Oral Answers to Questions

Paulette Hamilton Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2024 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Paulette Hamilton (Birmingham Erdington) (Lab)]

1. What steps her Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.

[Jessica Toale (Bournemouth West) (Lab)]

2. What steps her Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Angela Rayner)]

We will deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. The last Government’s affordable housing programme is expected to deliver only between 110,000 and 130,000 homes, although when it was published in 2020, the ambition was for 180,000. Labour is fixing that. The Chancellor announced in the Budget an immediate one-year cash injection of £500 million into the affordable homes programme to deliver 5,000 new social and affordable homes.

[Paulette Hamilton]

Many of my constituents in Birmingham Erdington are worried about the deteriorating quality of social housing. What work is being done to ensure that housing stock is maintained to the highest standards, so that tenants can live in the safe, high-quality housing that they deserve?

[Angela Rayner]

I know that housing quality has been a particular issue in my hon. Friend’s constituency. All social housing tenants deserve to live in a safe, decent home. We will bring forward Awaab’s law to the social rented sector, setting new time limits for social landlords to fix dangerous hazards. We will shortly consult on minimum energy efficiency standards and a new decent homes standard. We will direct the Regulator of Social Housing to introduce a new competence and conduct standard and an access to information requirement.