Mark Prisk
Main Page: Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
The Minister for Housing (Mr Mark Prisk)
I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “House” to the end of the Question and add:
“welcomes the first Opposition Day debate on housing in this Parliament; notes that house building under the previous administration fell to its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s; further notes that house building starts in England were 29 per cent higher in 2011 compared with 2009; believes there is still more to do to get Britain building; further notes that housing is the most affordable for first-time buyers for a decade and mortgage payments are the lowest since 1997 as a direct consequence of the decisive action to tackle the deficit brought about by the previous administration; notes that the Coalition Government’s affordable housing programme will deliver 170,000 affordable homes by 2015 and leverage £19.5 billion of investment; and welcomes the steps being taken to increase house building and unlock stalled sites and the comprehensive programme to get empty homes back into productive use.”
Well, it has taken the Opposition two years. I am referring not to the speech of the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey) but to the fact that today I can welcome their finally having taken such an interest in housing that they have decided to hold their first Opposition day debate on it in this Parliament. Two and a half years and not a peep from them. I understand the hyperbole and enthusiastic language of the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington, but the fact that they have not been able to come up with their own debates about housing shows just how interested they are in the subject.
I thank the hon. Gentleman, of course, for giving me this opportunity on what is effectively my first day in the job to explain how the Government will reverse the housing problems that we inherited. However, I thought he was a little uncharitable about my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps), whom I thank. He showed a unique enthusiasm and energy, which I hope to match. As the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington said, I am a modest man. It was once said that if somebody is modest in politics it is possibly because they have a lot to be modest about, but I hope to be able to match my predecessor’s energy and ensure that we reverse the problems that we inherited from the last Government.
Mr Prisk
With respect, I would like to try to respond to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington, and a lot of Members want to speak. I will give way in a moment, but I wish to canter through my speech, because this debate should be for Back Benchers as much as Front Benchers.
I note with interest a whole series of assertions in the Opposition’s motion. However, the fact cannot be ignored that under the Labour Government, house building fell to the lowest peacetime level since the 1920s. Labour had its nine different Ministers, its top-down targets and its 10 different housing Acts, but for all that activity it delivered very little. Maybe that is why it has taken it two and a half years to muster up the courage to have a debate on the subject.
In contrast, the current Government ensured that house building starts in England were 29% higher in 2011 than in 2009. Our No. 1 priority is to ensure that we reduce the Labour deficit and get the economy growing. We want to help local business people build vibrant neighbourhoods, set people free to create the places where they want to live and give them back the control of the planning system that they lost under the last Administration.
Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)
Does the new Housing Minister agree with the new planning Minister, who said that the Government should introduce a land tax?
Mr Prisk
If I have learnt anything on the first day, it is to stick to the information in front of me and not engage in idle speculation. I have yet not had the opportunity to meet the new planning Minister.
The hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington was right to emphasise the economic issue—he and I know that from our backgrounds. The housing market has the potential to be a catalyst for the economy. For every 100,000 homes built, about 1% is added to GDP. The industry is labour intensive and it is important to ensure that that economic benefit is there.
Mr Betts
I congratulate the Minister on his appointment. Reference has been made to his predecessor’s gold standard, which he set out in a Select Committee hearing in response to a question that I asked. The Government agreed to a target of building more houses a year than the previous Government built before the recession. Is that still the Government’s target?
Mr Prisk
We are not in a position to take the view that we want to determine how the market works. We have Government programmes, and we will set targets for them that we can deliver. However, unlike the Labour party, we do not believe that Whitehall’s job is to run the marketplace. I want to ensure that, when the Labour party thinks about those issues, it recognises that the Government are committed to increasing the supply of housing and, as the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington mentioned, to addressing the long-standing, cross-party, intergenerational issue of affordable housing.
