Social Homes for Rent

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Shipley]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to increase the number of social homes for rent.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and remind the House of my interests in the register.

[The Minister of State, Home Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (Lord Greenhalgh) (Con)]

The provision of affordable housing is a central pillar of the Government’s plan to level up the country, which is why we are investing £11.5 billion in affordable homes over the next five years. Our affordable homes programme, which began last year, aims to deliver 32,000 homes for social rent—double that of the previous programme.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

The Minister talks about 32,000 homes for social rent, yet 1.2 million households in this country are on council house waiting lists. The Government recently published their levelling up White Paper, which has 12 missions. Not one of those missions talks about affordable or social housing for rent. Can the Minister explain why?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

We have a commitment here, specifically within the affordable homes programme, to build more homes for social rent. We have also introduced a number of mechanisms that enable councils to build again. A generation of councils has not built any homes, or very few, but we have seen far more in the last decade. The levelling-up missions are clear, but we also have very clear missions to build more homes of all types and tenures.