Social Housing Bill [HL]

Lord Rook Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rook (Lab)]

My Lords, it is an honour to speak on the Second Reading of the Social Housing Bill. I will share a story about Carla and Chloe. Some time ago, Carla became homeless following a relationship breakdown. The traumatic aftermath of this personal tragedy is hard for many of us to imagine. Two decades of homelessness ensued, with Carla searching night after night for a safe spot to sleep on London streets. She would often pick a place near to a restaurant with outdoor heaters, in a desperate attempt to find some kind of warmth in an otherwise cold world. We need this Bill for Carla and many like her.

We have rightly heard from noble colleagues about the scale of our housing crisis: 4.2 million citizens in need of social housing; 1.3 million stuck on waiting lists; and, more worrying still, 175,000 children who will go to bed again tonight in temporary accommodation. Jon Kuhrt from Hope into Action says that it is surely right to say that

“housing injustice is perhaps the greatest social policy challenge we face”.

There are communities across this country where a lack of adequate social housing is the prime reason that families are trapped in poverty and communities are struggling to thrive. By increasing the qualifying period for right to buy and introducing a 35-year exemption for newly built social homes, the Government are protecting housing stock and giving confidence to councils to build more social housing.

Also to be welcomed, as many noble Lords have mentioned, are the strengthened protections for those suffering domestic abuse. This will finally prevent victims from being forced to choose between their personal safety and the place they call home. In all this, the Bill offers a timely response to a deeply human problem.

However, there is another lesson to be learned from Carla’s story, and that is where Chloe enters. Carla’s problems went beyond matters of bricks and mortar. Although housing is an essential part of the solution that she is looking for, the most decisive need for her was pastoral care and practical support. At this point, Chloe comes in. As a caseworker for the Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, just down the road, Chloe built a relationship with Clara. She earned her trust, helped her to access a wide range of support and services, and ultimately helped her to secure a room in a women-only hostel. The combination of a safe place to stay, if only temporarily, and someone she could depend upon has been life-changing for Carla.

In the words of Bonnie Williams, the CEO of Housing Justice,

“a home is sustained not only through tenancy law, but through relationship, trust, community and belonging”.

Complex human problems require deeply relational solutions. Alongside the Connection, the charity that helped Carla, St Martin-in-the-Fields runs the Frontline Network—the UK’s largest network of professionals and volunteers working with the vulnerably housed. The Frontline Network is generously supported by public donations to the BBC Radio 4 Christmas appeal, the world’s oldest fundraising media campaign. A recent survey of those working with people who are homeless showed that 80% of them believe that homelessness is getting worse, 50% say that they themselves are at risk of burnout, 51% say that the immense challenge they have in supporting clients is having a negative impact on their well-being, and 34% are struggling to pay their bills due to the salaries they receive not covering their cost of living.

To maximise the social and economic return on the investment outlined in this Bill, it is vital that His Majesty’s Government increase funding to those in housing associations, local authorities, charities and faith communities who provide the essential human infrastructure that will enable this legislation to change lives. It is not only flats and houses that we need. The Government should not wholly rely on charitable giving and the good will of charities to provide the decisive human interventions for those in the greatest need. Committing just a fraction of the overall budget to the human support that brilliant caseworkers such as Chloe provide would radically increase the number of sustainable tenancies while radically reducing the number of individuals and families who find housing only later to find themselves homeless all over again. This tragic back and forth comes at a crippling cost to the state and does untold damage to the lives of individuals and families. Miriam Morris of the Church Homeless Charity points out that, by investing in innovative local interventions and human-to-human support for people, we deliver much better outcomes and radically reduce our costs, both economically and socially.

Carla needs this legislation to pass. For now, Chloe is continuing to support Carla in temporary accommodation and hopes shortly to help her move into a safe and warm home of her own. She will then no doubt continue to support Carla as she sustains that tenancy. Few of us in your Lordships’ House have shared Carla’s experiences, but all of us know what it is to go through difficult times in our lives and to find someone we can truly rely upon.

I am wholly supportive of the Government’s attempts to deal with the social housing crisis through the legislation put before this House. In doing so, I look forward to hearing how we will help people like Carla by backing workers like Chloe. Alongside bricks and mortar, how will we invest in those wonderful front-line workers who provide a beautifully relational solution to a deeply human problem? If we can do that, this legislation will change many lives. What is more, we will join heroes like Chloe and play our part in helping Carla and many others both to find a house and to turn that house into a home.

Integration and Community Cohesion

Lord Rook Excerpts

Thursday 13th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rook (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, it is an honour to address this House today. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, for this debate and her inspiring introduction and personal story. In this, my maiden speech, I wish to thank those who have supported me over many years: my family, friends and colleagues. Thanks also go to my supporters: the noble Lord, Lord Khan of Burnley, with whom I have enjoyed considerable collaboration on the subject of this debate; and the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock. I began volunteering for the noble Baroness over 12 years ago. The thought then that we might sit together on these Benches was implausible at best. Her friendship and guidance have been invaluable to me.

