Housing (London)

Jeremy Corbyn Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Westminster Hall

[Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab)]

I am pleased that we are having this debate. There is a great Labour turnout. I admire but am surprised at the solidarity that Conservative Members have shown with the tube workers this morning by not coming to the debate. Obviously, the Liberal Democrats are of the same mind.

Like many of my colleagues, I represent an inner-city constituency; 40% of housing there is social housing, 30% is owner-occupied, although that figure is going down, and 30% is in the private rented sector. That figure is going up. There is a desperate housing shortage, as my hon. Friend the Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) outlined, and we are stuck with planning policies that are the opposite of what is needed in London. A good example is the absurdity of the sale to a property development company, for a very small amount of money, of the Royal Mail site at Mount Pleasant, and the proposal to build large numbers of executive homes on the site, when there is desperate housing need throughout central London—not just in Islington but in Camden, Hackney, Lambeth and Lewisham. All the boroughs in central London have a desperate housing shortage.

Furthermore, the Government have a specific, deliberate policy of putting no social requirement on the conversion of offices to housing developments. The Archway tower in my constituency is a large office block, originally built in 1967 by London Underground and later occupied by the Department of Social Security, the Lord Chancellor’s Department and various others. It is empty and is due to be converted to housing. I do not have a problem with that; it could help a great deal. However, I have a big problem with its being bought by a company that will no doubt do the conversion work very well, but will not provide one flat for anyone in social housing need, and will set rents that are unaffordable to anyone who lives in the area or is on the housing waiting list. The opportunity to provide more than 100 good-quality new flats for people on the housing waiting list is being lost in favour of off-plan buying by wealthy overseas residents, who can occupy those flats right next to a tube station. What message is that giving to the people who work and live in the community, who want somewhere decent to live? I hope that the Minister will explain.

Not far away from Archway, which is at the northern end of my constituency—someone would need to cycle only for 10 or 15 minutes, up a steep hill, admittedly—is somewhere wonderful, The Bishops avenue. The Bishops avenue is apparently the most expensive housing in Britain, if not anywhere in the world. More than a third of it is empty. A large proportion of the property is owned by various Gulf state royal families, and the Saudi Arabian royal family. There are huge mansions there, and they are deliberately kept empty as part of a process of land banking. Some of those properties have become derelict, and there is a danger that English Heritage will decide to preserve them on the ground that they are good centres for wildlife. Owls and bats have taken up residence in some of those extraordinarily valuable properties. I wish the owls and bats well.

[Clive Efford]

At least someone is living there.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

As my hon. Friend says, at least someone is occupying them, and no doubt they are having a good life there; but what kind of city are we living in, if we encourage the development or ownership of large, expensive properties for investment and land banking, and for occupation by wealthy people—I understand that some of the properties are used for up to two weeks a year, for summer vacations—while people are sleeping on the streets and hostels are hard to get into, and young people grow into middle age staying with their parents and sleeping on sofas, because they cannot get anywhere to live?

[Clive Efford]

My hon. Friend is right, but does he agree that we must rumble the Mayor of London for constantly making promises on which he has no intention of delivering? In 2008 he promised 50,000 houses by 2011. That figure went up to 55,000 by 2012 and it is now 100,000, but between April and November last year only 2,235 of those houses were started. He missed his targets again. He constantly does it, and he is letting down the people of London.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

I was about to refer to one of the briefings for today’s debate: the work of fiction from the Mayor’s office about all he is doing to improve housing in London. The reality is that he and his planning policies support the development of expensive executive housing, which is unaffordable to the people of London. He is not intervening to get social housing, or to support local authorities like mine, which are desperately trying to build housing to solve the housing crisis in London.

I want to refer quickly to what my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) said. I introduced a ten-minute rule Bill in October to regulate the private rented sector. If we are to deal with the housing crisis in London, we have to tackle it in a number of ways. First, we need a planning policy that enforces the need for social housing content on all sites, including office conversions. Secondly, there must be massive investment by local authorities in affordable council housing, with secure tenancies and affordable rents, not the market-level rent model imposed by the Government.

