New Homes Commitment

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Tuesday 21st June 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

I think we need to find ways of coming up with new town projects but to do that we need the infrastructure, the transport, the roads and the rail, and that is why we recognise that a programme just to build homes is not enough. We need to get that in the round, and we are taking it forward as part of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill in this Session.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I was very pleased to hear the Minister say enthusiastically last night that we need more affordable housing and social housing, and that the Government were happy to look at ideas. There are currently 500 projects for community land trust homes, creating 7,000 new homes around the country. Will the Government look at how they can encourage further this model of providing homes in perpetuity, of a structure and type decided by local communities for local communities?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

I think there is quite a degree of interest in how community land trusts can operate; Coin Street is an example, and I believe there are other examples in Watford. We are happy to take all ideas, including how we can use community land trusts as a vehicle to deliver more affordable housing.

Private Rented Sector

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Monday 20th June 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

There are two parts to how the right reverend Prelate has put the question. The first is that we need to make sure that there is enough supply of social housing, otherwise people who should be in social housing rather than in private housing lose out. There is a real commitment in the affordable homes programme to deliver far more social rented homes: 32,000, which is double the amount of social rented homes in this period than in the previous one. On the cost of living, the best thing is to take action now, and there have been quite a few measures. Some are universal but some are aimed at pensioners; there is a separate one-off payment of £300 to 8 million pensioner households, and obviously there are the measures around people who require support around the costs of essentials. The Government have stepped in where there need to be specific measures, as well as universal measures around fuel bills. Equally, however, the right reverend Prelate is right that we need to ensure that we continue to build more homes and especially ensure that there are more social homes.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, tenants’ groups and campaigners say that they need three layers of foundation to give everyone the secure and stable home that they need. The first is decent structural condition, maintenance and repairs, and the second is not to be evicted unfairly. As other questioners have said, this White Paper makes considerable progress on both those areas. However, the third key part of the foundation according to renters’ groups is to have a home that you can afford. The Minister said that the Government were looking at rent controls and pointed back to the kind of rent controls that we had in the 1970s. However, are the Government prepared to consider different, more flexible, smarter forms of rent control? In Scotland, the Green Tenants’ Rights Minister is looking at ways in which rent controls can deliver what people actually need, which is rental costs that are not more than 25% of their income. Another way of looking at this might be that powers for rent control are given to mayors, like the Mayor of London and other regional and city mayors around the country. That would be a way of experimenting and working. How can the Government ensure that people can afford to rent, which is an essential foundation?

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[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

It is fair to say that we raised the local housing allowance and maintained that raise. What the noble Baroness is saying is that we have not increased it further. Let us give the Government credit for having raised it in the first place and having maintained it. The reality is that it goes back to getting the balance of tenures right. We have far too many people who cannot afford to live in market-rate accommodation and therefore they need taxpayer support. The housing benefit bill has effectively ballooned from when I was first a council leader from around £7 billion to around £30 billion, I think—or at least, that is what the projections are. That is completely unsustainable. We need more affordable housing and social housing to mitigate the unintended consequences of getting the taxpayer to fund these very high-cost homes for people who cannot afford to live in them. That is why there is a need to look at other ways of answering that point.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

I join the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, on the Minister’s celebration of social and genuinely affordable housing. In that case, why are we looking at extending the right to buy instead of ending that great privatisation of social and affordable housing?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

I can answer that very sincerely, having been a local authority leader in an area where one-third of the housing was social housing. It had very high levels of council and housing association housing. I start with a definition that social housing should be a springboard to home ownership, for those who want it to be. It should not just be a destination. The issue is that once you have got the receipt, it gets pocketed by the Treasury and not reinvested in social housing—something that the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, has raised before now. The Government are putting more flexibility in and allowing more money to go back into supply. There are strong arguments that all that money should go back in; therefore, you allow mobility and fluidity and create a springboard for those people who can afford to own their own homes. That is a great thing, which should be available to both council tenants and housing association tenants.

Public Services

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Tuesday 26th October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

I am not going to get into the use of consultants by a particular council, irrespective of the administration currently in control. A number of councils, both Conservative and Labour, have been subject to Secretary of State interventions because they have failed to fulfil their best-value duties. I point to the most recent intervention in Liverpool City Council, where, sadly, we have had to step in.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I declare my positions as a vice-president of the LGA and the NALC. Would the Minister agree that, in this age of shocks, when resilience is becoming more and more of a crucial issue—we addressed this in the last Question, on HGV drivers—eventually, if things go wrong and companies collapse, like Carillion, or fail to deliver services, as happened with the green homes grant, the Government have to step in and are always the final service of last resort? Surely we should stop pumping public money into private hands—taking all those risks of collapse that we have seen so often with private companies—cut out those extra costs and simply allow local governments to deliver services for local people?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, it will not surprise you that I do not agree with that. Some £64 billion-worth of money is being spent by local government on the delivery of very efficient services through the private sector, but you have to be very careful about how you engage. There are plenty of examples where local authorities have not used competitive tendering but have chosen to enter into partnerships, which have had tragic consequences in the last year because of the pandemic. So I encourage local authorities to be judicious, fulfil the guidelines that are supplied around procurement, go through sensitive competitive tendering and check the creditworthiness of those whom they choose to bring on board.

