Housing

Alec Shelbrooke Excerpts

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

I welcome my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing to his new role. I am afraid that he is likely to be well and truly harangued by myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew) over the coming months, because, to echo my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Mr Spencer), we have a real situation in our city of Leeds, where there is pressure on the greenfield and the green belt, even though 24,000 approvals have been made for brownfield sites. This is putting huge pressure on the local communities and on the amount of resources that Leeds city council is spending on trying to preserve the greenfield and the green belt.

I want to suggest a couple of routes for the Minister to investigate. First, will he look at the incentives that we can give house builders to build on brownfield land? The right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn) is no longer in his place, but I think that he would recognise that a huge area of Leeds—I know that this is supported by the hon. Member for Leeds East (Mr Mudie)—needs regeneration. That regeneration is not happening because developers can make a huge amount of money and make vastly greater profits by coming out into my constituency, which is on the edge of Leeds, and building four or five-bedroom houses on greenfield sites, where there is a premium attached because of the countryside views. We can have this argument, but we cannot stop the developers doing that because it falls within the planning laws. Under the Localism Act 2011, Leeds city council is now responsible for bringing in plans to control that area further.

We need to be more proactive in incentivising house builders not only to get building, but to do so where we want them to build. I suggest to the Minister for Housing that he and the Chancellor of the Exchequer should consider introducing tax incentives for companies that build on brownfield sites. There are some 24,000 approvals in Leeds, which are ready to go. Those houses can be built, but the house builders are choosing not to build them. They have land-banked the land and could start building tomorrow if they wanted to, but better profits lie elsewhere. We could increase the profitability for companies of building on brownfield sites before greenfield ones. Perhaps we should also look at how section 106 agreements work. That would hopefully address the problem. I put that to the Minister purely as something for him to go away and think about, and to perhaps come back to me on.

One of the greatest concerns is the east Leeds extension project, which has been on the books in Leeds for decades. It is getting closer and closer to happening as we speak. Our argument with the house builders is that they want to start building the houses before the new dual-carriageway link to the ring road that is part of the expansion project. That would put intolerable pressure on the existing infrastructure in the area. We need to look at how we can say to house builders, “You cannot build a single house until you have put the infrastructure in place to cope with the new demand.”

When I was a councillor in 2007, we had severe flooding. Towards the bottom of the topography of my constituency, which is at its north end, there is a huge run-off area. The east Leeds extension project proposes to build on the greenfield land that allows that water to soak in. We need to look at a mechanism whereby we can say to the house builder, “Not only do you have to build the link to the ring road, but you need to build a storm drain under the development that will carry water away.” As I have said, the hon. Member for Leeds East has huge flooding problems that relate to the same area. By working with the community and helping to protect their houses from flooding, we may be able to get this house building moving forward with less resistance, because the community would be able to see the benefits for all.

If we are to take pressure off greenfield sites and get some of these 24,000 homes, the vast majority of which are affordable, built on brownfield sites, we must look at the taxation system and section 106 agreements to see whether we can incentivise the house builders to move to those areas before they build on the green fields.

--- Later in debate ---

[Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)]

I welcome the new Ministers to the Front Bench. There have been some excellent contributions to this debate, but I would like to set out some alternative issues that are having an impact on new build sales. I do so on the basis of my time as a councillor from 2000 to 2010—a time of the last Government’s house building at any cost, which hit residents’ quality of life. My speech will be a whistle-stop summary of some of my concerns.

First, the last Government were hell-bent on high density rules, which saw houses packed in at the cost of parking spaces, creating dangerous problems. They also built on valuable open spaces. Following the successful Olympics we rightly hear concerns about school playing fields, yet the last Government were all too happy to build on those useable open spaces, leading to long-term problems of childhood obesity.

As councillors, we were also forced to deal with the problems caused by imposed housing targets. My local area of Swindon had already built 20,000 houses over the previous 20 years, making us one of the fastest-growing towns in the country, if not the fastest-growing, but we were told that we would have to find another 36,000 houses over the following 20 years. Such targets create confrontation and delays as angry local residents fight the unapproachable planning system.

We had problems that I set out in a ten-minute rule Bill. In new build areas that remained unadopted, residents were paying council tax or street maintenance, yet the developers remained responsible. The developers were often very good when they were selling the houses, but when they had sold the last house, and until the area became adopted, they were all too often poor at maintaining an area. I had estates that had not been maintained for more than 17 years, with work waiting to be done before that area could be adopted, yet residents still had to pay, and that did not encourage people to buy houses in those areas.

We have had a growing problem with the service and management charges in new blocks of flats. The rules are that, when the final development of that flat area has been completed, the residents have an opportunity to choose or even set up their own management company. However, many developers in management companies have found a way to delay that point, and residents who were told when buying the house that the service charge would be, for example, £1,000 a year, suddenly find the management company making pathetic excuses to hike up the prices, taking valuable money from hard-pressed residents who have no choice but to pay or be taken to court. My hon. Friend the Member for South Swindon (Mr Buckland) and I urgently request a meeting with the Minister to discuss how we can help such residents, who are increasingly targeted by cowboys who parade themselves as management companies.

We have heard much about the banks. Earlier, I challenged the shadow Housing Minister because the previous Government had an ideal opportunity to deal with the banks. They were at the Government’s mercy when the Government rightly came to their rescue, and they could have imposed some incentives and direct instructions, particularly to help first-time buyers, who are now finding it difficult to access mortgages.

[Alec Shelbrooke]

Does my hon. Friend agree that most of the rhetoric in the Opposition’s motion suggests that we need to borrow a lot more money? What does he think the effect on the housing market would be if interest rates rose on the back of that?

[Justin Tomlinson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. That would have been my next point, but I am conscious of time, so I will be supremely efficient and simply pay huge tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley (George Hollingbery), who covered that point. It is clear that, if the Labour party found itself in Government again and wrecked our triple A credit rating, interest rates would rocket, and we would have a real housing crisis on our hands.

Many important issues have been raised today, but I urge Ministers not to forget the importance of addressing quality of life. If we are to restore the long-term appetite for new build housing and new build housing estates, we must improve their reputation. The fear factor is a bit like that experienced when buying a new car in the knowledge that as soon as it is driven off the forecourt, 30% of the value is lost. So many issues put people off going to those new build areas, which have already got planning permission. They should be addressed, because that will help the housing market and, crucially, the long-term quality of life of residents of all ages.