Housing Supply and Homelessness

Earl of Effingham Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, for her success in the ballot to obtain this debate. It is also an honour and a privilege to be closing after the valedictory speech of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury. The fact that he chose this debate to be his last tells us a great deal about his values and his care for those in need. I believe I speak for these Benches and the whole House when I say that we wish him well for the future.

Home is where the heart is. A home is something we all need, and we should have grave concerns that we are a nation where not everyone has their own home. Homelessness should have no place in this country, and we must do everything we can to help those in need. But homelessness is a complex issue with a wide range of underlying causes and contributing factors. There is no one silver bullet. The causes and contributing factors are numerous, including affordability and population growth pressure, but there are also more personal and tangential causes of homelessness, including mental health crisis, domestic abuse and relationship breakdown. It is therefore crucial that any policy proposed to tackle homelessness targets its multiple root causes if it is to have any chance of success.

Supporting people through a mental health crisis is an immensely challenging task and we pay tribute to our phenomenal NHS staff, who care for people when they need it the most. In their times of crisis, our NHS steps up and delivers to the absolute best of its ability. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan from 2023 set out an ambition to increase training places for mental health nursing by 93% to over 11,000 places by 2032, starting with an increase of 38% by 2029. Furthermore, the NHS Long Term Plan included targets to expand NHS talking therapies, perinatal mental health support and 24/7 crisis services.

Unfortunately, veterans of our amazing Armed Forces are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues. It is a cruel price that they pay for keeping us all safe during times of geopolitical unrest and danger. In March 2021, we announced the Op Courage service, creating a single point to access mental health services and support for veterans. This includes support to recognise and treat early to advanced mental health problems and substance misuse and addictions. Op Courage also liaises with other organisations to address wider well-being needs and support Armed Forces families affected by mental health problems. As of June 2024, Op Courage was actively supporting 2,700 veterans.

Nobody should have to choose between facing abuse and sleeping on the streets. In government, we allocated an additional £2 million to help people fleeing domestic abuse. This includes a one-off payment of up to £500 to give those without the means the ability to leave their abusers. This payment is to help cover the cost of essentials, such as groceries or baby care, or be put towards new accommodation for themselves and their children.

Victims can also apply for a further one-off payment of up to £2,500 to help secure a sustainable independent future, such as by putting down a deposit for rental accommodation. This helps people move on with their lives and goes some way to preventing homelessness or the pressure to return to abusers because of financial strain. We very much hope that His Majesty’s Government will continue this support along with universal credit, the simplified system that we introduced through which people can claim assistance for a range of challenges, including support with housing costs due to relationship breakdown and related issues, which are unfortunately another cause of homelessness.

We understood that building more quality housing in the places where it was needed most was one of the best ways to reduce homelessness. Indeed, 2.5 million homes have been built by Conservative Governments since 2010; over a million were built in the last Parliament. We appreciated that putting more money in people’s pockets was another essential way to prevent that homelessness. Almost half of the homes in England are now in energy efficiency band C, up from just one in seven in 2010. This has the direct result that people need to spend less of their hard-earned money on heating and utility bills.

Reducing barriers to entry into the property market is another step that we took. Stamp duty was reduced to zero for properties under £250,000 or up to £425,000 for first-time buyers. This move saved aspiring homeowners thousands of pounds, helping them to buy a house and create their own home. We also brought forward Awaab’s law, ensuring that social housing tenants are not forced to reside in properties which are dangerous to their health to avoid homelessness.

Going forward, new homes must be affordable, must not do unreasonable damage to the local environment, must be built where they are most needed, must be adequately looked after by public services and must have proper means of transportation. None of this is easy, but all these requirements are essential. According to Nationwide, the price of a typical UK home rose by 3.7% last month versus the previous year. As house prices continue to rise, the Government must take urgent steps to ensure that the most vulnerable and in need are not excluded from the dream of owning their own home.

Council leaders say that the cost of temporary accommodation is now the greatest threat to district and borough councils’ budgets, and indeed to their very existence. The Government must build thousands more social or affordable housing units. Is the Minister still committing to building 1.5 million new homes by 2029? Can she inform the House—she should have the data—how many homes have been completed this year and how many will be started this year? Do we have enough electricians, plumbers, bricklayers and roofers to build 300,000 new homes every year? Research suggests that we do not.

Everyone wants to end homelessness, and His Majesty’s Official Opposition will work tirelessly with the Government to bring this about. But achieving such an incredibly important goal will require policy that is sensible and well thought out. We need action, we need to start building yesterday and we need to address the other root causes of homelessness as a top priority.