Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Greg Clark and Boris Johnson
Greg Clark
The Labour party’s approach, not just in this area, but to our devolution proposals, is genuinely disappointing. I and my colleagues have found that it is entirely possible to talk to and to come to consensual agreement with people who have the same interests as us. The Labour party, however, seems to set its face both against that kind of dialogue, whether it relates to devolution or the matter under discussion, and against our approach to establishing consensus on the best way forward.
Boris Johnson
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the arguments he is making. Does he not find it perverse and incredible that the opposition to extending the right to buy to people on low incomes in this country should be mounted not just by the Labour party, but by people who are overwhelmingly owner-occupiers of their own homes?
Greg Clark
My hon. Friend makes a very important point. For anyone who has any doubt about the policy’s personal impact, I will illustrate it by reading an email I received from a young mother on the day on which our right-to-buy agreement with housing associations was announced last month. She wrote that,
“during the middle of the economic crisis in 2009…I was…made redundant from a job that I had been in for twelve years. I was left with a six year old, a three year old and a newborn baby and life was pretty much as grim as it could get.
For the past five years I have lived in a housing association home. At the time—it was very much a lifeline and I am enormously grateful for the safety, security and peace-of-mind that it brought me.”
She went on to say that,
“up until April of this year—I had simply accepted that this was my life now and would always be. I would forevermore be ‘just about’ comfortable: ‘just about’ paying the bills, ‘just about’ paying for Christmas. ‘Just about’ living.
But in late April that completely changed for me. I heard somewhere that the Conservatives were going to allow housing association tenants the right to buy their own home…I had completely written off ever being able to achieve that goal.
I voted Conservative in May because of that hope.”
She continued:
“I watched and read intently all about the Conservative’s crazy, ridiculous policy. I read the negative fall-out from Housing Associations, from Labour, from literally everywhere…And of course—all of these associations, politicians, media have far bigger voices than people like me. By September I had resigned myself to the fact that this looked like a lost-cause.
I am absolutely eternally grateful to everyone in the Conservative government that helped push this forward. I absolutely cannot wait until the point, hopefully in 2016, where I can be holding the keys to the house that I own. A house that will be my savings for the future. A house that will allow me to pass something onto my three girls.
Please, please pass on my very heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved in ensuring this was made a reality. For me, it’s life-changing.”
As this lady made clear, this policy, agreed with the housing associations, is giving people up and down the country the chance to fulfil a dream they thought was beyond them. As my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) said, it is disappointing, therefore, that the Opposition are turning their backs on such people’s aspirations and trying to take away the hope of home ownership that they have nurtured and which the Bill introduces.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Debate between Greg Clark and Boris Johnson(8 years, 10 months ago)
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Greg Clark
The hon. Gentleman makes a reasonable point in a reasonable way. He is absolutely right, which is why article 4 directions are expressly available to local authorities to make sure that land is kept for a particular use where it is important to do so.
Some of the proposals will be contained in the housing Bill this autumn and the House will have the opportunity to debate them. The Bill will create a new register of brownfield land to help fast-track the construction of homes, with the principle of development being agreed on 90% of suitable sites by the end of this Parliament. In London, I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Mayor will create an additional 10 housing zones, all on brownfield land. Those additional zones will bring the total number in the capital to 20, which, combined with the 20 housing zones outside London and the eight shortlisted areas that we have agreed to work with, could deliver nearly 100,000 more homes.
Boris Johnson (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Con)
Will the Secretary of State give way?
Boris Johnson
I just want to thank the Secretary of State and the Minister for Housing and Planning for their work in helping us to deliver those housing zones, which are enabling London to build more homes than at any time since the 1980s and a record number of affordable homes. In fact, in the next few years we are on target to build more homes in London than at any time since the 1930s.
Greg Clark
My hon. Friend is right, and it is part of his record as Mayor of London of which he can be very proud. He and my hon. Friend the Minister met just before they came to the House to discuss the London Land Commission and further plans to build on the success that my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) has enjoyed. It is vital that we make sure that the capital has homes for the next generation of Londoners, just as he has provided them for this generation.
Local plans have been another success story, as they have helped to drive progress on both the quantity and quality of new development. In the productivity plan, we said that we want to take steps to ensure that there are local plans in every community. We will also make it easier to build 200,000 starter homes on underused commercial land, which can then be offered to first-time buyers under the age of 40 with a 20% discount.
We will update legislation and guidance to ensure that neighbouring councils co-operate on local plans—something that the Communities and Local Government Committee has taken an interest in over the years. The Chair was hopeful that I might listen to the representations from the Committee during this Parliament. We have listened and we are reflecting some of its thoughts in the productivity plan. We want to make sure that planning decisions are made as quickly as they can be; that major infrastructure projects can include some new homes as part of their plan; and that smaller firms have quicker and simpler ways of establishing where and what they can build, particularly on land in the new brownfield registers.
We also want to ensure that our existing housing stock supports working people, which is why the reduction in social housing rents—to bring them in line with the increase that has taken place in private rents—is an important step forward.