Housing and Planning Bill

Duke of Somerset Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)]

My Lords, I remind the Committee of my interests as chair of Housing & Care 21. The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, has moved this amendment very fully. I will just mention a local example that illustrates the issue to which the Minister has to respond.

It is a village near where I live in Hampshire on the edge of the South Downs National Park called Wickham—the birthplace of William of Wykeham, the famous Lord Chancellor in the reign of Edward III. It is a nice rural village. A friend of mine who is a local landowner and farmer decided, in the interests of the village, to donate some land as an exception site for approximately 11 properties and a doctors’ surgery on the edge of the village. That was done, and the houses were divided between a housing association and a community land trust. When he heard about the right to buy, he was incandescent, because he had given this land in good faith. Despite remaining a substantial landowner in the area, he vowed that it would be the last piece of land he would give up for an exception site.

This is the issue that needs addressing, and that is why I support the amendment. We will come on to other aspects of this particular site when we get to the amendments on community land trusts, but I raise this as an example of why the issue needs to be addressed. That is what the Minister needs to respond to and why it is so important.

[The Duke of Somerset (CB)]

My Lords, I support both these amendments and declare my interest as a rural landowner. Although the idea of encouraging home ownership through starter homes is a very laudable aim, I do not believe that these clauses will be successful in the wider context of rural home provision without the promotion of other tenure models, such as those we heard about in the earlier groups, which remain in perpetuity. This is the point with the discount.

One of the aims of the Bill should be to keep a balanced mix of tenures, particularly in rural areas, with both rented and owned—partially or entirely—properties. I think the Government have confirmed this is their intention. Despite what the Minister said in an earlier group, the Bill does threaten the future success of rural exception sites, which have delivered many lower-cost homes in communities where local families, often already employed nearby, and supported by the wishes of the community, can find a more affordable house. Such sites make the group with these two amendments different from the earlier ones, but many of the same principles apply.

As we have heard, these sites are provided through the altruism of the landowners selling them. Various figures have been suggested, but this is normally at 10% of the development value. Very few landowners will want to continue to offer this, if after five years the house can be sold on in the open market, perhaps to an incoming second-home owner. If I understood the Minister correctly, we have had slightly contrary answers to this question. In one reply I think she said that the Government were going to take measures to stop purchases by second-home owners, although perhaps I have got that wrong.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

Could the noble Duke repeat that?

[The Duke of Somerset]

I was under the impression that we had had two contrary replies. On one occasion the Minister said that the Government accepted that second-home owners would be able to purchase such houses eventually, while on another occasion she said that the Government were going to take measures to stop that from happening.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I think the noble Duke is referring to when I talked about second-home owners purchasing starter homes.

[The Duke of Somerset]

I thank the Minister. Surely it must be sensible to protect the 20% discount in perpetuity, as the amendment suggests, or to use a tapering mechanism; or else to exclude starter homes from rural exception sites. They should also be kept for first-time buyers after the five years.

We have heard various statistics, particularly from Shelter. One published piece of research shows that in order to buy in the countryside, an applicant would need a salary of at least £50,000, with a deposit of £40,000. Those figures are after tax, which is a point that has not been made very much; so they are very high and would probably have to apply to two people in the household. Self-evidently, that is not widely affordable.

The old Section 106 affordable home requirement would be made largely redundant. Perhaps that would mean higher profits for developers, because they would not need to provide a percentage of affordable housing. In the past, that has often been 30% to 50% of the total. This is also going to mean less rental accommodation. Will the council tax banding be based on the open market value, or on the discounted value?

It is important to point out that prospective owners must consider the extra cost of the maintenance of their new houses. That is often included in the rent, and can amount to a large sum. I also want to take the opportunity to suggest that in the past so many new houses have been built to an abysmal standard of appearance and greening. Perhaps this Bill allows a chance for planners to have more say over that. Low-cost and efficiency are not mutually exclusive.

Rural villages need organic, holistic and good-quality growth. Vital assets of infrastructure—transport and medical—pubs and shops all need to be planned together, as I proposed in my Second Reading speech. I may be anticipating a slightly later grouping, but that issue is important.

Let me return to where I started. The main problem is the contention that government funding, especially in rural areas, should be spread equitably between shared ownership, starter homes and renting—that is, mixed tenures. That is why in perpetuity is such an important concept. I support both these amendments.

[Lord Best]

My Lords, my name is on Amendments 50A and 50C and I rise to support my noble friend Lord Cameron to whom I pay tribute not just for his eloquence today but for setting a perfect example of a landowner who has made available land on very favourable terms to ensure that local people get decent housing. There are other Members of your Lordships’ House who have done the same; all of them deserve absolute credit.

I was delighted that the noble Lords, Lord Young and Lord Deben, have also joined in. If tribute has to be paid to the actual founder of the feast, Nicholas Ridley, as Secretary of State at the time, must get the laurels for inventing this particular piece of policy. It is the hope in these amendments that local authorities would not be required always to insist upon starter homes on rural exception sites, knowing that these will be lost to the locality five years later if the purchasers sell up, perhaps to second-home owners for holiday lets or to better-off commuters.

Last year I chaired the Rural Housing Policy Review, which was conducted with the noble Lords, Lords Cameron of Dillington and Lord Taylor of Goss Moor. This review was promoted by Hastoe Housing Association, which is a leading player in the housing association world in this regard. It joined forces with the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Country Landowners Association to take forward these issues. Our report set out the special position of rural areas, which others have outlined today. From the report I would only add the following additional points.

First, promoting home ownership in rural areas, where people often put down roots and stay for a lifetime, is particularly important. However, a 20% discount will not, on its own, do the trick for affordable starter homes. Shared ownership can be of particular value in those circumstances, with young households buying for half or less than the market value and paying affordable rent on the remainder. The problem, as in so many other cases, would come from the Government requiring local authorities to push out other contenders to make way for starter homes.