Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Whitehead Excerpts

Monday 27th March 2023 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking to increase the provision of social rented housing.

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

21. What steps he is taking to increase the provision of social rented housing.

[The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove)]

Before I answer the questions, may I on behalf of the Government extend my congratulations to Humza Yousaf on his election as leader of the Scottish National party? We look forward to working with him in the future. It has been noted that he won by 52% to 48%, so I hope that SNP colleagues will agree that there is no need for another vote.

Everyone should have access to a high-quality and safe affordable home. Our affordable homes programme is investing £11.5 billion to deliver tens of thousands of new affordable homes, and a significant proportion will be made available for social rent, directly helping those most in need.

[Dr Whitehead]

I was shocked to read recently that only 6,400 new social rent homes were built in England last year, when pretty much everybody agrees that about 100,000 are needed every year to deal with present and future housing needs. What figure between those two numbers does the Secretary of State think would be acceptable in developing social and rented housing in future years?

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising this issue. Actually, I believe that the figure was closer to 30,000 overall, but I believe, as the National Housing Federation and others have made clear, that we need to increase the proportion of new homes for social rent, and that is one of the aims as we reprofile the affordable homes programme.