Housing (Armed Forces Personnel)
Debate between Grant Shapps and James Gray(13 years, 3 months ago)
Ministerial CorrectionsRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)
2. What plans he has to provide support through his Department’s housing policy to serving and former members of the armed forces.
The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)
I am absolutely determined to ensure that serving and former serving personnel from the armed forces are treated properly when it comes to housing on their return.
Mr Gray
Serving men and women form a disproportionately large part of those who are homeless or rough sleepers. I therefore very much welcome the Government’s notification that they are a priority group under the Firstbuy scheme. However, many of them cannot afford to buy a house at all. Will the Minister now consider whether he can bring pressure to bear on local authorities, so that serving men and women are also designated as a priority for local authority housing?
Grant Shapps
I do not just want to remove the housing disadvantage for those who have served in the military; I want to put them at a positive advantage. That is why we have announced today that they will receive that priority in the Firstbuy scheme. I can also tell my hon. Friend that they will be a priority in the social housing allocation list. Also, if I may correct one point, the new figures for rough sleepers out today from CHAIN—the Combined Homeless and Information Network—show that just 2% of those who have served previously in the military are on the streets.
[Official Report, 20 June 2011, Vol. 530, c. 3-4.]
Letter of correction from Mr Grant Shapps:
An error has been identified in an oral answer given on 20 June 2011. The correct answer to the follow-up question should have been:
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and James Gray
The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)
I am absolutely determined to ensure that serving and former serving personnel from the armed forces are treated properly when it comes to housing on their return.
Mr Gray
Serving men and women form a disproportionately large part of those who are homeless or rough sleepers. I therefore very much welcome the Government’s notification that they are a priority group under the Firstbuy scheme. However, many of them cannot afford to buy a house at all. Will the Minister now consider whether he can bring pressure to bear on local authorities, so that serving men and women are also designated as a priority for local authority housing?
Grant Shapps
I do not just want to remove the housing disadvantage for those who have served in the military; I want to put them at a positive advantage. That is why we have announced today that they will receive that priority in the Firstbuy scheme. I can also tell my hon. Friend that they will be a priority in the social housing allocation list. Also, if I may correct one point, the new figures for rough sleepers out today from CHAIN—the Combined Homeless and Information Network—show that just 2% of those who have served previously in the military are on the streets.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and James Gray(13 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)
10. What criteria are used to determine the number of houses which should be built in North Wiltshire constituency?
The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)
Local authorities and communities should plan for sustainable development in their area, taking a visionary and strategic approach to be responsive to the market using robust evidence of the number of homes required.
Mr Gray
Across England, developers seem to be taking advantage of what they believe to be a policy vacuum to press ahead with large-scale planning applications. In my area for example, there are applications for 5,000 homes around Chippenham, the whole of Swindon seems to be moving westward to engulf some of the villages there, and there are applications for 280 homes in Malmesbury. Does the Minister agree that local people should decide how many houses they want and where they should be, taking account of homelessness and all that of course, but looking in areas such as mine at preserving the green belt, the countryside and our way of life?
Grant Shapps
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, of course: taking account of the housing needs survey so that homelessness and affordable housing are addressed, the numbers should be set through a process of local decision making. The days of top-down targets, which led to the lowest rate of house building since 1923, are over. That is official, because I can tell Opposition Members that just a couple of days ago the National House-Building Council announced that there had been an 18% jump in the number of home starts—the applications to start building homes. Bottom-up is starting to work.