Housing: New Housebuilding
Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Bates
Lord Bates
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of measures introduced to stimulate new housebuilding.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham)
The Government monitor the rate of housebuilding very closely. For example, we completed 58,000 affordable homes in 2011-12, a third more than the average delivery of affordable homes in 10 years. We are investing more than £8 billion of public funding to support housing, including £4.5 billion investment in new affordable homes, and we remain on track to deliver 170,000 in this spending review period.
Lord Bates
I am grateful to my noble friend for that very encouraging Answer. When added to the tremendous boost to home ownership that the Chancellor announced in the Budget today, it will be widely welcomed. However, does she share my concern that recent research has shown that the average age of a first-time buyer in the United Kingdom is now 35 compared with 28 10 years ago and 24 in the 1960s? Does she agree that there are immense social as well as economic benefits to home ownership? Will she ensure that there is no let-up in extending home ownership to all people, particularly the young?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on managing to put down this Question on the day when there have been such helpful announcements in the Budget about home ownership. I agree with what he said about the difficulty for younger buyers in the market. I also agree that the aspiration of home ownership is extremely high and that is why I am particularly delighted that the Chancellor announced the £3.5 billion housing package, which includes an equity mortgage scheme, Help to Buy, as well as important changes to the right-to-buy scheme, all of which will help not only those mentioned by my noble friend but others in general.
Housing: New Homes Bonus
Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Bates
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I think that they are all more than aware. The new homes bonus has been an extremely important contribution to ensure that councils willingly accept new housing in their areas. This supports them, at least in terms of the housing provided, and gives them an incentive to ensure that new homes are built.
Lord Bates
Is my noble friend aware that in the north-east of England, the North Tyneside Council has used the new homes bonus to undertake a welcome £3.1 million refurbishment of a public library in North Shields? That is welcome, but is not the point of the new homes bonus to act as a catalyst for the construction industry? Will she therefore join me in welcoming the news that in the north-east of England new housing starts increased by 25% over the previous period last year, which is an increase of 47% over the period in 2009?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I am always grateful to my noble friend, because he knows the figures, and he has given them on several occasions. They show that the north-east is in fact working very hard to produce new housing. Of course, he is right: the new homes bonus is not specifically given for housing; it is given as a contribution to areas where new housing has been built. Refurbishing a new library to help with the increased population seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable use of that money.
Local Government: Provisional Finance Settlement
Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Bates(11 years, 5 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, let us start with the reserves. The Government have a very firm position on this. They recognise that local authorities need reserves; indeed, in the current economic situation, they may have to call on reserves to help them deal with some of their finances. However, there are local authorities that are sitting on enormous unallocated reserves, and those are the ones that the Secretary of State believes ought to be challenged. Where local authorities are sitting on vast sums, they should be looking at how best they can use them to support their expenditure.
Regarding the cost of appeals, within the business rate retention scheme an allowance will be made for appeals that are already in the pipeline. Those that will come subsequently are a different matter and they will have to be dealt with at that time. The 10% reduction in council tax benefit is there to help with efficiency; to ensure that local authorities administer this in the best way that they possibly can; and to ensure that any system they set up can, if necessary, be supported by other reductions within their council tax budgets.
Lord Bates
My Lords, I welcome the Statement by my noble friend and the fact that it places a great emphasis on getting the housing building market going. Has my noble friend seen the statistics produced by the National House-Building Council in the past week, which suggest that new housing starts in the north-east of England, for example, are at 3,048 for the first nine months of this year? This represents an increase of 25% on the same period last year, and an increase of some 47% on the same period in 2009. Will this not funnel through the new homes bonus programme to provide important additional revenue streams to councils in the north-east? In the past few days, the House Builders Federation has said that planning applications and planning permission granted for new homes have increased by 36% on the previous quarter. For further clarification, has my noble friend’s estimate of the £650 million that will be provided through the new homes bonus next year taken account of that welcome news?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for pointing out good news relating to the housing figures. We have been very aware—everybody else in the House will be aware—that a lot of the economy needs a boost and much of that boost will come from housing and housing construction. I am very pleased about the figures in the north-east, which is perhaps one area in the country where we particularly need to see new housing—not only to ensure that there is housing but because it will stimulate the economy even more in that part of the world.
The new homes bonus is part of the funding stream. It is not ring-fenced but it does relate to the number of houses that are being built and so would add to local authorities’ revenue. If the number of planning permissions has increased in the north-east as well, that is good, as there has been a lot of criticism that planning permissions are somewhat slow in being granted. Therefore, I thank my noble friend for those points.
Local Government: Finance
Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Bates
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I have already indicated this Government’s strong support for the voluntary sector and their belief that the sector has a major role to play in the future. Indeed, the noble Baroness will see that in the Localism Bill, which has just been published, a big emphasis is placed on the need for local authorities to work with voluntary organisations and, indeed, for voluntary organisations and community associations to have a greater say in how things are run in conjunction with, or independently from, the local government sector. Therefore, there is no disagreement between us about that or about the value of the voluntary sector. The noble Baroness is right: there is a transitional fund of £100 million to help voluntary organisations. I think that the volunteer centres will fall into that, and that will help them to withstand some of the reductions in grant.
I was asked about the care of the elderly. The work that is done will be very carefully monitored; we had some discussion about this on Thursday. It has to be made clear that the quality of the care is extremely important. It is not currently brilliant across the country, and we are very aware that efforts need to be made to ensure that it is universally good.
Lord Bates
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the party opposite had planned cuts of £52 billion to tackle the deficit? If they, as we have done, had ring-fenced the National Health Service and schools budgets, then it was always going to be a tough settlement, whoever was in power. Is it not also the case that this Government are reducing top-down bureaucracy through the comprehensive spending and performance reviews, freeing up councils from ring-fencing and giving them the potential to earn greater sums through business rates and the new homes bonus?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that question and I agree entirely with what he has said. It is correct that, with the removal of ring-fencing—I am sorry that the party opposite finds this so hilarious—councils will have access to a greater tranche, if not the entire tranche, of money regarding which they can make their own decisions. They have their own priorities in using the money. Except for the schools grant and the grant from the health service, there is no limitation on how they spend that money, and that will be of great benefit as they go forward. When the noble Lord opposite was the leader of a council, I was also the leader of a council and I am sure that he, like me, would have given his eye teeth to get his hands on the entire budget.
Ports: Business Rates
Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Bates
Lord Bates
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they are making to collect backdated non-domestic rates in respect of port-side operators.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham)
My Lords, in June, the coalition Government implemented an immediate moratorium on port operators’ backdated payments, and in the emergency Budget we announced our intention to take primary legislation at the earliest opportunity to cancel the “ports tax”. The repayment scheme introduced by the previous Administration for businesses with backdated rates bills, such as those in ports, did not go far enough to address the problems facing these businesses, many of which are on the brink of insolvency.
Lord Bates
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply, which will be widely welcomed in the ports of the United Kingdom. They have been hit dramatically by the unfair imposition of this backdated tax. Is she aware that, while this will provide relief for many businesses already in place, it is too late for many hundreds of businesses and many hundreds of vital jobs that have already been lost? Will she consider introducing a thorough review of the chaotic handling of this entire revaluation process by the Valuation Office Agency and by the previous Government so that lessons can be learnt and mistakes not repeated?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that and I know that he has taken an interest in this matter over some time. The Valuation Office made its decisions and has been criticised by the Select Committee on the handling of the review of ports. I think that the Valuation Office itself recognised that its communications with businesses affected by the revaluation were deficient and, while it is not clear that a formal inquiry on the handling of this matter is necessary, the Government will be looking at the issues raised.