Housing and Planning Bill

Chris Philp Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Dr Blackman-Woods]

I could not agree more. The proposals are an attack on aspiration, leaving some families with impossible choices.

As Tony Stacey, chair of PlaceShapers, which represents 100 housing associations, said, this policy conflicts with the Government’s desire to get people into better paid work. He said that it was a bit perverse, compared with the Government’s other policies to make work pay. If the policy goes ahead, it seems that people who are paid more for additional work undertaken or for promotion could face a sudden increase in rent or eviction.

It is interesting to see that the Government caved into pressure from housing associations and removed the element of compulsion from them, but that only means that council tenants are now being singled out for the application of these extraordinary measures. As councils say that the provisions are unworkable in any case, will the Minister explain to us why he has insisted that they should remain for council tenants?

[Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)]

Is the hon. Lady seriously suggesting that people should receive heavily subsidised housing even if they earn very high incomes?

[Dr Blackman-Woods]

As we did our best to explain to the hon. Gentleman in Committee, such housing is often not subsidised. The point that we are making is that councils already have the discretion to set higher rents for people with higher incomes if they choose to do so. What we are querying this afternoon is why the Government are introducing an element of compulsion and why this will apply to council tenants only.

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[Sadiq Khan]

I rise to speak in favour of amendment 89, tabled in my name and that of my right hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey) and other hon. Friends. I hope that colleagues will understand and forgive me if I focus my comments on London.

The Bill before us will do nothing to help solve the housing crisis facing London.

[Chris Philp]

Rubbish!

[Sadiq Khan]

The Member who has heckled describes the Bill as I would—rubbish.

In fact, on balance, the likelihood is that the Bill will make the crisis even worse. As a result, London’s famed social mix is under threat. Many parts of inner London could be hollowed out, with the city becoming the preserve of the very rich. Do not just take my word for it. When the Government published this Bill, the heading on an Evening Standard editorial was “Don’t lose social houses to fund right-to-buy”. I kept a copy of the newspaper from that day. The editorial said:

“The most serious objection to the Government’s proposal to allow housing association tenants to buy their homes at a discount is that its effect would actually be to diminish the amount of social housing in London at a time when demand is increasing. To fund the discount, councils would be obliged to sell off higher-priced council homes—and given the level of property prices in London, this could, potentially, be disastrous in its effects.”

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Let us think about that for a moment. On that measure, some of the most expensive homes in London, such as the £26.5 million Holland Park mansion sold last year, are affordable, because someone has been able to buy them. That shows just how far from reality and out of touch the hon. Member for Richmond Park and this Government are with the housing crisis. Last week, the hon. Member for Richmond Park told the Camden New Journal that the term “affordable” has become “elastic and misleading”.

[Chris Philp]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Sadiq Khan]

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman, who has been heckling me loudly and rather rudely from a sedentary position.

[Chris Philp]

I am sure the right hon. Gentleman would never heckle from a sedentary position. The starter home provisions give a 20% price cut to every first-time buyer, which is very welcome. In my borough of Croydon, the average 20% discount means that a starter home would be only about £220,000 or £250,000, which I am sure even he would agree is extremely affordable.

[Sadiq Khan]

It usually takes a parliamentarian years to become out of touch, but the hon. Gentleman has done it in six months. Shelter says that for someone to be able to afford a £450,000 starter home, they will have to earn an annual salary of £77,000 and have a deposit of £98,000. Let us put aside for the moment the nurse, the junior doctor and the bus driver—people who get a starter job in a top FTSE 100 company in the City of London will not be able afford one of the Government’s starter homes. That is how out of touch the Conservative mayoral candidate and the Government are.

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[Chris Philp]

I will do my best to stick to Madam Deputy Speaker’s injunction of an informal four-minute limit.

It was a pleasure to serve on the Bill Committee and to watch both Front-Bench teams in action. I welcome the Bill as an opportunity further to improve this Government’s record on house building. The right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey) cited some statistics a few moments ago. I respectfully remind him that in his last year as Housing Minister, there were 125,000 starts across the United Kingdom, yet last year, under the current Secretary of State and Housing and Planning Minister, the figure had increased by 35% to 165,000 starts. This Government have a record they can be proud of.

[Anna Turley]

London has experienced a 55% increase in rough sleeping. There is a Tory Mayor and a Tory Government. Is that the kind of Tory aspiration we have heard about this evening?

[Chris Philp]

I believe that the level of rough sleeping last year had gone down compared with five years ago. Of course action is needed to combat this terrible problem. I am sure that we can all agree on that.

There is agreement around the House that there is an under-supply of housing in this country when compared with population growth. That is true, and I welcome the measures in the Bill to increase the housing supply, particularly the measures to build on surplus brownfield land, as encapsulated by local development orders. The measures will also help to protect the green belt by making sure that we focus development in areas where it is most appropriate. The London Land Commission, which is jointly chaired by the Minister for Housing and Planning, is already doing its work. I welcome the announcement made a week or so ago about giving it further powers to bring publicly owned land into development. Similarly, amendments tabled on Report last week to introduce non-local authority providers of planning processing services—not decision making, but processing powers—will expedite the passage of planning consents and further increase the supply of housing. All those measures will help to increase housing supply, and therefore help to improve affordability.

Another area in which the Bill does welcome work is that of home ownership. The right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne pointed out that home ownership has declined. The decline started in 2007, not 2010, but it is lamentable that home ownership has gone down. I welcome the starter home initiative, which I hope will reverse the trend. It is regrettable that the Labour party has passed up every opportunity to promote home ownership provided for by the Bill, which I shall be delighted to vote for in a few minutes’ time. In effect, every first-time buyer in this country will be given a 20% discount when the Bill becomes law. That is extremely welcome, and will I hope reverse the tide of home ownership decline. We should all be able to support that.

In summary, the Bill will increase the housing supply and promote home ownership. I urge all Members to support it. I even urge our SNP colleagues to support it vicariously.