Housing: New Homes Bonus

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon Excerpts

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I am always grateful to my noble friend, because he knows the figures, and he has given them on several occasions. They show that the north-east is in fact working very hard to produce new housing. Of course, he is right: the new homes bonus is not specifically given for housing; it is given as a contribution to areas where new housing has been built. Refurbishing a new library to help with the increased population seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable use of that money.

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon]

My Lords, the noble Baroness said that the Government hold no national statistics on the impact of the new homes bonus. I wonder whether they have any statistics that show the impact on housing associations, region by region, of the bedroom tax. I speak as someone who lives in the Forest of Dean, and my own housing association, Two Rivers Housing, is being severely impacted by the bedroom tax.

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I have said that we do not keep regional statistics. We do not have regions any more; we have local areas. The regions are not recognised. We work on local areas now, which is far more exact and precise. I do not know the exact answer to the noble Baroness’s question about bedroom tax, but I am very happy to write to her.