Housing: New Build

Baroness Williams of Trafford Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been the rate of new house building starts in the past 12 months.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, housing starts in England in the 12 months to the end of September 2015 totalled 137,490, with completions increasing by 17% over the same period. Under this Government, housing starts and new housing construction output are at their highest annual levels since 2007.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for that reply. Has she seen the latest review by the National House Building Council, which shows a welcome increase of some 75% in new homes registered over the past six years, but says that there is a very substantial gap between supply and demand? Can she give any assurances that, as the industry recovers and responds to the many initiatives taken by the Government to increase supply, progress will not be impeded, as it has been in the past, by shortages of skilled labour or building materials?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My noble friend raises the important issue for the housing industry of both brickies and bricks. The Government have been very mindful of that: the DCLG and BIS are working with the Construction Leadership Council to review what skills the industry needs. The research that my noble friend mentions shows that more than 100,000 new jobs were created in England in the past year. We want to go further than that and encourage people who want to go into the industry to be able to do so, in line with our other ambition of creating 3 million apprentices by 2020.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that, on the Government’s own estimate, household formation is increasing by 200,000 every year, and that 137,000 starts in 2015 do not even meet that requirement, never mind dealing with the current housing crisis, which will require around 300,000 homes to be built over the next few years? Does she regard 137,000 starts as a good start in meeting the Government’s objective of 1 million new homes in this Parliament?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I do regard it as a good start. As the noble Lord says, we are committed to 1 million new homes by 2021. That is why the Government have put in such a huge amount of money and doubled the budget for housebuilding over this Parliament to £20 billion, which will include all types of tenure and build.

[Lord Lea of Crondall (Lab)]

Would the Minister care to comment on the fact that, only a mile from here, there is plenty of building going on in Battersea—1.52 million? There is no problem at all—not a land problem or any other problem. So why is there such an imbalance between that phenomenon and affordable housing for everybody else?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The noble Lord raises the important issue of supply. It is in meeting demand needs and increasing supply that we will start to even out house prices and make them more affordable for younger people—the demographic who have suffered the most from being unable to access the housing market.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister referred to apprenticeships as one way of dealing with the skills shortage. May I encourage her to do a little joined-up government and talk to the Ministry of Justice about the training programmes that we have in our prison estate at the moment that deal with the building trade? As we all know, having a job at the end of a prison sentence is the best guarantee against reoffending. Perhaps the Government could talk to some of the big housebuilders about how they could join in with the training programmes in our prisons.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank the noble Baroness for that sensible suggestion. She is absolutely right: the best measure against reoffending once leaving the criminal justice system is to go into a job—to get one’s life back on track. I will certainly follow up her suggestion.

[Lord Davies of Oldham (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are giving with one hand and taking away with another when it comes to skills training. It is all right for the Minister to suggest that all these apprenticeships will be created, but that depends on the companies and organisations being prepared to create them. On the other hand, the Government are slashing support to further education colleges, which are the basis of the skills for a great deal of construction. What does the Minister have to say about that contradiction?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, as I said, 100,000 jobs were created in the sector only last year. The Government are encouraging industries of all types to take on apprentices, and they are. I hope we will attain our target by 2020 of 3 million apprentices.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

Are the Government firmly pledged to increase home ownership in our country?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, we are, and I am pleased to tell my noble friend that a report only last week showed that the decline in home ownership that we have seen over the past 15 to 20 years has halted for the first time.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

Would the Minister care to have another go at answering the question asked by my noble friend Lord Lea? The demand in London is not coming from London itself but very substantially from overseas. The supply is meeting that demand and not the very real demand from Londoners themselves. Does she not agree that the Government really need to address that problem?

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[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, it is indeed a challenge. Schemes such as Help to Buy are for UK residents only.