Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alok Sharma and Tony Lloyd

Wednesday 20th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

8. What assessment he has made of the potential role of energy efficiency in meeting the UK’s climate targets.

[The COP26 President (Alok Sharma)]

Buildings are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in our country, accounting for around 22% of total UK emissions. Energy efficiency measures are, indeed, a vital lever to drive down emissions, energy demand and, ultimately, bills.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alok Sharma]

The Government will, of course, respond to the report on the green homes grant, but I point out that some elements of it—the local authority delivery element and the social housing decarbonisation fund—have provided significant amounts of funding.

[Tony Lloyd]

The COP President will know that the bulk of buildings that are around today will still be around in 2030 and 2050. Most of them are grossly inadequately insulated; even new buildings are not being built to an acceptable standard. When are we going to see some action on this crucial agenda?

[Alok Sharma]

I have set out the amount of funding the Government are providing over this Parliament—£6.6 billion on energy efficiency. I very much share the view that we need to be doing even more on this, particularly as we face energy security issues and energy prices are so high; more insulation in homes will deliver lower bills for households.

Draft Regulation of Social Housing (Influence of Local Authorities) (England) Regulations 2017

Debate between Alok Sharma and Tony Lloyd

Monday 6th November 2017 General Committees

[Alok Sharma]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his remarks. I will respond to some of the points he made. First, from a perspective of clarification, an officer in these regulations is taken to mean both a local authority councillor and a local authority officer.

The hon. Gentleman raised borrowing by housing associations. Of course, such associations receive grants from Government but they also borrow in the private markets. These changes should assist. He also talked about a consultation and why there was no formal or public consultation. As I have noted, the regulations apply to only about 100 of the 1,500 housing associations—those where there was a stock transfer from a local authority. Where that occurred, tenants did vote for the transfer to take place. I should point out that when the regulations change, tenants will have more rights as a result of the change in shareholding structures.

The hon. Gentleman raised the perspective of Grenfell. We all very much share the view that there is an enormous amount we have to learn from this tragedy. There is a public inquiry under way and we will await the outcome of that. Of course, there is also an independent review of building regulations being led by Dame Judith Hackitt. Let us wait and see what comes out in her interim and final reports.

I thank hon. Members for their contributions. We have had an interesting debate. Ultimately, this is the final piece of the jigsaw in terms of removing unnecessary controls from essentially private sector organisations. The regulations go only as far as is necessary to allow the ONS to consider the reclassification of private registered providers back to the private sector.

[Tony Lloyd]

I can see the Minister is coming to the end of his remarks. Of course, I understand there is an inquiry into Grenfell and we are going to look at building regulations, but we do know—we do not need an inquiry to tell us—that the decisions made were not acceptable, and the decision-making structure was not acceptable.

The invitation to the Minister is not to give us an answer today on what the future will look like, but he did say that he would consult on the structure of governance of housing associations and organisations dealing with tenants. I would like him to place on the record that he recognises the need for robust scrutiny of decision making. There has to be some measure of independence on those bodies to ensure that the tenants’ interests and the wider public interest are respected.

[Alok Sharma]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The voice of tenants is incredibly important, which is precisely why I am undertaking a set of events around the country, talking not just to those who run housing associations and councils but to individual social housing tenants. I am very much in listening mode, and what comes out of that will feed into the Green Paper. When the Green Paper comes forward, I am sure he will want to share his views on that.

Subject to the ONS decision on classification in the light of these and other changes, we expect that, with these regulations, about £70 billion of debt will be removed from the national accounts. I therefore commend the regulations to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.

Gypsies and Travellers and Local Communities

Debate between Alok Sharma and Tony Lloyd

Monday 9th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd]

I will not give way, if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me. I need to make a little progress; otherwise I fear I will be taking time off those who want to disagree with me later.

When a seven-year-old child says plaintively, “People don’t like us”, surely that should prick the conscience a little of those who want to stigmatise the whole of the travelling community. When we know that 77% of the travelling community have been victims of hate crime or hate speech, when we know that less than 20% would report hate crime or hate speech to the police because they fear no action would be taken, when we know that half of the Traveller community when seeking employment —the sort of thing we want them to do—have faced discrimination, and when we know from a recent survey that four in 10 of our fellow countrymen and women would not want their child to play in a Gypsy home, we know we have a problem.

