House Building: London

Debate between Danny Beales and Luke Taylor

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Luke Taylor]

I thank my hon. Friend for providing that example of the impact on a specific project, which shows how difficult this will be for our councils.

The announced measures will quietly reduce the requirement for affordable homes from 35% to 20%, forcibly slash the community infrastructure levy money, and barely scratch the surface of the bigger and more profound structural barriers to getting green, affordable and safe housing built. The Government have triggered great uncertainty and more financial instability for local authorities while achieving very little in the shake-up, seemingly because they think that big, decisive action with very little prep work and no consultation is the way to get things done. The Housing Secretary is clearly taking more than just headwear inspiration from a certain world leader—which would make sense if it were not his own zone that he is flooding with a substance that the courtesies of this House do not allow me to name.

In all seriousness, the housing crisis in London deserves more than a knee-jerk reaction. There are 330,000 households stuck on social housing waiting lists—more than the total number of households in our two largest boroughs, Barnet and Croydon, combined. As we have heard, London boroughs are spending £5 million a day on temporary accommodation, although I have heard that figure for about a year, so it must be considerably more by now. According to London Councils, there is a £700 million shortfall in the housing revenue accounts that fund new house building.

The proposed measures will simply make that worse, for two main reasons. First, the Government will facilitate the right kind of house building not by dropping the regulations that developers face, but by amending them and fixing the structural issues within the Building Safety Regulator. Secondly, the measures actively—and inexcusably—disrupt the already stretched financial picture for local authorities. I will take them in turn.

First, granting the right to reduce the level of affordable housing per project fails to recognise that the proliferation of a particular kind of luxury, unaffordable housing in London means that it is unlikely that new building accelerated under the scheme will ease upward pressures on house prices in the capital. Giving the mayor new powers to call in decisions and accelerate them almost on a whim does nothing to address the concerns that local authorities and local residents will have about their ability to object to new housing that will not contribute to solving the crisis. The measures seem to be imposed in an imagined battle against the nimbys, when most in London have lived experience of housing instability—either their own or that of younger family members, co-workers or friends—and, as such, are in favour of the kind of house building that actually addresses the crisis.

[Danny Beales]

I share the hon. Member’s view of the general public’s opinion on the issue, but as a cabinet member during seven years of planning and redevelopment in Camden, I rarely heard those voices in planning committees. Unfortunately, the voices that are heard are often disproportionately against development and do not represent the people on housing waiting lists. I just challenge the presentation of the public view through the planning system. Is it not true, too, that many local authorities take far too long to determine applications? In my borough—I have just had an email—it has taken six months to draft a section 106 heads of terms document, two years since the planning was approved. Is that not unacceptable?

Employer National Insurance Contributions

Debate between Danny Beales and Luke Taylor

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Danny Beales]

I have given way a number of times already and I want to make some more progress, if the right hon. Gentleman will allow.

It is a bit rich for the Conservative party to suddenly discover the charity sector and claim to be the party of the third sector. Having worked in the third sector for 10 years, I remember nothing but the Conservative party slamming the charity sector year after year after year. The charities I meet want us to fix the NHS, to fix homelessness, and to fix the social and economic problems we inherited from the previous Government. Locally in Hillingdon, the Conservative council has not been a champion; it has cut them to the bone. Most of the charities I meet have a handful of employees left, at best. Under this Government’s measures, they are likely to see support.

Fundamentally, in this Budget we face a choice and we have chosen to protect the most vulnerable in society. However, it appears that the Conservatives still fail to understand basic economics. They want all the benefits of the Budget—at least, they do this week—but they do not seem to know how they will pay for them. They drove our public services into crisis and now oppose the very measures we are taking in the Budget to rebuild them. Nothing has changed. They are not a serious, responsible party of government. They are still addicted to endless cuts to public services, paying more and getting less, constantly taking the short-term, easy approach. It would be immensely irresponsible for any Government to just ignore the crisis in our public services, and to return to austerity, instability and decline. We choose investment over decline. That is what my constituents voted for: more doctors, more nurses, fair pay and investment, not decline.

[Luke Taylor]

On that point, how can the hon. Gentleman say we will see more doctors when our GP surgeries are telling us that they will have to cut doctors, cut staff and cut appointments as a result of the national insurance increase? What would he say to them?

[Danny Beales]

I would say £25 billion for the NHS, a record level of investment since the last Labour Government.

I ask the Opposition: what would they do? Would they prefer to let NHS waiting lists grow, and inequalities widen between state and private education? Would they reverse our investment in neighbourhood policing, or our increased funding for social care? If not, what taxes would they raise instead to pay for those measures? They cannot continue to have it both ways.

It is clear that the Opposition have not learnt any lessons. Their position continues to be founded on an economic fiction. They are the same old Conservative party that crashed our economy in 2022, and they would do it again. Well, this Budget and this Government will not. We choose investment, we choose our NHS, and we choose to balance our budget.