Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Stunell and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sir Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

9. What fiscal steps the Government are taking to encourage the building of social housing.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for his contribution on the housing issue while a Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, particularly on helping to ensure that the £4.5 billion affordable homes programme is on track to deliver 170,000 new affordable homes by March 2015—100,000 are completed so far—and to fund an extra 165,000 houses over three years from 2015.

[Sir Andrew Stunell]

That is a remarkable contrast with Labour’s disgraceful approach, which got rid of those houses. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that highly successful arm’s length management organisations, such as Stockport Homes, which just opened the 4 millionth social home in the housing stock, will have an opportunity, under the Chancellor’s proposals, to build more social housing to meet the urgent need of my constituents?

[Danny Alexander]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I congratulate Stockport Homes on its success—I think it was recently voted one of the best landlords in the country. The 4 millionth social home was part of the Government’s commitment to reverse the trend under Labour, where the social housing stock in this country fell by 421,000. Over the term of our housing plan, we will build at least 315,000 new social homes, and he will also have noted that in the autumn statement we announced an increase of £300 million in headroom under the housing revenue account precisely to allow local authorities to build more social homes in this country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Stunell and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 6th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I want to see more affordable homes built. That is why this Government are the first Government to put in place Government guarantees for housing associations; that was never done by our predecessors. The Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Act 2012, which received Royal Assent last week, will enable housing associations to benefit from £10 billion of Government guarantees, lowering their cost of finance and enabling them to build more homes. That has been widely welcomed in the housing association sector, including by the National Housing Federation. I think the hon. Lady should welcome it, too.

[Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

I greatly welcome the progress that has been made, but it is equally important to ensure that we have good construction standards for new housing. May I also impress upon Ministers the importance of supporting the zero-carbon homes target?

[Danny Alexander]

Let me start by paying tribute to my right hon. Friend for the work he did at the Department for Communities and Local Government, especially his leadership of the empty homes programme, which is making a major contribution to bringing homes back into use. I understand the importance of the zero-carbon homes programme. The building industry has argued for that, and I hope we will make progress on it soon.