Older People’s Housing Taskforce
Lord Ranger of Northwood Excerpts(6 days, 18 hours ago)
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Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)
The Government will publish a housing strategy that will set out a long-term vision for the housing market that works for communities, building 1.5 million high-quality homes and the biggest increase in affordable housing in a generation. Supported housing plays a vital role in delivering better life outcomes, improved well-being and health, as the noble Lord mentioned, and greater independence for many vulnerable people, including older, disabled and homeless people.
We recognise the challenges local authorities are facing as demand increases for critical services. We have listened to voices across local government and have announced £4 billion in additional funding for local government services at the Budget, including £1.3 billion, which will go through the settlement.
Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)
My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, mentioned earlier with regard to intergenerational housing, my community and many other communities have grown up with the older generation living with us, and it has helped in caring and sharing, by both young and old, as families stay together. That has faded a bit over the decades, but it is still happening. However, the challenge for communities and families in continuing to do that is ever-increasing with the costs for caring for older people. Is the task force looking at that in its report?
Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)
The noble Lord makes an interesting and important point. When my honourable friend Minister Pennycook looks at the 44 recommendations from the task force—I thank the task force once again for its hard work in this area—we need to ensure dignity and a better quality of living for all generations. However, as the Question from the noble Lord, Lord Best, outlines, there is a particular issue in relation to older people’s housing. We need to ensure that the housing strategy reflects the mixed tenure of houses to be built and to work closely with local authorities up and down the country to ensure that they can decide what the needs are for their area.
Hate Crimes
Lord Ranger of Northwood Excerpts(10 months ago)
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Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)
My Lords, it is the turn of the noble Baroness, Lady Fox.
Housing: Section 21 Evictions
Lord Ranger of Northwood Excerpts(10 months ago)
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Baroness Penn (Con)
The noble Lord is right that, if we increase the supply of homes, whether for private rent, social rent or home ownership, we will alleviate pressure in the market and bring down costs for renters and home owners. That is why this Government have put such emphasis on housebuilding and have such a track record on it, delivering 1 million homes over this Parliament and 2.5 million new homes since 2010.
Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister please explain this to me? I went to Blackpool last year to look at some of the worst cases of rented housing and the abuses that terrible landlords inflict on tenants who are vulnerable. When I hear this debate I find that we bundle all landlords together and do not target interventions on the type of landlords that we really want to get out of the system. Will we look at how we can have targeted interventions at the type of landlords that we really want to improve?
Baroness Penn (Con)
My noble friend is absolutely right that the vast majority of landlords do a great job. The availability of private rented accommodation is a really important part of our property sector. We are bringing forward other measures in the Bill that will focus on standards and targeting enforcement of them. There will be a new private rented sector ombudsman and a new decent homes standard for the private rented sector. The majority of people will already comply with that, and we will focus our efforts and enforcement on that minority.