Thirdly, recognising that a third of my constituents live in the private rented sector, and that the proportion nationally, although slightly lower, is rising very fast, we need regulation of agencies, enforced conditions in tenancies so that there are decent-quality homes, and, above all, affordable rents. I therefore seek a default power for London local authorities to impose a rent model across London to ensure that we keep the diversity of our population and work force, and do not go down the desperate road of housing for the wealthy and homelessness for the poor.

--- Later in debate ---

[Emma Reynolds]

I look forward to the Minister’s response.

I want to mention overseas investment, an issue that many of my hon. Friends talked about. My hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North talked about the housing market in London being more accurately described as an investment market, not a residential one. That is truly shocking and scandalous. As my hon. Friends the Members for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) and for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) all said, foreign buyers are coming to London and using property here as a sophisticated piggy bank to store their money. That is leading to a huge distortion of the market, with Londoners forced further and further out in London and beyond.

I have set out a number of measures that a Labour Government would take. We would ban the marketing of property overseas first, to give first call to Londoners. That is incredibly important, but it will not solve the whole problem. It is wrong that people living in the UK are denied the chance to buy homes because they are being sold exclusively to overseas buyers.

A Labour Government would also clamp down on empty home loopholes. At the moment, to prove that a home is empty all someone needs to do is provide a table and chair. Councils have to spend two years looking at whether homes are empty before they can increase council tax. Why wait two years? I have said that local councils should be able to charge 50% or more extra council tax after a home has been left empty for less than two years.

I am passionate about the private rented sector. It is an issue in my own constituency in Wolverhampton, but I know what a big issue it is here in London. The difference between Wolverhampton and London is that in Wolverhampton it is an issue for people on low incomes and the most vulnerable, but in London it is an issue for low and middle-income earners.

We are seeing incredibly poor standards in the private rented sector. The Government have talked about a tenants charter. That sounds like a nice idea but seems utterly meaningless. We need longer-term tenancies, so that families can have the long-term stability that they need, and we need to enable councils to introduce licensing schemes. This afternoon I am going to Newham—by taxi, not by tube—to see the licensing scheme that has been introduced there, which is driving up standards in the private rented sector. The problem in London is not low housing demand, which is one of the qualifications for the licensing schemes, but high housing demand. That is what is leading to low standards.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Emma Reynolds]

I will not, I am afraid, as I do not have much time left.

The Government really need to get a grip on standards in the private rented sector. I am glad to say that Labour councils are outbuilding Tory councils in terms of affordable homes, but the Government also need to do more centrally to lead the way.

In conclusion, the Government and the Conservative Mayor have not understood the scale of the housing crisis that we face, both here in the capital and across England. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition has announced that a Labour Government would boost house building and build at least 200,000 homes a year by 2020. We know that there are significant problems in the land market and in towns that are constrained because of the amount of land available—that is true for London, as well, given the amount of land available on which to build the number of homes Londoners need.

The housing crisis needs urgent action. The Minister needs to get a grip on the private rented sector and the lack of affordable homes in London, as well as the disastrous standards of some private rented homes. The Government need to take a long, hard look at what is happening with international investors, an example being the situation on The Bishops avenue, which was uncovered by The Guardian over the weekend and which has already been mentioned. That is scandalous. It distorts a market that is already failing to produce the affordable homes that Londoners need.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Slaughter]

Will the Minister give way?

[Jeremy Corbyn]

Will the Minister give way?

[Nick Boles]

May I make this clear? I am not giving way.

I want to address the subject of foreign buyers. Listening to Opposition Members’ speeches, one would think they wanted to prevent foreign buyers from buying London properties, which would be entirely logical given the shortage of properties. Then, listening to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East, one would think the Opposition were going to make it slightly more difficult to claim, by putting in a table or a chair, that a home was empty—