Housing Reform

Ian Mearns Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for describing me as part of the baby boomer generation. As I have described, this is not a multi-million pound exposure for the taxpayer. In actual fact, a number of things have to happen before the taxpayer experiences any loss—not least because the lenders are paying for the scheme, because the people building the homes are paying into a pot and, of course, because there is a deposit that has to be paid first. We are carrying out a wide range of modelling, which we will release shortly as part of the consultation for the scheme. I know that my hon. Friend will take a great deal of interest in those numbers.

[Ian Mearns (Gateshead) (Lab)]

The Minister may be aware that my borough of Gateshead already has significant unmet need, and we anticipate that something like 6,000 households will be forced to seek alternative accommodation when the housing benefit changes kick in. Will the Minister guarantee that to tackle this impending crisis, Gateshead will get more than the £68,000 new homes bonus that we got last year?

[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.