Last November, we introduced an ambitious package of measures through the housing strategy to boost house building. However, unlike the Labour party, we know that we cannot achieve that by trying to control the market from Whitehall. The old system of setting top-down targets for housing, with reams of planning guidance, did not deliver the houses we need or the places that people wish to live in. Our strategy is deliberately different from that. Instead of setting a top-down target from Whitehall, it is designed to lay the foundations for a systematic shift in the way in which the housing markets work.
Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)
In my constituency, homelessness is rising sharply. It has the biggest gap in the country between the average salary and the average house price. Will the Minister write to me about what specific help the Government can give me and my constituents to try to resolve that problem?
Mr Prisk
I will go further than that. I will meet the hon. Gentleman. It is my first day in this position and I want to know and understand the issues. My diary secretary may regret that, as I suspect that other Members will try to get in the queue. However, I would like to understand the issue before commenting on it.
Not adopting the top-down approach works in practice. For example, our investment of £4.5 billion in funding new affordable homes over the spending review period levers in £15 billion from the private sector to deliver those properties. That makes a total investment of £19.5 billion in new affordable housing, which will help us deliver 170,000 affordable homes by the end of the Parliament.
The Homes and Communities Agency has now reported that it has exceeded its targets for affordable housing this year, achieving a total of 51,665 affordable homes in England. Contracts have been signed for affordable house building in all parts of the country and across councils of all political colours.
Affordable housing is at the heart of our agenda. We have consciously sought to introduce initiatives to ensure that housing is the most affordable for first-time buyers for a decade. Mortgage payments are the lowest for 15 years as a direct result of our action to tackle Labour’s deficit. In July, Halifax noted that housing was now the most affordable for first-time buyers for a decade. Conservative Members are and should be proud of that record.
As the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington said, of course the challenge for first-time buyers is getting a mortgage. We understand that, and that is why we have launched the NewBuy scheme, which provides guarantees for mortgages of up to 95% loan to value for new build properties. That has already given a helping hand to prospective buyers who were otherwise frozen out of the housing market. The Home Builders Federation has estimated that NewBuy could deliver up to 25,000 additional new homes over three years.
The Government also introduced the Firstbuy scheme. Labour Members claim that we are not doing enough and criticise the initiatives. They need to decide what they actually want. The Firstbuy scheme supports capacity in the house building sector and is assisting almost 10,500 first-time buyers to purchase new build property in England by spring 2013. Interestingly, demand for the Firstbuy scheme has been strong. Official statistics published by the HCA show there had already been 3,000 Firstbuy sales by the end of March 2012, which is good progress.
Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)
I join my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey) in congratulating the Minister on his appointment, but will the Minister confirm the level of cuts applied to the affordable housing budget by the coalition Government?
Mr Prisk
With respect to the hon. Lady, the idea that budgets across the Government are impervious to or not involved with the deficit we have faced—[Interruption.] She has highlighted a point not only about the overall housing budget but about how that money is used. The point I was trying to make is that when dealing with affordable housing, it is not just about every pound we spend but about how we lever in other private sector funds, which is important. It is peculiar that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington applauded that principle a moment ago.
We have reinvigorated the right to buy—supporting social tenants who want to own their own home. That is a policy of which the Government can, and should, be proud. We have reversed Labour’s cuts, and increased the right-to-buy discount cap to £75,000 across England from April. For the first time, every additional home sold under the right-to-buy scheme will be replaced by a new home for affordable rent, with receipts from sales recycled across the cost of replacement. I wish that the cultural opposition of Labour Members to this issue would reflect the reality. The right to buy promotes mixed communities and gives social tenants a financial stake in the well-being of their neighbourhood.
The hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington mentioned the right to buy, and he might now be able to help. My understanding is that the Labour group on the Local Government Association opposed the right-to-buy scheme.
Jack Dromey
I am glad to answer: Labour is the party of aspiration. We support the right to buy, but the Government’s approach is fundamentally flawed, first because local authorities will not be able to retain all the receipts, and secondly because thus far it is inexplicable—perhaps the Minister can help—how the one-for-one promise will be delivered. Thirdly, there is absolutely no guarantee that if a home is sold in my constituency of Erdington, where there is a long waiting list, a new home will be built in Erdington. There are fundamental question marks about the Government’s approach.
