Social Housing: Right-to-buy Sales
Debate between Lord Moylan and Baroness Swinburne(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Baroness Swinburne (Con)
I remind the House of the statistic I gave in answer to an earlier question: of those homes, since 2010, 172,600 are for social rent.
Lord Moylan (Con)
My Lords, further to the question from my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham, perhaps my noble friend the Minister has not quite grasped the root of the problem. We are dealing here with small and medium-sized housebuilders. When they generate social housing to accompany their private sector developments, that social housing frequently comes in penny packets, isolated to one house on the site and so on. There are 13,000 of these now waiting to be built, but the housing associations are not interested in them—they are simply not interesting to housing associations, as they are too difficult to manage. It is unblocking that logjam that I think my noble friend was asking my other noble friend on the Front Bench to address herself to.
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
Indeed, this is where a local authority could step in to deliver more replacement homes. In the current economic climate, councils are able to continue to deliver 50% of their right-to-buy replacement homes as acquisitions each year until 2025, with a focus on the purchasing of new homes. That should help small, medium-sized and large housebuilders.
Capital Projects: Spending
Debate between Lord Moylan and Baroness Swinburne
Lord Moylan
To ask His Majesty’s Government why they issued instructions in February requiring the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to obtain sign-off from the Treasury for spending on new capital projects, and whether that restriction remains in place.
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
We continue to work within the delegation approach agreed with the Treasury in February, which involves Treasury sign-off on all new capital spend to ensure shared priorities between departments. However, this does not restrict our levelling-up ambition. Since the decision by HMT, we have announced a substantial capital package in the Spring Budget, taking our overall levelling-up funding to more than £11 billion, plus a recent capital investment of £1.1 billion for 55 towns across the United Kingdom.
Lord Moylan (Con)
My Lords, it appears that this extra layer of bureaucracy is destined to continue, although no explanation has been given by my noble friend as to why it was introduced. I wonder if it is in any way connected with the fact that the department has announced a £1 billion underspend on the affordable housing programme, as well as underspends on the housing infrastructure fund, the brownfield land fund and the brownfield infrastructure fund? In the light of these underspends, are the Government still confident that they will meet their housing targets?
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
The Government remain committed to fully funding and delivering our programmes to level up communities across the United Kingdom, including the full £11.5 billion budget for the affordable homes programme. In line with usual practice, some of the department’s budgets in 2022-23 were reprofiled into future years to reflect latest delivery plans. While all capital programmes have their own specific causes for delays, the challenging economic environment, including the housing market, inflationary pressures and supply-chain constraints, all contributed to the delivery delays last year. However, we remain fully committed to our housing targets.
Housing and Planning: Policy Changes
Debate between Lord Moylan and Baroness Swinburne
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
I do not have the specific numbers with me today and I will make sure that they are provided to the noble Lord by the relevant office. With regards specifically to SMEs, we do have various activities going on to support the sector and to support all of its needs with regards to their supply of the workforce.
Lord Moylan (Con)
My Lords, I am sure we are all delighted that the Government’s housing targets are back on track, but can my noble friend say if His Majesty’s Government have taken note of the Natural England advice to local planning authorities concerning nutrient neutrality, which has resulted in a blockade on new housing development in 14% of England’s land area? Is it the case that the Government will take steps in this regard, as hinted in the press?
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
Nutrient pollution is an urgent problem, and the Government are clear that nutrient neutrality can only be an interim solution in the broader context of all the other environmental and biodiversity issues. This is why we are taking significant action to tackle pollution at source and restore our protected sites. Through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, we are ensuring the upgrade of wastewater treatment works in nutrient neutrality catchments by 2030. This will ameliorate pollution at source and help SMEs by reducing the cost of mitigation by up to 96%. Government investments in schemes like the Natural England nutrient mitigation scheme, and the DLUHC’s local nutrient mitigation fund, will further boost the supply of mitigation, which will unlock housing delivery. We are working closely with the Environment Secretary, Natural England and the Environment Agency to consider whether there is more that can be done to accelerate progress in this area. I am looking forward to the recommendations of my noble friend Lord Moylan and his committee on this matter.