Housing and Planning Bill

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Tuesday 26th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, I cannot claim expertise in housing, but I was so appalled by the “pay to stay” and loss of security of tenure provisions that I felt compelled to contribute this evening.

After all, as we have already heard, housing is not simply about bricks and mortar; it is about people’s homes and the security and rootedness that homes can provide. These provisions threaten that security and rootedness. Yet just two weeks ago the Prime Minister declared that this Government are all about security:

“Security is also what drives the social reform that I want this government to undertake in my second term. Individuals and families who are in poverty crave security – for them, it’s the most important value of all”.

Moreover, in his Christmas message he said:

“If there is one thing people want at Christmas, it’s the security of having their family around them and a home that is safe”.

These fine words are totally contradicted by this Bill. Instead, we are once more in this Government’s looking-glass world, in which, following Humpty-Dumpty, a word means what the Government choose it to mean. Thus, “secure” tenancies will now be fixed-term—that is, not secure at all. What we currently understand as secured tenancies have become “old-style” secured tenancies: so 20th century. I cannot understand why such a significant measure was introduced only on the last day of the Commons Committee stage. It means that we have the responsibility to scrutinise it particularly closely.

Shelter warns that the loss of security risks introducing the worst aspects of the current private rented market—instability and churn—into council housing, with worrying implications for homelessness. I am also worried about what it is likely to mean for family stability, social networks and diversity, jobs and children’s education, as well as for women who move to flee domestic violence, carers, disabled people and those with recent experience of homelessness, who need stability. I hope the Government will be open to exemptions for at-risk groups such as these.

In his speech the Prime Minister also talked about families on estates “behind front doors” building,

“warm and welcoming homes just like everyone else”.

Indeed; and the Minister said that she hoped we would keep coming back to the word “home”. But new tenants will no longer be able to invest their lives in warm and welcoming homes. Andrew Arden QC—I declare a personal interest as the godmother of his daughter Emma—has written in a forthcoming editorial in the Journal of Housing Law that, “the idea that a home is not for life is one that can only comfortably be sustained by those who know they will always be in a position to acquire a replacement. Taking away security is taking away housing in its long-term role as the essential base for a family, for security in its widest sense, the confidence to invest in” family and community “without fearing it will all be snatched away should the family fail to meet the criteria for a new tenancy”.

The “pay to stay” provisions strike a further blow at that sense of security. They also drive a coach and horses through the Prime Minister’s claim that “we are uncapping aspiration”. I cannot think of a policy better designed to cap aspiration and undermine a key objective of universal credit. The consultation paper states that the Government want to ensure that the policy supports work incentives, but I fear that no amount of tinkering with tapers and multiple thresholds can avoid its disincentive effect, particularly for second earners, who as we have already heard are mainly women. How does this square with the Prime Minister’s promise that,

“because the evidence shows that families where only one parent is in work are more at risk of poverty we are going to back all those who want to work”?

That is some backing.

I am sure we will explore in Committee the many technical problems that are likely to arise from devising a fair new housing means test based on taxable income in the previous financial year, with no account taken of family size, disability needs, or how it can reflect the way modest earnings fluctuate in today’s labour market. Tenants will be subjected to compulsory means-testing, yet some of them may well have chosen not to claim means-tested benefits in order to avoid what can sometimes be something of an ordeal. Crisis is particularly worried about vulnerable tenants who may not be able to provide the necessary documentation, making them potentially liable for the full market rent regardless of their actual income. Can the Minister explain why the income threshold is so much lower than under the discretionary scheme introduced by the coalition Government? Am I right that the thresholds will not be uprated in line with average earnings? Can she also tell us, as others have asked, when the various details that will be contained in regulations will be published, as it is crucial that we have them before the Committee stage if we are to have an informed debate?

Ministers constantly go on about the messages they want legislation to send. These provisions will send out the message that the party of aspiration will be capping aspiration and that the party of security will be creating insecurity. As we return to our warm and secure homes, I hope we will remember our responsibilities towards those for whom the Prime Minister’s promise of security will ring hollow indeed.