Housing

Debate between Mark Prisk and Jamie Reed

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[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.