Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Lord Beecham and Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Lab)
My Lords, building on some of the things that my noble friend has said about Amendment 41B, what can be done to ensure that starter homes sold with a discount cannot immediately be sold on to second home owners or to people renting them out as holiday homes? As we know, in many areas of the country, especially rural and coastal areas, while properties are sold and people have homes, these homes are not lived in all the time. Therefore, notwithstanding that the homes have owners, the essence of these communities is hollowed out because people are not there all the time; they become real communities only at certain times of the year, and the schools, the pubs and the shops all close. Can anything be done, if we persist with this 20% discount, to ensure that communities still thrive and that people are not able to sell these properties on as second homes?
The Government, in seeking to enable people to buy these starter homes, intend that if a person is under the age of 40, as I understand it, they still qualify to buy one. I do not think that the government amendments go far enough. Is the Bill, even as amended, compliant with the Equality Act? There is discrimination, I would say, against people over the age of 40.
Lord Beecham (Lab)
My Lords, I suspect that the Minister will be grateful that my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours eventually managed to get some sleep, having burned the midnight oil on what has been an absolutely forensic analysis of these proposals in the Bill and the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Shipley.
I had intended to ask the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, how much of a mortgage would disqualify and for how long would it have to be held under the terms of his amendments. How would the maintenance of a mortgage be monitored? If a mortgage were paid off after a year or two, or three or whatever, would that change the situation in relation to the discount? How would residence be monitored, for that matter? Is somebody supposed to call every so often to check who is occupying the property? On a lesser topic, would very short lets of the Airbnb kind interfere with the concept that the Government have advanced? I understand the intentions of the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, but there are significant problems in realising the objective, with which the Opposition agree, of ensuring that only genuine first-time buyers are covered.
There is also a question about the meaning of locality. Amendment 44 states:
“The meaning of ‘locally’ … shall be defined by the relevant local authority or the Greater London Authority”.
If the Government are disposed to accept this amendment—which would be sensible because someone has to ensure that this is a locally based scheme—I wonder whether, in addition to the terms of the amendment as it stands, “local authority” could be defined as including combined authorities where they exist. Combined authorities will usually have a strategic role in the housing market and development—certainly some agreements have now been signed—and it would incongruous if, in an area designated as one for which it has some housing responsibility, the combined authority was not included in the process of determining the locality for obtaining a grant of this kind. If the Government are disposed to accept the principle of Amendment 44, perhaps that further refinement could be taken on board.
I agree with the suggestions made by the noble Lord, Lord Young. It would be right to look at the range of issues that he has covered and I hope that the Minister will indicate a sympathetic stance—he has already made the point, so she has had a couple of days to think about it—and apply his suggestions to the scheme as it develops. It is to be hoped that, on Report, the Government will reflect at least that much in their own amendments.