Home Building Target Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Lord Stoneham of Droxford
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Home Building Target
Lord Stoneham of Droxford Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)
My Lords, I declare my interests as listed in the register. Given the dire state of the housing market, surely the response should be, “Yes Minister”—a very brave Minister retaining the target. Can the Minister reassure the House that to get construction moving, the Government will give priority to encouraging private sector investment in social housing, rather than relying on Help to Buy schemes, which normally end up with higher prices?
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
I am keen to encourage as much investment in the delivery of social and affordable homes as we can. When I did a workshop on this in the City, there was a great appetite for patient capital investment in social housing. I hope we will be able to encourage that. We have reviewed the Help to Buy system, as the noble Lord, Lord Young, indicated. We are working through whether that is the right way to go. There were some issues with the previous Help to Buy scheme. We continue to explore ways to deliver more housing. Certainly, I would encourage investment in this.