Home Building Target

Debate between Baroness Taylor of Stevenage and Lord Bishop of Hereford

Tuesday 15th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am keen to encourage as much investment in the delivery of social and affordable homes as we can. When I did a workshop on this in the City, there was a great appetite for patient capital investment in social housing. I hope we will be able to encourage that. We have reviewed the Help to Buy system, as the noble Lord, Lord Young, indicated. We are working through whether that is the right way to go. There were some issues with the previous Help to Buy scheme. We continue to explore ways to deliver more housing. Certainly, I would encourage investment in this.

[The Lord Bishop of Hereford]

My Lords, many villages are increasingly unable to retain young families, agricultural workers and other key members of the rural workforce because of a shortage of affordable homes. As the Government pursue their housebuilding target, how will they ensure that rural communities remain sustainable local economies, rather than becoming places local people are priced out of?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

There are a number of issues that we need to address. One is the rural homes exception, which we have thought about. Local authorities need to make sure that they have enough rural housing in their local plans. We need to make sure that we have rural homes exception policies, so that local people can determine what housing is built where. There is also the issue of making sure the services are there to support rural housing. All these issues are important, and we must bring those together as we make sure there is sufficient housing in rural areas.