not yet been built, with nine in 10 planning applications approved by councils. In addition, it estimates that a further million homes have been earmarked for councils for development but have not brought forward for planning. This Government should be looking at sites with live planning permission and at measures to encourage building on these sites—dare I say it, perhaps even considering punitive steps for those who do not build on large sites where they already have current planning permission, such as not being allowed to apply for another planning application for the site for five years. This would have the advantage of crystallising the applicant’s mind on what they wish to apply for in the first instance and of using their and council officers’ time and resources wisely. For every developer who returns for a new planning application, precious time and resources that could be used elsewhere are spent. It really clogs up the system. The Government need to look at how to get developers to actually build and must not take the planning process away from local councils, which already pass planning applications and know what works best for their area.

I also add my voice to the argument that building high is not the answer people want, even here in London. The pandemic has illustrated this further. People want a home—not a flat in some 20-storey tower—where they have proper space, indoors and outdoors, and can get to know their neighbours and be part of a community; nor do they want to be part of Airbnb, which has taken away many London homes.