Housing and Planning Bill

Chloe Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chloe Smith (Norwich North) (Con)]

I welcome the safeguards that my hon. Friend is setting out. Many Labour Members often argue that the rich should pay more, so is it not rather puzzling that in this case they seem to oppose that idea?

[Brandon Lewis]

My hon. Friend and neighbour makes an interesting point, and people reading Hansard will want to draw their own conclusions about what it means. We are clear: it is right that social tenants on higher incomes contribute more in rent where they can afford to do so, but we are also mindful that the policy should protect work incentives.

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[Dr Blackman-Woods]

As the hon. Gentleman sat on the Bill Committee, he should know that a voluntary scheme is already in place for local authorities and housing associations to do that very thing.

The tenants also object to their housing being seen as subsidised. In response to a written question, Baroness Williams said:

“Local housing authorities do not receive subsidy from the Exchequer; the Localism Act 2011 abolished Housing Revenue Account Subsidy.”

This housing is not subsidised, and in any case it is there to meet needs. It is outrageous that the Government are taxing tenants in such a way while claiming to stand up for hard-working people.

[Chloe Smith]

I am deeply worried that the hon. Lady cannot seem to agree with those housing charity chief executives who, in the Bill Committee’s evidence sessions, did accept the principle that social housing should go to those most in need. Considering that she based her argument on Lords amendment 1 around scarce public resources, I do not understand her position, so perhaps she could clarify it.

[Dr Blackman-Woods]

In the main, council housing in this country is allocated on the basis of need.

[Dr Blackman-Woods]

The right hon. Gentleman makes a really good point; that person will get absolutely nothing.

[Chloe Smith]

rose—

[Dr Blackman-Woods]

I have already given way to the hon. Lady.

Lords amendment 54 would limit the damage of pay to stay by making it voluntary for local authorities, with authorities treated in the same way as housing associations. I do not understand why the Minister wants to treat council tenants differently. All the amendment asks is that council tenants are treated in exactly the same way as housing association tenants so, again, Labour will support the Lords amendment.

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[Madam Deputy Speaker (Natascha Engel)]

Order. I am not going to impose a time limit, but there are still 10 Members who wish to speak in the debate and we have less than an hour to go. If people stick to about five minutes or so, everyone will be able to get in.

[Chloe Smith]

I will speak specifically against Lords amendment 54. Local authorities should not have local discretion to apply pay to stay. I will raise a very clear example that shows the worst possible risk of local self-interest.

Norwich City Council, I am sorry to report, is led by Labour, although we have elections on Thursday. The Norwich Labour party may be having a rather difficult week—the leader of the Labour party is no doubt right now looking into reported extreme tweets from the hon. Member for Norwich South (Clive Lewis).

The leader of Norwich City Council himself, Councillor Alan Waters, lives in one of his own council homes. In fact, he is not alone in doing so. So many Labour councillors on Norwich City Council live in their own council housing that they cannot even recuse themselves from business relating to their pecuniary interest, as clearly laid out in the standards expected of councillors; in response to my investigations on this topic, a city council spokesman confirmed in March that so many councillors were taking advantage of their own housing that the political balance of the council would be affected if all tenants took no part in discussions about housing policy. That means that councillors are being allowed to take part in discussions about council housing even though they have personal financial interests in it.

More specifically, the leader of the council is himself likely to be a high-income tenant under the terms of the Bill. His own register of interests at City Hall clearly shows that as well as living in one of his own Norwich City Council houses, he holds a professional job in London and Norwich and a directorship, all while earning well over many people’s minimum wage from council expenses alone. Of course the leader of Norwich City Council will not want higher earning tenants to pay a fairer rent, because he is likely to be one of them. If his Labour friends in the Lords were to get away with letting councils have discretion over the policy, of course he would not enact it in Norwich.

The policy should be enacted because it means that better-off tenants will pay their way—or, indeed, move out to allow poorer families who really need a council home to have it. There are thousands of families in Norwich on the housing waiting list. Those who argue against the policy seem to believe that if people living in council housing earn a bit more, they should not pay a bit more in rent, and that people on any amount of money should be able to continue to live in public housing, subsidised by the taxpayer. People might remember that union baron Bob Crow lived in a council house until he died, yet reportedly earned £145,000.

I simply do not think it is right for the struggling family who really need that home to be denied a place because a well-off person has it. That is why I support the Bill, as a Norwich MP who wants people to be able fairly to get the homes they dearly need, and why I am speaking against Lords amendment 54.

[Bob Blackman]

My hon. Friend has jogged my memory. Unfortunately, I forgot to declare my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and draw it to the attention of the House. May I use this opportunity to correct the record?

[Chloe Smith]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s doing so, because it shows the kind of principles that we should uphold in public life. We seek integrity and honesty in public life. That goes to the heart of my point. It is particularly hypocritical and wrong if a local council leader opposes this policy while standing to gain personally from doing so.

[Mr Jackson]

My hon. Friend is making a very strong case. Does she remember the time, not that long ago—about half a dozen years—when the Labour party was on the side of working people and was considering reforms of lifetime tenancies of council houses? Now, for purely political reasons, it is not on the side of working people but, for electoral reasons, on the side of people who support the Labour party. That is why it opposes this policy.

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[Chloe Smith]

I welcome that reminder from my hon. Friend. Like him, I urge people to vote Conservative in city council elections this week, because on the one side we have self-interest, and on the other the principles of public office. Those principles are very clear: council leaders should, like all of us, be upholding integrity, accountability and honesty in public office.

The people of Norwich deserve higher standards of integrity from the leader of our council, rather than a strong smell of self-interest and personal gain. The thousands of people in Norwich on the housing waiting list deserve better. People across the country deserve better than a watered-down pay to stay that could allow local weakness to stand in the way of right and wrong. I urge hon. Members to join me in opposing Lords amendment 54, and to uphold the right thing to do by asking those who are better off to pay accordingly.

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak, because I know that many other Members wish to. I will therefore not take any interventions.

The Government’s own figures show that rough sleeping has increased by 30% over the past year, and it has almost doubled since they came to power back in 2010. The Mayor of London promised to tackle homelessness in the capital, but it has doubled over his period in City Hall. The Combined Homelessness and Information Network found that there are 7,500 rough sleepers on London’s streets alone. Councils are spending a staggering £623,000 every single day on temporary bed and breakfast accommodation just to put a roof over the heads of vulnerable families. That equates to £227.5 million last year, a rise of over £60 million on the previous year. The overwhelming majority of that money—some £176 million —was spent in London; 10% of the total figure—some £20 million—was spent in my home borough, the London borough of Haringey.

We have heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier), who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, which has looked into the extension of the right to buy. Its report makes sobering reading. The Government have not published a proper impact assessment on the full extent of the right to buy. In fact, my hon. Friend said:

“The Government should be embarrassed by the findings of this Report.”

I could not agree more.

I ask the Government why they are planning to push through changes that would reduce social housing stock by 370,000 by 2020. That figure is not from the Labour party; it is from the Chartered Institute of Housing. Why are they proposing to push that through? They are stretching councils to breaking point but are not even prepared to publish an impact assessment. Homelessness will increase and more families will end up in temporary accommodation. More families on low incomes will be reliant on the private rented sector. Of course, if they are reliant on the private rented sector, who will pick up the bill for that? We the taxpayers will, because housing benefit will increase.