Mr Prisk
I think that was, “Yes but, no but, yes but, no but.” It is interesting; I am delighted and will obviously want to talk to the LGA group to see if it shares the hon. Gentleman’s view. I hope it is the case that the entire Labour party will adopt the right-to-buy scheme and recognise that we should all be standing behind aspiring tenants. I would love to be a fly on the wall at the hon. Gentleman’s next meeting with the LGA Labour group.
Let me move on to the issue of building new homes. I am alert to the fact that time has passed, and I wish to ensure that Back-Bench Members have the opportunity to speak, especially given the ruling from Mr Deputy Speaker. In many parts of the country, there is a difficult housing market. We are under no illusions about that and one has only to look around the world to see housing markets in real difficulties. Much of that is a result of the financial consequences of the housing boom and bust that took place under the previous Administration.
That is why we have launched the £570 million Get Britain Building investment fund that will unlock stalled sites for up to 16,000 homes and hopefully create up to 30,000 jobs. In addition—we have had a lot of support from many Back-Bench Labour Members on this—we set up the £770 million Growing Places fund for local enterprise partnership areas to fund infrastructure projects that will help to unlock some of the more troublesome sites.
We are accelerating the release of surplus Government-owned land, with capacity to deliver up to 100,000 new homes on brownfield land to the benefit of communities around the country. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington mentioned that point, and I shall look again at his representations. I must ask, however, why over 13 years the previous Labour Government did not do that already? Why did they wait until they were in Opposition and then try to lecture us on what should happen in the future? It is a shame, but I would always be happy to hear a positive representation on the issue.
Bill Esterson
I welcome the Minister to his new post. Does he agree with the Prime Minister and Chancellor on the need to build on green belt, especially given that his 2005 ten-minute rule Bill specifically showed his opposition to that? Does he agree with the Prime Minister and Chancellor or does he stand by what he said seven years ago?
Mr Prisk
The Prime Minister and Chancellor are not saying that. If I have learned anything, it is not to believe everything I read in the newspapers.
Alongside the measures I have just described, it is important to ensure that we help local areas, but not in the same way as the previous Government. For example, we could help those local areas that wish to deliver locally led large-scale new developments in a way that helps their communities. Unlike the previous Government, whose eco-towns were promised and never happened, this Government do not intend to dictate to people or impose on them. We want to work with them, which is an important principle.
Let me give an example of how that policy has worked. I pay tribute to my predecessor, because last week, the Government helped to unlock plans for 23,000 homes on the brownfield site of Eastern Quarry in Ebbsfleet. Those plans had been stuck on the drawing board for a decade, but the homes can now be built.
Gareth Johnson (Dartford) (Con)
That development, which is on a brownfield site in my constituency, is for 10,000 homes, which makes it one of the largest developments in Europe. Is the Minister aware that the idea was conceived in 1996, but that not one single home was built in the following 13 years? Only now are we seeing action on the Eastern Quarry development in Ebbsfleet.
Simon Hughes
I welcome the Minister to his new post and the Government’s commitment to delivering the housing that Britain needs. May I alert him to one issue we need to address? Recent figures show a lot of investment in housing that is for use not by occupants, but as investments by companies around the world. Properties are being built and bought, but not put into use. We need to ensure that the properties that will be built will be available for people to live in, and not held empty as investments to make money, which often goes abroad.
Mr Prisk
That is a perfectly sensible point, but I want to look at it in a little more detail and get to understand the issue. I am a chartered surveyor, so have perhaps the dangerous quality of a little knowledge of the subject I deal with as a Minister, but I want to ensure I understand the aspect to which the right hon. Gentleman refers, because the way in which the market works has changed.
