Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Brandon Lewis and Baroness Hoey
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Brandon Lewis)
I apologise now to the many colleagues—48 of them—who have spoken today as I will not necessarily get time this evening to mention everything that was said. It was a real indication of the strength of feeling. I was particularly pleased to note how many Government Members spoke whereas Labour ran out of speakers, which is indicative of where we are. That shows our strength of feeling and backs up our desire and determination to deliver the homes our country needs, as we showed by putting home building and home ownership at the forefront of our manifesto, the Queen’s Speech and this Bill. We are building to take our country forward, picking up from the legacy left by Labour. Despite the claims made by the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey) earlier, we must remember that when he was Minister for Housing there were just 88,000 housing starts. That was the base from which we had to rebuild.
I had high hopes when I started to read the reasoned amendment, as it started quite well. Unfortunately, it very quickly went downhill from there. I am delighted that the whole House has seen the right hon. Gentleman and other Members from all parties support our plans to tackle rogue landlords and letting agents. They say that negotiations should always start from the point at which the parties agree, so if the House grants the Bill a Second Reading tonight I look forward to warm and welcoming words for these measures in Committee and, I hope, some rather warmer words than those we heard today.
Members on both sides of the House have made strong speeches. My hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson) outlined a strong argument, showing her passion about ensuring transparency in the lettings sector by finding information about landlords through council tax forms to protect tenants. My hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith), the next Conservative Mayor of London, rightly outlined his plans to ensure that we continue to deliver more homes for London than previous Labour Mayors, building on the work done by my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) who, as Mayor, has delivered for London and exceeded the targets he has set himself.
I look forward to seeing the work that my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park will do over the next few weeks to ensure that we take things forward, working together. He has shown the difference between us and the Opposition, who have carped and moaned about the Bill without offering a single positive suggestion for what they would do for the housing market. My hon. Friends, exemplified by the next Conservative Mayor of London, have outlined a positive message for taking the housing market forward.
My neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr Bacon), showed his passion for, and knowledge of, delivering the homes we need and seeing a growth in the custom-build and self-build sector. He outlined the importance of delivering for customers, the residents who buy and live in these homes. My hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Mr Prisk), the former Housing Minister, rightly outlined the importance of local authorities ensuring that they focus on their planning team. Those teams are vital to a local authority’s ability to deliver for the future and for local areas, ensuring that they are the heartbeat and economic regeneration driver of the council.
Kate Hoey
The Minister will know that I have the greatest concentration of fully mutual co-ops in my constituency, which is just across the river. Tonight, they all met at Coin Street, and they are very worried. Will the Minister assure me that fully mutual co-ops will be exempt from the right to buy, that he will work to ensure that they are exempt from the reduction in rent, which will destroy co-ops, and that they are exempt from pay to stay? That is really important, as people are really worried and we should ensure that mutual co-ops continue.
Brandon Lewis
Co-operative properties are among the categories for which housing associations can exercise their discretion not to sell their property to tenants. In the agreement, such tenants would potentially be able to use the new ability to have a portable discount that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State outlined earlier.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Chris Green) rightly talked about the importance of infrastructure in making sure that we are delivering to communities the infrastructure they need for the future. I appreciate and agree with the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Mr Jackson) and others about the importance of achieving people’s aspirations through starter homes and of making sure that we have locally led system delivering with local plans.
My hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (James Berry) outlined the important work being done by the London Land Commission, which I co-chair with the Mayor of London, to make sure that we are delivering land across London. He rightly pointed out that it is important that we continue to deliver public land, right across the country, to reach and exceed the target of 150,000 homes from public sector land that the Prime Minister has rightly set for this Parliament.
We in this Government have a strong record in protecting those in the rental sector. We have made £6.7 million available to local authorities to identify and successfully prosecute rogue landlords and lettings agencies, and 40,000 properties have been inspected. It is nice to have the Opposition’s endorsement for the measures in the Bill to drive rogue landlords out of business. It is a shame, therefore, that the shadow Secretary of State’s reasons for opposing the Bill betray a fundamental misunderstanding of what the people of this country are crying out for—but that, I suspect, is why we got the result we did in the general election.