Affordable Housing

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said, this is,

“the largest sum of money ever secured by City Hall to deliver affordable housing”,

and no doubt he would have been more effusive if it had not been for political considerations. This is the largest affordable housing programme for 40 years, and social housing can bid into it too, as the noble Lord appreciates. This is all part of the programme of ensuring that we have 400,000 affordable homes in this Parliament.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, I am a vice-president of the Local Government Association and have long believed that local government’s capacity for building more homes for social rent should be encouraged. Last week, the Chancellor said:

“One person without a home is one too many”.

Do the Government accept that the main reason for people not having homes is the sheer cost of housing and that there is an urgent need for more social rented housing? Will the White Paper on housing supply due before Christmas empower local councils to get building?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, first, the White Paper will be a far-reaching one and will look at many issues. Self-build, for example, will be there, as will purpose-built—what we could call prefabs for the 21st century. This is, as I said, the most ambitious programme for affordable housing for 40 years. It is clear that we need to look at a range of tenures, as the noble Lord indicates, but of course social housing being subject to a greater subsidy means that if all the money is targeted at social housing, we would be building fewer affordable houses across the piece. There needs to be a balance. As I have indicated, it is for local authorities and housing associations to bid in for that money.