Localism Bill

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Wednesday 7th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

My Lords, I apologise for my delay in getting back to the Chamber. I had jobs that I simply had to do in the House.

It is important to consider the impact of this in terms of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, of which I am a member. I wonder whether these are the sort of powers that that committee is very opposed to giving, because they are too wide and would mean that the Government could do pretty well whatever they wanted. I have clear memories of, I believe, the Wilson Government introducing rent controls, which had a disastrous effect. They appeared to work temporarily but were a terrible failure after that. Everyone found that their rents jumped up terribly, which was worse than if they had increased gradually. I have reservations on those two grounds and should like the Minister to take them into consideration.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 93 which, for the accountants here, follows Amendments 91 and 92. Most of the points relating to the tenancy relations services dovetail clearly with the other two amendments in the group. Amendment 93 requires all local housing authorities to provide a tenancy relations service. This proposed new clause would establish a statutory duty on each local housing authority to provide such a service, and its focus would be to foster good practice in the private rented sector.

The tenancy relations officer’s work will include taking steps to promote awareness of rights and responsibilities on the part of both landlords and tenants; conciliation and negotiation between the parties in the interests of resolving disputes; and, where necessary, assisting in the enforcement of duties and in the prosecution of landlords for the criminal offences of harassment and illegal eviction. I received a helpful reply from the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, about this point. The sum total from the Minister was that there is no need to legislate because local authorities already carry out such activities and duties.

I am sad to say that not all local authorities do that. With the cuts that are taking place in local authorities at the moment, they will perform these even less if there is no statutory duty so to do. Within the private sector, it may surprise some noble Lords that there is harassment and illegal eviction. There is a need to protect tenants from criminal offences. The legislation for homeless persons in properties without protection is very strong.

A tenancy relations service is needed. I shall give two examples from the past couple of weeks which occurred to me as a local councillor. A guy living in rented accommodation came to see me. He is being harassed by his landlord and it is a situation where one ethnic group is against another. He complained to the local authority and the police, both of whom told him to go away. There is no proof. I say to this man, “Go and find somewhere else to live. If it is that uncomfortable, it is probably insoluble”. The guy cannot find somewhere else to live because he needs a deposit and a guarantee.

The second case again took place in the past two weeks. A woman in this north-west London borough says that she cannot find a one-bedroom flat to rent because all landlords want a guarantee and a deposit, and they do not want her because she is on housing benefit. The idea that there is no need for a tenancy relations service is living in a bubble of Westminster which does not understand what happens in reality. Other legislation of this Parliament will put people into private accommodation without any choice and there will be a greater danger of tenants being put under intolerable pressure. Those people need a tenancy relations service which is statutory and not just voluntary. People go to their local housing association or local council but they are not helped if they are not a priority case and the council does not see a way to help them.

The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, said that there are Citizens Advice and various other organisations. At the moment, they are under extreme pressure. People are queuing up. The bureaux are not answering the telephone. They have service level agreements with their local authority. They are well meaning and they help, but I find that there are many people who they do not help. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will find a means of incorporating a tenancy relations service within the amended legislation, which would dovetail well with the comments made by my noble friend Lord Shipley.

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Moved by

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

94: After Clause 174, insert the following new Clause—
“Establishment of London Housing and Regeneration Board
(1) The authority must establish a London Housing and Regeneration Board (“the Board“).
(2) The Board is to consist of such numbers (being not less than six) as the authority may from time to time appoint.
(3) The authority must appoint one of the members as the chair of the Board.
(4) In appointing a person to be a member the authority—
(a) must have regard to the desirability of appointing a person who has experience of, and shown some capacity in, a matter relevant to the exercise of the functions set out in this Chapter,(b) must be satisfied that the person will have no financial or other interest likely to affect prejudicially the exercise of the person’s functions as a member, and(c) must ensure that an appropriate number of members on the Board are appointed representatives of London boroughs.(5) In exercising its housing and regeneration functions and powers subsequent to the enactment of this Chapter, the authority must consult and obtain agreement from the Board.”

