Housing and Planning Bill

Harry Harpham Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Harry Harpham (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

I would like to focus on a couple of areas that I find especially concerning.

First, on the planned extension to the right to buy scheme, Ministers have made much of it being agreed to voluntarily by the National Housing Federation. Given that it was accepted only with the clear knowledge that similar measures would be forced on housing associations, there are some doubts as to how voluntary the agreement really was. After the Government strong-armed housing associations into this position, it is no wonder that they are sceptical.

Forcing local authorities to sell off their housing stock to pay for the policy means councillors are not exactly keen either. As the Tory-led Local Government Association pointed out, councils are best placed to respond to their area’s housing needs. It is disappointing that Ministers, who not so very long ago prided themselves as the champions of localism, are now tying councils’ hands while they raid town halls for the money to cover this counterproductive measure.

The Chartered Institute of Housing has suggested that sales of these high value properties will fall well short of expectations, to the tune of some £3.3 billion. More to the point, who will these high-value homes be sold to? If they are high value, then certainly they will not be sold to first-time buyers. Councils are incentivised to sell them at a price as dear as possible to make sure they can meet Treasury demands, so they will, more likely than not, end up in the hands of speculators or buy-to-let landlords. Council housing that was once leased at affordable rents will move out of the reach of people struggling to meet their housing costs.

The other area where the right to buy policy really falls down is on its lack of a requirement for replacement housing to be built on a like-for-like basis. As it stands, the Bill is far too weak on housing association replacements. There is no requirement for them to build a similar property to the one sold, or even to build it at the same end of the country. A third are now saying that they will stop building affordable homes altogether. Housing associations have always worked with a social ethos, but the Bill hollows that out to the point where commercial survival is all.

On council tenancies, the Bill legislates for insecurity. By forcing local authorities to offer only short-term tenancies, the Government are encouraging uncertainty and worry for low-income families. For council tenants, the house they live in is not an asset to be managed. It is a home. It is where they have raised their family. For those on low and very limited incomes, a secure tenancy represents safety, stability and a sense of belonging.

I will end with a few remarks about the private rented sector. From my own experiences as a councillor in Sheffield, I know there are many dedicated and genuinely caring private landlords whose professionalism does them great credit, but there is far too large a minority who see their often vulnerable tenants as cash cows and who have little thought for their responsibilities, other than turning up every week on the doorstep to collect the rent. Private renting is on the rise. One quarter of all families with children are private renting, and it is a national scandal that nearly one third of these properties do not meet the decent homes standard. The Government are to be congratulated on trying to get to grips with the problem, but the Bill could be so much bolder. A statutory requirement for private landlords to make sure their properties are up to scratch throughout the lifetime of a tenancy would give their tenants a decent level of security and allow for much swifter action to be taken against landlords who give the rest a bad name.

Question put, That the Bill be now read the Third time.