With respect to interventions, many hon. Members wish to speak in the debate, so I shall make some remarks on the important issue of homelessness and then conclude. We want to ensure that we tackle homelessness and the problems of the most vulnerable. As the right hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members have said, the problem has been with us for many years. All Governments need to ensure that they are positive and determined to tackle the problem, but they also need to reflect on the fact that outside issues and complex causes underlie homelessness. I want to look, for example, at ex-service personnel and other groups with regard to homelessness, even if the Government have made important steps before I was able to take on the role of Housing Minister.
It is important to bear in mind that the statistics are not quite as bad as the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington painted—he was a little unnecessarily partisan. The statistics show us that homelessness is half the level it reached under the previous Labour Government and that it remains lower than in 28 of the past 30 years. I am under no illusion that there are things to do, but we have one of the strongest safety nets in the world to protect families and vulnerable households from losing their home. In addition, through the Government’s measures, councils have been able to help more than 13,000 vulnerable households to secure alternative accommodation when faced with the prospect of homelessness.
We are already taking action to help 50,000 households in temporary accommodation—all hon. Members will know of that challenge from constituents in that situation who have come to see them. We have consulted on a new power that will allow local authorities to use the private rented sector to house homeless families. That will mean shorter waiting times for homeless households and less time in temporary accommodation. Those with young children in particular will want the time they spend in temporary accommodation to be reduced—that is important.
I shall conclude now in order to allow as many Back Benchers as possible to contribute to the debate. The Government are working hard to substantially increase the supply of housing, from the low point of 2008-09. Our housing strategy combines practical measures with an understanding that Whitehall cannot, and should not, try to control the housing markets. Our work in helping first-time buyers, in freeing up the planning system and in unlocking stalled sites is all part of our commitment to enable more homes to be built. But we are not complacent. The global financial squeeze is continuing to impact. That is why, later this week, the Government will have more to say about how we can accelerate the progress already made in housing and infrastructure.
By tackling the deficit, we have built the foundation for a sustainable economy. We are now focused on getting houses built, providing more affordable homes and making sure that home ownership is affordable once again. I commend the Government’s amendment to the House.
Chris Williamson
With all due respect to the Minister, I know it is his first day but it is his party that is in government, his party that is responsible for this housing crisis, his party that is presiding over a huge increase in homelessness and a significant rise in rough sleeping, and his party that is catastrophically failing in its duty to provide the houses that people need in this country.
What do the Government do in response to this huge and growing crisis and massive demand for housing? Rather than build the homes that people need, they tinker with measures that deny housing benefit to people under 25, inflict a crude housing benefit cap and impose a bedroom tax on people deemed to be under-occupying their homes, forcing people up to the age of 35 to live in a single room if they happen to be on a low income.
The human cost of the calamity with which we are faced as a consequence of the failure of the Government’s economic and housing policies is tragic and shameful. More people are homeless as a direct consequence of their policies, and more people are having to sleep on the street—as I mentioned, rough sleeping is increasing. This is completely unacceptable in the 21st century in one of the richest nations on the planet. I just hope that the new Housing Minister is not blinded by the failed ideology that resulted in the abject failure of his predecessor.
The country is crying out for, and demands, real action now, not more meaningless initiatives. We need a clear plan, because plan A has totally failed. The new Minister said that he was committed to increasing housing supply. I hope that he can deliver on that. We need a new tax on bankers’ bonuses to build tens of thousands of new homes, and we need a cut in VAT on home improvements to help people undertake that work and generate more jobs. These are the sorts of measures contained in our motion and that would give a boost to the construction industry. I therefore commend the motion to the House.
Mr Prisk
I am delighted to respond to this debate. It has been constructive and timely in a number of ways—from my personal point of view and in terms of the Government’s programme—and I would like to congratulate right hon. and hon. Members on what has been a genuinely positive and constructive debate. I want to respond to some of the positive ideas raised, because it is an important part of my learning curve and so that we can tackle a problem with which, as several Members have said, many Governments have been faced. The hyperbolic contributions from Opposition Members do not help us to find a meaningful and lasting solution. I have already outlined the steps that the Government have taken to address the previous Government’s failure to deliver sufficient housing supply. I want now to address some of the specific points that have been raised and that Members have asked me to touch on. After that, I shall conclude in the time left to me.
