Banks: Bridging Finance

Lord Davies of Oldham Excerpts

Monday 20th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, yes, I completely agree. It is important that those housing associations that provide specialist housing designed for older people—one of which is chaired by my noble friend Lord Stoneham—are encouraged to grow so that we can have more appropriately designed and sized accommodation.

[Lord Davies of Oldham (Lab)]

My Lords, the House will have noticed the Government’s concern about this relatively marginal problem of the asset-rich. What about the asset-poor who are forced to downsize under government policy on the bedroom tax?

[Lord Newby]

The noble Lord knows that 1.7 million households are waiting for social housing in the UK, and the spare room subsidy is intended to help move people into accommodation in those circumstances. I think that he would agree with me that the fundamental challenge that we in all parties face is how to increase the flow of housing, not just in aggregate but so that it is designed to meet the different requirements of different groups, including the elderly.