Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Andrew Gwynne and Seema Kennedy
Seema Kennedy
I will make a little progress—otherwise, I will be up and down like a fiddler’s elbow.
Let me turn quickly to amendment 1. A 20% discount over 20 years does not really take account of the practicalities of people’s lives—20 years is far too long. We are talking about starter homes, so one would hope that people are not going to live in them for 20 years. As the Minister said, the average time people live in a house is seven years, not 20. The amendment places restrictions on starter home owners, who are precisely the generation—those aged 20 to 40—whom the Bill aims to empower. I am glad the Government are consulting on the duration of the discount and the taper. If we want builders to build and lenders to lend, we need to take a practical, not an ideological, approach—the policy has to work.
Lords amendments 9 and 10 would replace the national requirement with a requirement that is set locally, depending on local housing needs and viability assessments. That completely undermines our manifesto commitment to build these 200,000 homes, but, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) mentioned, that policy is very popular. Constituents come to us saying, “I want to get a starter home. How can I get my foot on the ladder?” If we were to remove the national requirement, I fear we would delay the process.
Andrew Gwynne
Earlier the hon. Lady actually made the case for a more localist approach. She said she was not a London Member and that circumstances in her constituency were very different from those in the capital. Surely, if there are different circumstances in different parts of the country, we need a local approach.
Seema Kennedy
I have the greatest respect for the hon. Gentleman, but the Lords amendments would hold the process up; we would get to 2019, and no starter homes would have been built—I really fear that that would happen. The amendments would slow things down, but we need to start building now.
As we know, house prices have risen exponentially, particularly in London, but that is because of a lack of supply. The picture is complicated, and one could not say that things have happened for one particular reason, but the lack of supply is a fundamental block, and we touched on that all the way through Committee. We need to get more houses built—and quickly.
There was much debate in Committee about permission in principle—the new consent model of planning—which will provide certainty.