Chris Philp
Main Page: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
John Healey
The real weakness in the private rented sector is that people who rent their homes from private landlords have so little protection, so few rights, and so little basic redress when their landlord does not do what they should as part of their obligations.
Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)
I want to respond to the right hon. Gentleman’s point about affordability. The fundamental fact is that rents and house prices will be made more affordable by an increase in supply. That is the one thing that will decrease prices, and that is at the heart of the Bill.
John Healey
The hon. Gentleman is right, but perhaps he should address his remarks to the Secretary of State. In the previous Government the Tories built the smallest number of affordable homes in this country for more than two decades—10,920 affordable homes for social rent. That compares with three times that number in the last year of the last Labour Government, which, incidentally, was when I was Housing Minister.
Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)
I, too, draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
I very much welcome the Bill, which comes in the finest Conservative tradition, going back to the days of Harold Macmillan. It is telling that the last five or six speeches have come from the Conservative Benches. Labour Members appeared to run out of steam some time ago. The Liberal Democrats appeared to do so some time before that.
The reason that we are facing this housing problem is that our population is growing rapidly, at a rate of 400,000 a year, mostly driven by immigration. That means that we need to build a couple of hundred thousand houses a year simply to keep pace with population growth. The shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey), made some disparaging comments at the beginning of the debate about the Government’s record, but I would like to say that their record in this area is an extremely fine one. Indeed, during the right hon. Gentleman’s last year as Housing Minister, only 124,000 housing units were started across the United Kingdom, whereas in this past year, the figure had increased to 165,000 units. That is an increase of nearly 50%, of which the Government can be proud. As Mayor of London, my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson)—[Interruption.] Yes, wake up! My hon. Friend has delivered 94,000 affordable homes during his mayoralty, outstripping his predecessor, the former Member for Brent East. So we have a record that we can be proud of.
The measures in the Bill on planning will enable the Government to go further by ensuring that the recalcitrant 35% of local authorities that have not delivered a local plan will do so by 2017. That will allow developers involved in minor applications, as well as those involved in major ones, to go straight to the planning inspector if they get a poor performance. There will also be a requirement for 90% of brownfield land to have outline planning permission by 2020. All those measures will increase supply.
Opposition Members spoke a great deal about affordability, and they were quite right to do so. There is a problem of affordability in London and across the UK, but the solution is quite simply to build more houses. That is basic economics, and the Bill has at its heart an intention to build more houses. As a London Member of Parliament, I particularly welcome the work of the London Land Commission, which is jointly chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip and the Minister for Housing and Planning, which first met on 16 July this year. Their intention is to match the achievement of the Greater London Authority; 98% of its land has been brought forward for development and the LLC aims to do the same with other public sector land, including the 6,000 acres owned by Transport for London. I ask the Minister to consider going further and allowing the LLC to have more proactive powers to bring forward land for development itself, rather than simply identifying it.
I know that you are keen for me to sit down relatively soon in order to create room for the Front Benchers, Mr Speaker—[Hon. Members: “More”] Members are very kind. Let me briefly first endorse the social housing right to buy concept. Home ownership is a fundamentally good thing. It enables people to have a stake in our society and to invest in their own home. It enables them to prosper as house values goes up. Our proposal is a good one. Social housing providers have committed to replacing the units sold on a one-for-one basis, so this idea that social housing stock will get eroded is simply untrue. The total stock of housing will increase, because the social housing unit that has been sold will still be in existence. This Bill will increase the supply of housing and increase home ownership, and I encourage all Members to support it in the Lobby.