We began with the contribution from the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), who, to be fair, accepted that the Labour Government failed in several areas. I accept the point about self-build, however, and want to consider it further, because it is an interesting idea. Several Select Committee members have recommended that I read their report. I do not know whether they are on a bonus or chasing a sales target, but I am more than happy to look at it, because it is an important issue.
I draw attention, in particular, to the contribution from my good friend, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill). I would like to put on the record my personal tribute to him. The House knows that he was a hard-working Minister, experienced and courteous to the House—a lesson that I shall try to follow. He worked on Ebbsfleet, as did my right hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps), where 23,000 houses went un-built in the 13 years of the last Labour Government. My hon. Friend ensured that those houses can now be built. He was right to say that Labour Front Benchers are unfortunately suffering from what one can only describe as collective amnesia. Now they talk highly about helping our councils, but they forget that they spent 13 years trammelling local councils and preventing them from doing what they want to do. We are changing that; that is what the Localism Act 2011 is all about.
I thought the hon. Member for Halifax (Mrs Riordan) was a little negative. She omitted to mention the contributions in transportation, infrastructure investment or the £770 million in the Growing Places fund—if I may, I shall come back briefly to discuss Halifax in a moment.
My hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) highlighted the fact that this is a long-term issue. She asked about the empty homes package, which is a package of £160 million. I am pleased to say that we are scrapping the old top-down pathfinder targets, which sought to demolish houses. We are looking to ensure that we refurbish them. I also very much welcome her comments about the new homes bonus.
A number of Members mentioned social housing issues. I will want to look at them, but to do so in the two minutes I have left would be to treat them inadequately, as they are deep and sustained issues.
Let me turn the underlying economic issue. My hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley (George Hollingbery) hit the nail on the head. He was absolutely right to say that we have recognised that ensuring that we deal with the deficit is what keeps interest rates low. For many of our constituents—indeed, for millions of households—ensuring that interest rates remain lower for longer is vital to their being able to continue to afford their homes.
My hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey) talked about how the new Gateway site is a good example of a project that is progressing.
The right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr Raynsford) is an experienced Member in this field. We disagree on a number of areas, and he will not be surprised to know that the new homes bonus is one of them. Indeed, he might like to know—he might also wish to debate this with the hon. Member for Halifax—that Calderdale council is receiving £1.7 million from that bonus for 550 new builds. I suspect that there may be an element of tension on the Labour Back Benches.
My hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Mr Spencer) talked about the important issue of ensuring that brownfield sites are developed, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke). Getting the balance right between greenfield and brownfield sites is difficult. Wearing my old surveyor’s hat, I want to look at the issue further. As a practitioner, I dealt with how we regenerate brownfield sites back in the 1980s and 1990s. I want to look at the issue, and I would ask my right hon. and hon. Friends to write to me about it.
Let me turn, finally, to a couple of the last points that were raised. My hon. Friend the Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson) was absolutely right that we are determined to ensure that we get house building numbers right, and that we should develop and build on that and reverse the problems we faced under the last Labour Government. However, we should not ignore quality. That is an important point. Quality and design; places that people want to live in; the use of the vernacular—these are important as we think about how to ensure that we provide the appropriate homes.
To conclude, the Government are working hard to increase substantially the supply of housing from the low point of the last Labour Government. Our housing strategy combines practical measures with an understanding that Whitehall cannot and must not try to control the housing markets. Our work in helping first-time buyers, simplifying the planning system and unlocking stalled sites is all part of our commitment to enable more homes to be built. By tackling the deficit we have built the foundation for a sustainable economy. We are now focused on getting houses built.
Ms Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central) (Lab)
claimed to move the closure (Standing Order No. 36).
Question put forthwith, That the Question be now put.
Question agreed to.
Question put accordingly (Standing Order No. 31(2)), That the original words stand part of the Question.
The House proceeded to a Division.