Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Iain Stewart

Monday 30th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)]

The Government will shortly announce the final new homes bonus payments for 2012-13. These were provisionally estimated in December at £430 million.

[Iain Stewart]

Will my right hon. Friend congratulate Conservative-run Milton Keynes council on its innovative plans to use part of a new homes bonus to acquire land assets from the Homes and Communities Agency, which will help to stimulate both more housing regeneration and economic growth?

[Grant Shapps]

Yes, absolutely. My hon. Friend’s council in Milton Keynes is a shining beacon of housing growth and delivery, which puts many other councils to shame.

Housing Reform

Debate between Grant Shapps and Iain Stewart

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

In many ways, it is entirely in the hands of the hon. Gentleman and his local authority. The more homes that are built, the more money that will flow. We have made the system disproportionately advantageous to local authorities with lower-than-average council tax banding, because we have used the national average, which favours authorities with below-average rates.

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the National House-Building Council, which has its headquarters in my constituency and celebrated its 75th birthday last week, has widely welcomed this package of measures? In particular, it thinks that the indemnity scheme will go a long way to unlocking the supply of mortgages.

[Grant Shapps]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for pointing that out. The NHBC is important, as it guarantees the quality of new homes with its own insurance scheme. Clearly, if the indemnity scheme is to work, it will require all the different partners in the sector to work with the NHBC. I am grateful for its comments and for my hon. Friend’s.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Iain Stewart

Thursday 25th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

13. If he will estimate the proportion of the funding for the new homes bonus scheme which will be spent in Milton Keynes.

[The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)]

The new homes bonus will match-fund the same amount of council tax for every single home built for an additional six years, and we have published a very helpful calculator on the Department’s website, where people can go today to find out how much they will get for the additional homes built.

[Iain Stewart]

I warmly welcome the new homes bonus, which will go a long way to providing the infrastructure that new housing estates need, but will local authorities have the discretion to use that bonus for capital and revenue items?

[Grant Shapps]

The new homes bonus is available for local authorities to spend as they see fit. Under the localism Bill and the flexibility that we now provide, it is absolutely possible for local authorities to use that money potentially even to borrow against, because the income stream is guaranteed for six years. It is a simple, very straightforward approach to making sure that people get more money to their area. To give Members an indication of the calculator, I should say that for every 100 homes that are built in any given area £1 million is likely to go to it over the six-year period.