Rent Arrears: Covid-19

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Thursday 20th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I restate the Government’s position that we are not looking to encourage further debt. I also point to the statistics regarding homelessness. We have seen a 40% decrease in homelessness duty owed in the period between October 2020 and the same period in 2019. We are not seeing that massive spike in homelessness that has been alluded to.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, before the pandemic it was taking a median of 42 weeks for court cases to reach repossession. The mean length was nearer a year. Analysis suggests that the small number that are being processed now are taking nearly twice as long. The courts cannot cope with the likely flood, and the delays will greatly increase the stress, suffering and uncertainty for private tenants, and difficulty for landlords. Does the Minister agree that the pile-up of repossession cases in the courts is another argument for a grant scheme, ideally, or at least a loan scheme to rescue people from unpayable arrears, provide certainty and prevent delays?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I am not aware of a pile-up in the courts. Indeed, we have actually seen a massive drop in the number of repossession cases. It decreased to 262 repossessions in January to March 2021—a reduction of some 96%—and 214 local authorities had no landlord repossessions at all.

Rough Sleeping

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Tuesday 2nd March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, part of the ministerial working group is looking at the issue of rough sleepers in London who are former members of the Armed Forces. I pay tribute to the work of my honourable friend in the other place, Johnny Mercer. The key is to work with local authorities to identify those people so that we can get support services to them. The support services for our Armed Forces as well as for ex-offenders are in place; it is a question of ensuring that we identify those people so that we can wrap the service support around them.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my position as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. In the past hour, London has become the largest city in the world to call for a trial of universal basic income. An unconditional income sufficient to meet basic needs would be one way to ensure that no one ends up sleeping on the streets —that conditionality of benefits or insecurity of employment would not lead to eviction. As the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, said earlier, today’s figures report a fall in rough sleeping, but the future of rising unpayable debt, in particular among private tenants, looks grim. The Government keep saying that they will not introduce a national universal basic income, but will they support London and the 14 other local authorities that have voted for trials in their communities?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, it is indeed blue-sky thinking to guarantee someone an income that is paid by the state. I point out that in the pandemic we have seen the national debt increase substantially to the level of our economic output for a year, which is some £2.2 trillion. In that environment, it is very difficult to make these kinds of spending commitments, and I will certainly leave something like that to the Chancellor.

Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

I will have to write to the noble Lord about that. I did not quite catch his question, but I will make sure that we get a full and proper answer to him and put a copy in the Library.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my position as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. On the subject of local government finance, I am going back to two answers from the Government on 15 December to questions that I and the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, had asked, referring to the £500 self-isolation payment to people who were ordered to self-isolate due to Covid-19 exposure or infection. At that point it was clear that there was a postcode lottery, and some local authorities had run out so people were unable to get payment. On 15 December the Government gave two answers, one of which said there was a fixed envelope of money and implied that no more money would be given, while the other, from the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, said that this was under review. Has it been reviewed, and has the postcode lottery over the money being paid out by local government been fixed?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I am sure that my noble friend Lord Bethell is absolutely right and the matter is under review.

Towns Fund

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Thursday 19th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con) [V]]

My Lords, there is no doubt that regeneration involves physical regeneration, economic regeneration and social renewal. Women often play a bigger part than men in that process, from my experience in local government.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association.

Yesterday, the Government made an announcement acknowledging both the urgency of the climate emergency and their special global responsibility in chairing COP 26. If the Government are operating in a joined-up way, you would expect the towns fund money to be used for super-policies that have environmental benefits in addition to economic ones. Can the Minister tell me what percentage of spending addresses those goals?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I am happy to write to the noble Baroness on that point as I do not have those figures to hand.

Devolution in England

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, this is much more than simple decentralisation. Devolution has now occurred to eight mayoral combined authorities, which we see as driving forward the economic performance of the regions governed by those mayors. We will continue to build on those successes.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, the effectiveness of local contact tracing compared to the centralised system has been striking during the Covid-19 pandemic. Can the Minister tell me how the White Paper has been shaped and changed by things we have learned during the Covid-19 pandemic?

[Lord Greenhalgh (Con)]

My Lords, I am afraid that I cannot pre-empt the White Paper on that point, but there has been full consultation that will take in the lessons learned from the pandemic.

Devolution: England

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Tuesday 28th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh]

The devolution in England that we are seeking is through the local leadership afforded by local mayors rather than the regional devolution models of Scotland and Wales. That is the basis on which we will outline further measures in the White Paper this autumn.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my position as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, suggested that the Government should not impose a compulsory standardised model—indeed, reference has just been made to the way in which the devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales have worked so well. Will Her Majesty’s Government consider consulting local people, looking to far more democratic, proportional and fair voting systems—the systems that local people want to deliver—and not enforcing the kind of single, strong leader model that the noble Lord the Minister just referred to?