Working at the Good Faith Partnership, I have spent much of the last decade addressing issues of community cohesion. These early weeks of induction into your Lordships’ House have served as a timely reminder of five critical lessons on social integration. The first lesson is that integration does not happen by accident; it requires a welcoming community. At the Good Faith Partnership, we work with the ChurchWorks Commission, chaired by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester, to host the Warm Welcome campaign. Working with faith and community groups, charities, businesses and local authorities, Warm Welcome provides over 5,000 warm spaces for isolated and disadvantaged individuals throughout the UK.

Although the House of Lords is not yet registered as a Warm Welcome centre—possibly a good thing, given the problems with the heating—Members and staff have provided the warmest of welcomes to me and other new Members in recent weeks. I am particularly grateful to my noble friends Lady Smith of Basildon and Lord Kennedy of Southwark and to noble friends and noble Lords across this House for their warm welcome. I also thank Black Rod, the House of Lords staff, the police and security teams, the hospitality team and, of course, the doorkeepers. When a community works this hard to welcome newcomers, integration becomes so much easier.

I come to our second lesson: integration is always a two-way street. It requires real effort from both newcomers and welcomers. As an Anglican priest, I know what it is to need regular mercy and instruction. I am thankful for grace when I have erred, and for kind and gentle correction where necessary. As a newcomer and “Rookie” Member, if noble Lords will pardon the pun, I will no doubt require both of those for some time to come.

On my second day in your Lordships’ House, one of the doorkeepers asked me, “Lord Rook, what musical instrument do you play?”. At first, I wondered whether this was a question asked of every Member. However, I soon realised that the doorkeeper had read my introduction papers and noticed that my alma mater is the Royal College of Music. It turns out that both the doorkeeper and I play the trombone—a noble instrument indeed—but your Lordships have nothing to fear; I retired many years ago due to letters from music lovers everywhere. The doorkeeper’s initiative, however, serves to illustrate the third lesson. Integration happens when communities take initiative and get to know their newest members.

I have twice been seconded to and served the office of the Labour leader as a faith and civil society adviser, most recently under Sir Keir Starmer and previously, during the 2015 general election campaign, under Ed Miliband. This is where I first had the pleasure to work with my noble friend Lord Raval. I thank him for his kind words earlier, and I am certainly forward to working with him in this House in the future.

Following the election in 2015, Europe faced the devastating fallout of the escalating conflicts in the Middle East and Africa. We were facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Here at Westminster, we were overwhelmed by the public response. Institutions and individuals from every corner of this country crowded in, offering help and demanding action. This leads us to the fourth lesson of integration. Integration requires the investment of many different groups and stakeholders. From 2015, the Good Faith Partnership worked with government and civil society to support the co-creation of the community sponsorship scheme for refugees. I am for ever grateful to my noble friend Lord Dubs and the noble Lord, Lord Harrington, for the vital role they played in securing and establishing this initiative. As a result, local communities invested considerable time and resource, welcoming and integrating hundreds of vulnerable families. A few years later, again amid tragic circumstances, that model enabled UK citizens to welcome over 200,000 Ukrainians through the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

I grew up in Portsmouth, where my family were part of the Southsea Salvation Army. A Salvation Army upbringing brought certain obligations. I have already made mention of the trombone playing. Then there is the marching: parading up and down the seafront, to and from open-air church services. With the marching comes the praying—in particular, in teenage years, praying that your schoolmates do not spot you marching up and down the seafront to open-air church services. Above all, with the Salvation Army comes the relentless commitment to serving the last, the lost and the least. My fifth and final lesson on integration is the lesson I learned first of all. Communities become more cohesive when we include and integrate our most vulnerable neighbours.

I have chosen to be Lord Rook of Wimbledon. In 1993, the now Lady Rook and I moved into the area to volunteer at a Salvation Army youth project working with disadvantaged teenagers in Raynes Park. The youth club grew into a community centre, that community centre became a church and, decades later, among other notable achievements, that church was privileged to welcome one of the first families of Syrian refugees through the community sponsorship scheme. On my way to your Lordships’ House, I pass the home where that family lives to this very day. I thank God for the many who worked to welcome and integrate them and, what is more, for the different ways that this one family has contributed to our community.

Following violent disturbances in many towns and cities last summer, there has been much discussion about the importance of integration and cohesion. So how do we build cohesive communities and a welcoming country? In response, we would do well to heed the welcoming example of this House and relearn the lessons that lead to faster and fuller integration. We must remember that integration does not happen by accident. It is a two-way street. It requires the initiative and investment of many and relies upon our commitment to include those who are too often forgotten and ignored.

I again thank the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, for raising this discussion and look forward to using my seat, place and voice to contribute to this and other vital conversations in days to come.