Rachael Maskell
Main Page: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Mr Jones
I think that the hon. Lady is misguided: some of that money is extra money. She has, however, drawn attention to the fact that we are working very closely with my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and the Treasury to put right the mess that her party left when it was in government.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
11. What steps his Department is taking to encourage the building of homes for social rent.
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)
15. What steps his Department is taking to encourage the building of homes for social rent.
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Brandon Lewis)
Since 2010 we have delivered 270,000 affordable homes, including about 200,000 rental homes, and the spending review committed £1.6 billion to the delivery of 160,000 further affordable homes.
Rachael Maskell
Let me ask the Minister a specific question about new-build social housing. My local authority and housing associations say that, because they cannot afford to develop social housing on Network Rail and council land—public land—they will develop up to 2,500 high-value units. However, we have a serious social housing crisis. How will the Minister ensure that councils and housing associations can afford to build homes for social rent to match local needs?
Brandon Lewis
If the hon. Lady compares what was done between 1997 and 2010 with our record, she will see that the number of council social homes being built roughly doubled under a Conservative-led Government. We are building social homes at the fastest rate for about 20 years. Housing associations had a £2.4 billion surplus last year, and local authorities have over £3 billion of headroom. We are working with them, and encouraging them to use their money to build the homes that we want to be built so that we can deliver more homes than the last Government left us.