Covid-19: Local Government Finance

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Tuesday 7th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh]

We are aware of the specific problems with regard to Greater Manchester. These are being exacerbated by the loss of the dividends that it normally gets from the airport, which is clearly having an effect on local authority incomes. I can commit that the department will continue to work closely with Greater Manchester councils to ensure that if a bespoke package is needed, that will provided for them.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my position as a vice-president of the LGA. I welcome the £1.57 billion rescue package for the arts that the Government announced for theatres, galleries and museums, but can the Minister tell me how much of it will be distributed by local councils? In a normal year, they put more than £1 billion into the arts around the country. Can the Minister reassure me that this money will not go to just a few large institutions, particularly in London, but will be spread around the country through local councils, so that we can hope to rescue and protect wonderful institutions, such as the theatres in Southampton and Sheffield—where I am speaking from now—and little rural arts centres up and down the country?

[Lord Greenhalgh]

I can give a commitment that funding will extend beyond a few well-known names to the important local theatres and museums that are often supported by local authorities. I cannot give the noble Baroness the precise extent to be distributed via local authorities and will have to write to her with further information on that.

Planning Process: Probity

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Tuesday 16th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh]

Let us be clear. It was the letter from the department that was sent out on 14 January. The determination by the Secretary of State was made a considerable time before that—certainly before the end of the year—and the planning application went on to his desk with the planning casework in December. As the noble Baroness will know, only a small proportion of decisions have ministerial involvement. Of the 447,000 applications, we are talking about 26 ministerial decisions, which is a tiny fraction. There are many occasions when the Secretary of State will decide to go against the planning inspector or the local planning authority to encourage the supply side of development—so I do not recognise what the noble Baroness says.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my position as vice-president of the Local Government Association.

Does the Minister agree that cases such as this, in which the judge found apparent bias and ruled against the Government, fuel fears that the country is not being run for the common good, and that the underlying problem is large private political donations? Is not the only way to protect Ministers to ban large private political donations?

[Lord Greenhalgh]

This is about the probity of the planning system. It is quite right that currently we do not have taxpayer funding for political parties. All the fundraising by the Conservative Party adheres to the guidelines around donations. Ministers have no part in that. That is a topic for another day, but, regarding probity in this matter, it is absolutely clear that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State followed the guidance on planning propriety, as outlined by the department, every step of the way.

Covid-19: Local Democracy

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Wednesday 3rd June 2020 Lords Chamber

The Question was considered in a Virtual Proceeding via video call.

[The Minister of State, Home Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Lord Greenhalgh) (Con)]

The Government recognise the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic can have on the operation of local democracy. With the devolved Administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, they took action, including obtaining the necessary legislation, to postpone all local elections and polls until 6 May 2021 and to enable council meetings to be held remotely. In this way, councils can continue to operate in line with public health guidance and to uphold the principles of local democracy.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

The Minister refers to legislation and enabling councils to act, but what are the Government doing to ensure that that local democracy is functioning? Councils’ activities seem to range very widely: some are holding full meetings and planning inquiries at which members of the public are able to participate fully, but there are others, such as Peterborough, where the opposition is appealing for a full council meeting. What do the Government intend to do to encourage support and ensure that local democracy takes place, and will they listen to what those democratic considerations come up with and ensure that that guides government policy at Westminster level?

[Lord Greenhalgh]

Meetings can be held remotely, including via telephone conferencing, videoconferencing, live web chat and live streaming. The noble Baroness is right in that there has been a difference in response. As a former council leader, I know that my own local authority has decided to cancel its AGM meeting in May, whereas other London councils continue to elect mayors and carry out their annual general meetings. The noble Baroness should note that these are devolved administrations, and guidance is available through the LGA, whose website contains best practice guidance. However, we will continue to note where councils are not continuing to function as they should according to the regulations.

Covid-19: Housing

Debate between Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle and Lord Greenhalgh

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenhalgh]

I understand that the proposals do extend to the vulnerable, but it is their decision as to whether they go ahead. However, I will write to the noble Lord and place a copy of my specific answer in the Library.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

The noble Baroness, Lady Grender, referred to the tragic death toll from Covid-19 among construction workers. Does the Minister agree that that is just one sign of a deeply unhealthy industry that is built quite literally on the backs of the 60% of manual construction workers who are in self-employment, very often bogus self-employment, where they are actually working for just one company under its direction and with dictated rates of pay? Will the Government look to build a different kind of construction sector, one that focuses on decent pay and conditions and that looks towards moving towards modern, modular construction whereby most of the work can be done in factories and therefore in far better conditions than being out in all weathers?

[Lord Greenhalgh]

We need to ensure that construction happens safely. That is why we have engaged with the Construction Leadership Council which has issued guidance on safe construction. We also work with the Home Builders Federation. It is important to ensure that the guidance is followed and we are encouraging the whole construction industry to sign up to the guidance that has been issued by the HBF.