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

The amendment is about establishing a strategic board in London. Noble Lords may say that there is already such a proposal and there is no need, but it is not in statute.

Ahead of the Localism Bill being drafted last year, London Councils and the GLA submitted a joint document to the DCLG clearly stating issues where there was an agreement between the two organisations. One such area of agreement between them was on how housing and regeneration should be run and managed efficiently and effectively. The agreement very sensibly stated that,

“There should be a decision-making board comprising the Mayor, three borough representatives and three Mayoral appointees”.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, pointed out to me, this is indeed what has happened. However, the expectation—certainly from London Councils and, I assume, the GLA—was that this would be included in the Bill before us, and we do not know why it is not. I feel that it is important that the housing and regeneration board is set up in statute. Accepting the current agreed workings between London Councils and the GLA, I think that people want the security of knowing that a future Mayor of London, of whatever colour, will abide by something which is enshrined in statute and is not just in place through mutual friendly agreement.

One such recent example is the London Waste and Recycling Board, which was set up under primary legislation. The setting up of this board was prescribed in the Greater London Authority Act 2007 and was supported, as is the current example, by both London Councils and the GLA. This Government also supported that provision in the GLA Act just four years ago.

The two authorities with responsibility in this area have stated what they want, and they want it in primary legislation. The Government are quite happy for there to be such a board, although off the face of the balance sheet, but why should it not be set out in primary legislation? The Bill is about localism, and the localism element here is that all 32 London boroughs feel that their representation on the London strategic board should be set out in primary legislation and not be there through the good will of the mayor, whoever he or she may be.

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[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, this is important. We do not believe that it is necessary to prescribe in statute the requirement on the Greater London Authority to establish a London housing and regeneration board. The letter of July 2010, to which others have referred, assumed a decision-making board. However, there were concerns over accountability. I will come further on to that.

The noble Lord, Lord Palmer, put the case very well. For the benefit of noble Lords who might not have picked up the letter that I wrote following the withdrawal of the amendments last time, I should say that we believe that setting a board in statute would give London minimal flexibility in determining its own arrangements for governing housing and regeneration activities. We want to keep prescription by central government to a minimum and ensure that the Greater London Authority is free to respond to changing times and circumstances without having to resort to changing primary legislation to do so.

The Mayor of London, the Assembly and London Councils are already deciding how they want to run things. They are already in the process of change, without any input from the Government. They are able to set up a board structure such as the amendment suggests—should they want to. They do not have to wait for us to tell them how to do it, they can do it themselves. I think that is one of the main reasons why we do not particularly want to put this on to the statute book. They can do it, they are able to do it, so there is no reason to tell them to do it, and they do do it.

A decision-making board will ultimately determine the GLA’s housing and regeneration activities, but the GLA was created on a model of a democratically elected executive mayor to provide strong leadership and do things on behalf of London. Therefore it is important that the mayor has the final decision on housing and regeneration matters, but he has to take into account the views of the boroughs as well. Of course, the checks and balances on the mayor should remain with the London Assembly, which is there to hold the mayor to account.

We do not think that it is a good thing to put the mayor in the position of having to have a board. We are absolutely clear that he is working very co-operatively with London Councils and the local government group. Therefore I think that we would resist very much putting that on to the face of the Bill. In light of what I said in my letter and what I have said today, I ask the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, to withdraw his Amendment.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Hanham makes my points for me. She points out that the GLA and the mayor will evolve; things will happen. That is exactly what frightens me. Under whichever mayor, of whichever colour, whether it is next year, four years hence or eight years hence, as the Minister says, the GLA can evolve and change, and that is its virtue. In fact, it is the opposite. What we are trying to do is to enshrine in primary legislation a protection for the 32 London boroughs and for the GLA, a partnership of which we all approve, rather than rely on the good will and resolve of the mayor of the time, whenever that may be. The idea that it should evolve, put forward by the Minister, makes the case for it being in primary legislation. However, at this stage, with the mass of people in this place having tested the water, I beg leave to withdraw the Amendment.

Amendment 94 withdrawn.