New Housing Supply
Debate between Mark Pawsey and Nick Raynsford
Mr Raynsford
I am interested by the agreement between the coalition partners but it reinforces my point about the lack of certainty being a deterrent.
Mark Pawsey
The right hon. Gentleman referred earlier to the regional spatial strategies. Does he consider them a success?
Mr Raynsford
When the regional spatial strategies were in place, the housing output was substantially higher than we are seeing now. Government Members sometimes forget that from 2000 to 2007, before the impact of the recession, there was continuing year-on-year growth in the supply of housing. It reached 180,000 new starts in 2007, since when it fell—not because of planning but because of the recession—so that we are now seeing starts of fewer than 100,000. I would not say that the regional spatial strategies were entirely satisfactory, but the output of housing under them was substantially higher than it is today.
I have spent too long, I think, on those issues and I need to move on. Behind the statistics I have talked about are a huge number of human tragedies: all the young families unable to get a home within their means, all the people trapped in hopelessly overcrowded or squalid conditions, the huge numbers languishing on local authority housing waiting lists and the number of homeless households, which has been rising again after many years in the noughties during which the numbers came down.
Quite apart from the human consequences, there are economic consequences, too. As our economy is in difficulty— everyone who has spoken has acknowledged that housing has a critical role to play in helping to boost the economy—we must consider ways of helping to increase the output of housing. What should we do? First, we must ensure that the economic climate is one in which people can feel more confident about investing, in which people are willing to buy homes and in which house builders are willing to invest more in development. That is fundamental. Whatever else we do will make some difference, but it will not make an adequate difference if the economy is not strong. We need to turn around the economy first of all.
Secondly, we must ensure that housing is directly assisted by measures that can ensure that confidence returns and that houses are provided by developers and bought by people who want to get a mortgage. I have talked about the tight restrictions on mortgage availability and the fact that it seems to me that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction after the boom years when the restrictions were excessively loose. We must send a powerful message that the test should be whether people have the means and the capacity to repay the debt, rather than the loan-to-value percentage that is too often used in a mechanistic way by lenders to determine credit-worthiness. If we focused more on people’s ability to repay, we could relax some of the restrictions that prevent people without the adequate means for a deposit from getting into owner-occupation.
We also need to do a lot more to assist those people who cannot afford outright home ownership but would be happy to buy a share in a property. Over 30-odd years, various schemes for shared ownership, shared equity and low-cost home ownership have had some success, but they have tended to be marginal. Although NewBuy and Firstbuy are perfectly admirable schemes in their way, they are still relatively marginal. The Prime Minister talked about NewBuy helping 100,000 people when it was launched, so when we hear from the hon. Member for Meon Valley that some 3,000 homes have been delivered so far that puts it in context. It is important and significant, but it is relatively marginal.
We must also ensure that there are other options to help people who are not looking for a new home purchase. I am cautious about the idea of extending the NewBuy formula to existing homes. I think about—I am sorry, it is one of the problems of being old—a scheme known as DIYSO, do-it-yourself shared ownership. Those who have long memories of housing will recall it. It was very popular. People liked the idea of being able to go out and select their own home and get a shared-ownership mortgage on that home. It did, however, prove extremely expensive. It also had an element of risk because there was no guarantee that it would be a newly completed home that was subject to the various checks that apply to a new home. In some cases the properties that were being bought under the DIYSO scheme were not suitable. I can hear the attraction of the message. I read it, like the hon. Member for Meon Valley, in today’s Financial Times, but I caution against putting too many eggs in that basket. However, it is important that we renovate existing homes and make them available for people, possibly through shared-ownership/shared-equity means, as well as building new homes.
I shall talk briefly about energy efficiency and housing. This is an area where there has been a great deal of poor information, inadequate information and prejudice. I feel very nervous that the voices that are hostile to improving the energy efficiency of housing are getting in the ascendancy. Some rather pernicious views are being put forward that somehow this is putting an impossible burden on house builders. The example that I will take is a simple one. It is a scheme known as AIMC4, which has been put together with the participation of some of the largest house builders, including Barratt. The purpose was to demonstrate that they could build a code level 4 home under the code for sustainable homes for no more than the cost of a code level 3 home. That scheme has succeeded; they have demonstrated that it is possible.
That is the challenge we should adopt to ensure that our new homes are built to a high standard, that they achieve energy efficiency, that they contribute to our commitments to reducing global warming and that they do so in an economic and cost-effective way. We should not to try to ditch the whole commitment to the greening of our existing housing stock and improving the standard of our new housing. That is a very important message. Also, there is the economic message that this will help the economy, because green investment and the development of some of the industries that will support more energy-efficient housing will be helpful to the UK economy.
I agree very much with the hon. Member for Meon Valley about the importance of housing for older people and providing them with appropriate housing which, in turn, can release homes that are currently under-occupied. There is something rather unfortunate about a Government demonising many tenants in social housing who are occupying one bedroom more than they might need, on some pretty tight definitions of need, when two children of the same sex are expected to share a bedroom right up to the age of 16, and two children of different sexes under the age of 10 are expected to share a single bedroom, so no single bedrooms for children are allowed.
That definition is being used to justify some pretty punitive cuts in benefit while at the same time there is a huge level of under-occupation among older people, particularly in the owner-occupied sector but also in the rented sector, on which no action is being taken. That seems to me to be unfair and it is a policy that will not achieve the effect that it should.
Mark Pawsey
The right hon. Gentleman and I had an exchange on this at the Chartered Institute of Housing event only yesterday. The fact that my local authority will benefit from the new homes bonus has greatly contributed to local people accepting the principle of a substantial new housing development in the community. That is not included in the right hon. Gentleman’s figures because the application has not yet come in, but it will benefit my community because the local authority will have the funds generated by the new homes bonus to put towards facilities for the community as a whole. That is one reason why it is taking a while; the applications have not yet come in. The right hon. Gentleman needs to be rather more patient than he has been so far.
Mr Raynsford
As I said to the hon. Member for Meon Valley, let us look at that in a year’s time, when we will have more evidence. However, I must say that it is taking a very long time for something that is supposedly, to use the Government’s own phrase, a “powerful incentive” for authorities to give planning consent for new housing. I hear what the hon. Gentleman says about his local authority, but I am afraid that the figures do not support his optimism. For the 17 authorities that have received the largest amount of new homes bonus—this is all based on an answer to a parliamentary question I asked the Housing Minister earlier this year—the level of major residential schemes getting planning consent in 2011-12 was 607, compared with 969 in 2005-06, a 37% reduction and 10% below the previous year, so there was no growth at all. It does not look convincing for a very large outlay of public money. The £3.3 billion, if it were applied to direct investment in new housing, would certainly be likely to achieve far better consequences.
I put it to the Government that if they are keen to stimulate house building and the economy, greater investment in housing will be necessary. What has been put forward by the Select Committee and argued for by Members on both sides of the House this afternoon is a way forward that could get us out of the mess we are in and ensure an increased level of house building. That will meet important social needs and help to revive our economy. The case for it is overwhelming. I sincerely hope that the Government will recognise that the current policy is not the right way forward. We need a change of policy and we need some of the policies we have been talking about today to be put into effect to secure that increase in house building.