Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Sheila Gilmore

Monday 30th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

I would like to give the Housing Minister a third opportunity to give a straight answer on the bedroom tax. The real reason housing benefit has risen so much is the growth of the private rented sector, so why are council and housing association tenants being told to leave their homes or take a benefit cut?

[Grant Shapps]

A whole range of protections is in place, including the fact that people can choose to bridge the gap themselves. If they cannot do that, a discretionary fund of £190 million is available. If that does not work, by definition a third of properties within the local housing area are available. There are just some decisions that cannot be delayed, and it must be right that people who are in receipt of different types of benefits, whether social housing or housing benefit, have to make the same decisions as people who rent or own privately.

Housing Reform

Debate between Grant Shapps and Sheila Gilmore

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

That is right. More than 40% of local authorities report that the new homes bonus is making it easier to propose and introduce new housing in their local areas, which is very important. Last year, nearly £200 million of new homes bonus was paid out, and this year we expect to pay out more than £400 million. Incidentally, there will be a boost of another £19 million for the affordable social housing that has been included in the scheme. That approach is very important indeed.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

The Minister has made it clear that the one-for-one promise on council house sales appears to depend on higher rents. How does that square with the Government’s intention to keep housing benefit down?

[Grant Shapps]

As with the general affordable rent programme, what will typically happen is that people will be brought out of the private rented sector and into the affordable rent sector. Rather than paying 100% rent, people will be paying affordable rent, which in London, for example, is just 65%. That does indeed keep the pressure on housing benefit down.

Property Market

Debate between Grant Shapps and Sheila Gilmore

Tuesday 25th January 2011 Westminster Hall

[Grant Shapps]

Yes, by all means. I have no objection at all to making this a completely open exercise, and my officials will have noted my comments.

As to what we know about the old system, several Members mentioned that it had completely and utterly failed. We did not get to the lowest house building levels since 1923 under the new system, but under a top-down, almost Stalinist approach, which said that we would be able to build the top number of homes that we had set out in the 10-year plan. The pledge was to build 3 million homes by 2020, but the number built crashed through the floor.

The problem was not just the total number of homes being built, but the number of affordable homes, which was derisory, and I know that the Opposition housing spokesman, the hon. Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Alison Seabeck), agrees. Concern was expressed about the amount of affordable housing that would be built under our plans, but despite the £17 billion pumped into affordable house building over 13 years by the previous Government, the impact was a net loss of 45,000 affordable homes. I can assure the hon. Lady that the coalition Government will do better than that every single year.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

Will the Minister not accept that one reason for the net loss in housing is the right to buy? Is he at all interested in the steps being taken by the Scottish Parliament to restrict the right to buy with a view to increasing supply?

[Grant Shapps]

I cannot answer for the 13 years of the Labour Government, but they had adequate time to make whatever changes they wanted on that front. However, the argument about the right to buy is very much yesterday’s argument; it is literally about the ’80s and ’90s. This year, no more than 2,000 people nationwide are likely to exercise their right to buy. The issue is not the right to buy, but the pathfinder schemes—the housing market renewal that destroyed homes and neighbourhoods. It was partly responsible for our ending up with fewer homes than we started with after 17 years.

I want now to make some progress and to answer the substantive points raised in the debate, which were really about whether the new homes bonus will be sufficient to ensure that we get out of the hole we were left in and back to a world where we can build a sufficient number of homes to look after our population. I accept the comment by my hon. Friend the Member for Watford that the new homes bonus will not be enough. Before I address that, however, I want to point out how powerful an incentive it will be.

The new homes bonus represents nearly £1 billion, which is funded through the spending review programme. It will ensure that, wherever a home is built for the next six years, the same amount as is collected on the average council tax band there will be paid to the local authority. Where an affordable home is being built, an additional £350 is proposed in the consultation document, which is currently in front of me and which I am considering. The new homes bonus is therefore potentially an incredibly powerful incentive to get out there and build homes.

For the first time, there is some real benefit for the community of the individual authority. My hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey) mentioned a potential development that I went to see a few years ago. That development could build homes, bring money and facilities in for local people and be a win-win. My hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Mr Jackson), who is not called Peterborough’s champion for nothing, rightly said that housing can have a dramatic and important influence in terms of improving an area if it is done in the right way and not imposed from the top, but not if it is driven by a regional spatial strategy that takes no account of local needs and requirements.

The new homes bonus will be a powerful incentive. As my hon. Friend said, the billion will run out at some point, so the answer is to go and build homes and use as much of the money as possible now. It will then be top-sliced from the formula grant. That, in itself, will be an important incentive to ensure that areas are not left behind as their neighbours develop.