Housing and Planning Bill (First sitting)

Chris Philp Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)]

May I also draw the Committee’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests?

[Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)]

May I likewise draw the Committee’s attention to my declarations in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests?

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Likewise, I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Chair]

Members now need simply to catch my eye and then to ask Mr Blakeway appropriate questions.

[Chris Philp]

Q 1 Mr Blakeway, could you start by briefly outlining the powers you currently exercise on the London Land Commission and explaining to the Committee whether there are any further powers you might find useful?

Richard Blakeway: As you know, the Bill has great scope. The Mayor is very supportive of the Bill and of measures to increase house building. Among the features of the Bill that we think are very important are some of the measures regarding land. We have sought to establish with the Government a London Land Commission, which seeks to identify and release surplus public sector-owned land. That builds on the work that the Greater London Authority has done as a landowner. We now have something like 99% of our assets under development and delivering about 45,000 homes. We would like to see an amendment to the Bill for a duty to co-operate with the Mayor and the land commission. In addition, we would like an obligation on the part of public bodies to compile a register of assets and maintain it, building on the London-wide register of assets.

Finally, we would like to see the opportunity for the Mayor to acquire sites once they become identified as surplus—a kind of first refusal—where they have some strategic importance. They may sit with one of our initiatives, such as a housing zone, or within an opportunity area. In that way, we would be able to manage a proper disposal and ensure that homes are built at pace.

[Chris Philp]

Q 2 Do you need any further powers to make sure that other public bodies beyond the GLA—such as Transport for London, the NHS, Network Rail or even the Ministry of Defence—will actually bring forward the sites for disposal? Rather than you simply recommending it, do you need any further powers to—perhaps compel is the wrong word—take over the disposal process?

Richard Blakeway: I think we certainly need the transparency that I talked about and therefore the obligation to compile a register of interests and to co-operate. Having first refusal—the idea that we have the right to acquire an asset before someone else—would obviously mean that we would be paying for that asset at the appropriate value, but we could then lead a coherent procurement. I think it is a really important change.

[Chris Philp]

Q 3 Finally, are the CPO powers in the Bill adequate for the purposes of the Mayor of London and the GLA for things to go further?

Richard Blakeway: We welcome the Government’s focus on CPO, but we would like them to go further. We would like to see two things. The first is a general CPO power for the GLA around regeneration. At the moment, our CPO powers are separated, depending on which part of the GLA group you look at. The GLA itself has CPO for housing; Transport for London has CPO for transport. We would like that to be interchangeable.

Secondly, we would like to see the ability for us to devolve our CPO powers to members of the GLA family. For example, where we have established mayoral development corporations—something which was enabled through the Localism Act—we would like to see the ability for us to devolve those CPO powers. For example, the Old Oak Common mayoral development corporation could exercise CPO.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

Q 4 What do you think will be the impact of the starter homes clause on the provision of affordable housing in London?

Richard Blakeway: The GLA welcomes the introduction of starter homes and the Government’s focus on promoting home ownership. A number of things relating to starter homes will be in the regulations. For us to undertake a full assessment of the impact, we will have to see the regulations first. The first important point to make is that starter homes are not a substitute for all affordable housing. They are another affordable housing product. While there will be a quota that has to be delivered on site, we would still expect the London plan policy, which seeks to maximise affordable housing and therefore other affordable housing products, to apply once the quota has been sought.

The second important point is that we already have quite a well-established intermediate market in the capital. In particular, we have a significant number of shared ownership properties coming forward. Since this Mayor was elected, we have helped 52,000 Londoners purchase through intermediate products, predominately shared ownership, and we have a target to help a quarter of a million Londoners over the next decade. It is really important that starter homes complement existing products such as that, rather than substitute for them. The two have to work alongside each other, not least because they will probably target people with different incomes.