Vacant Residential Properties

Baroness Hollis of Heigham Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The right reverend Prelate highlights a key area. As I alluded to in my original Answer, we have made £200 million available to support innovative schemes run by community groups, councils and housing associations, such as the one he mentioned. Even in my own patch, we have St Mungo’s Broadway, which receives £372,000 from the empty homes community fund and has now bought back 14 empty homes in the local area. The Government are keen to see how we can encourage such innovative schemes at a local level.

[Baroness Hollis of Heigham (Lab)]

My Lords, I think that the entire House knows that we have a housing crisis in that young people cannot afford to buy, there is not enough social housing to rent and the private rented sector is now so expensive that it is fast driving up housing benefit bills, which are paid by the rest of us. Is the noble Lord willing to ask his department to reconsider the decision made by the DCLG to release builders from the requirement, on small sites, to provide housing for social rent as part of their Section 106 planning obligations? Unless that change is removed, I can promise the noble Lord that very little affordable housing will be built in rural areas.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The noble Baroness raises a specific issue on planning. It is important that such changes are reflected at a local level and that local development plans reflect affordable housing provision. Under the right-to-buy scheme, for example, 30,000 people have come into house ownership since 2012. Under that scheme, every council home will be replaced by a new affordable home on a one-to-one basis. Of the 167 councils with such stock, 165 have already signed up to the one-to-one replacement scheme.