Finance (No. 2) Bill

Stephen Pound Excerpts

Committee: 1st sitting: House of Commons
Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

With the lack of housing supply and the decrease in home ownership, we have seen the number of households in private rented accommodation soar to more than 5 million, and the figure is set to rise to 6 million by 2021. That would not be a problem if private landlords were forced to make their homes fit for human habitation and if, in an era when we are moving nearly 8 million households on to universal credit, we had landlords who had faith in the Government’s universal credit system. Landlords’ right of redress to reclaim rent arrears has been removed under universal credit, so it is no wonder that 73% of them do not feel comfortable that the Department for Work and Pensions will enable them to recoup their arrears.

[Stephen Pound (Ealing North) (Lab)]

I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me for interrupting her flow. She is making a precise and pertinent point. Would she not wish to encourage all people of good heart here present to support the Bill that has been presented by my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) on this very subject?

[Ruth George]

Absolutely. I hope that Members on both sides of the House will give their encouragement to that Bill so that we can make homes fit for human habitation.

On the subject of universal credit, whether or not homes are fit for human habitation, unfortunately landlords are not prepared to rent. A representative of a lettings agency came to my surgery just last week and showed me the books for its tenants. At the moment, 20 tenants are on universal credit—we still have not seen it rolled out—of whom 18, or 90%, are in huge arrears. Nine of them—45%—have had to be evicted because landlords cannot get any redress for arrears. They cannot afford to see those arrears build up. Now that they no longer claim mortgage interest relief, they know that they will have to pay a big tax bill come the end of January, so they need to ensure that they can make their homes pay.

This Government’s housing policy is simply racking up disaster on disaster. Homelessness is doubling and home ownership is falling, and universal credit is yet to come. We needed big ideas from the Chancellor, as the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government told him in no uncertain terms. We see nothing in this Bill but tinkering at the edges that will do nothing to help solve the enormous housing crisis in this country.