Housebuilding

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Wednesday 28th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My noble friend brings up a very important point. The Government are already committed to improving redress for new-build home buyers when things go wrong. The Building Safety Act includes provision for the new homes ombudsman scheme to become statutory and to provide dispute resolution to determine complaints by buyers of new-build homes against their developers.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, the report notes that about

“60% of … houses built in 2021 to 2022 were … speculative private development”,

and acknowledges that this has widened

“the gap … between what the market will deliver and what communities need”.

Is it not the case that, to get the right home in the right place at the right price, we have to get away from this privatised model and—to address the issues the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, raised—get better quality?

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

That is exactly why the levelling-up Act made such an issue of every local authority having a local plan. That local—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

Oh!

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

It is no good the noble Baroness shaking her head. If you are going to have a plan-led system, which is the simplest system to navigate, you need a local plan. You need to know how many houses you need in your area, what types of houses they are and the area of land that you are going to use for housing. If local authorities have local plans, they will deliver more houses in the right place and of the right type that this country needs.