Home Building Target Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Lord Best
Main Page: Lord Best (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Best's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
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Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
On the noble Lord’s first question, the Prime Minister was talking about support between local authorities and housing associations. It is important that we have good collaboration between the two partners in delivering social housing. I look forward to a very productive relationship between local government and our registered providers. I do not believe that it will lower the number of houses that can be delivered, particularly as we now have the National Housing Bank that this Government brought in. I will write to the noble Lord on his second question.
Lord Best (CB)
I am afraid that we are not going to make the 1.5 million new homes target, but we can pull out all the stops and get as near as possible to it. Can the Minister prevail on her ministerial colleagues to commit rather more of the £39 billion that has been set aside to social housing? We can get on with that at a time when the private market is in the doldrums. There are lots of opportunities to help the construction industry get on with the social housing programme, which is so important.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
We committed to delivering a stretch target of 1.5 million homes. We know it is a stretch target, but it is better to aim high in this respect. We have already announced, in August, the first tranche of the £39 billion of funding for social housing. We will move forward with the following tranches as quickly as possible.