The 2015 report of the Equality and Human Rights Commission made it clear that the position of Travellers is getting worse. As the Minister conceded, we still have massive challenges to face in many different areas. The hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) made a point about education. Some 57% of young people now get GCSEs with five grades from A to C, but among the Irish Travellers the figure is as low as 18% and among the Gypsies it is as low as 9%, so we know we have a problem. Another problem is when a teacher says to people in her class, “There’s no point in teaching you as you’ll end up tarmacking drives.” We have a problem in our educational system.

We know that people are denied access to our health services. One of the paradoxes is that not only does that lead to a 10% lower life expectancy among Travellers, which is outrageous in modern Britain, but it means it is less likely that Traveller children will be vaccinated, which matters to everybody. We know about herd immunity, and if we allow that to continue and do not ensure access to our health services, we will actually harm the health of the population more generally.

We know that there are more Traveller children in care. The Travellers account for 0.1% of the population, but only 0.03% of apprenticeships go to people from the Traveller community. Some 5% of our prison population is made up of people from the travelling community, and 8% of women in New Hall Prison are from a Traveller background. I say to the Minister that we must now have some proper accounting. The NHS does not count Travellers as a community of note, and that has to change.

[Alok Sharma]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the way in which the NHS currently accounts for people is based on the breakdown in the 2001 census. He will know, however, that an ongoing piece of work in the NHS is looking at whether we can move to using the categories in the 2011 census, which includes Gypsies and Travellers.

[Tony Lloyd]

That is comforting, but it is six years since the census was taken. This is not a new phenomenon, and I think we really can and must do better. I know that this is not a matter for the Minister’s Department—he is in the invidious position of having to respond for the Home Office, the Department of Health, the Department for Education and so on, which is always like drawing the short straw—but he has to go back to his colleagues and say that this is simply not good enough. Proper accounting is the starting point.

It did not have to be this way; it could have been so very different. The previous Labour Government left a good legacy. The Equality Act 2010, along with subsequent case law, has made sure that Travellers are defined as a protected minority. The Housing Act 2004 provided a statutory basis for an assessment of the need for housing and caravan sites for Travellers. The periodical review of housing needs that local authorities are supposed to undertake was brought in under the previous Labour Government.

However, the Equality Act was flouted by the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sir Eric Pickles, who was guilty of unlawful discrimination when he singly picked out Gypsies, saying that any application by Gypsies for a green-belt site would need special consideration. That was unlawful, but—let us be honest—it was also unacceptable. It was unacceptable behaviour to be so discriminatory.

Why was the assessment of need removed by this Government? Will the Minister tell the House that such an assessment will now be put back in place, because it ought to be there? The periodical review has gone, and where are the 28 commitments of the ministerial working group? Is the Minister determined, as I am, to do something to better the lives and the life chances of the Travellers? The 2016 draft guidance review of housing needs for caravans and houseboats has not been delivered in proper form. Where is it? The Minister made no mention of any of these points.

Under the affordable homes programme, £60 million was available for Travellers for Traveller sites. The Minister did not tell us how many new sites have been allocated. He did not tell us where the money is, or what it has been spent on. That matters, frankly, because I can tell the House that in the south-east, for example, only 10 of the 66 local authorities now have a five-year plan for the supply of Traveller sites. In the east and west midlands—this is of concern to my hon. Friends from the midlands—only 15 of the 70 local authorities across the whole region have a five-year supply plan.

We know that only a third of local authorities in London have completed a Traveller accommodation needs assessment. The Minister said that the Government have exhorted local authorities to complete such assessments, but only a third of London authorities have done so. In my own area, two local authorities actually believe they have no need for places for Travellers, which is not acceptable. The question is: what will the Government do about that?

New Housing Design

Debate between Alok Sharma and Tony Lloyd

Tuesday 5th September 2017 Westminster Hall

[Alok Sharma]

My hon. Friend makes the point perfectly. It shows that customer satisfaction is absolutely key. House builders need to step up to the plate.

The housing White Paper sets out the Government’s plan to diversify the housing market, which will play a part in helping to improve quality. My hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Robert Courts) and the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard) talked about custom building and the importance of small and medium-sized builders as well.

Of course mechanisms are in place for redress, such as the consumer code for home builders, which a number of colleagues have talked about. I have been encouraged by the industry’s response to last year’s report by the all-party parliamentary group for excellence in the built environment, “More homes, fewer complaints”. A working group was set up by the Home Builders Federation and has commissioned an independent report into consumer redress. We expect that to come forward in the next few weeks. I will review the report in detail and I will consider the call from my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton for a new homes ombudsman.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mrs Miller) talked about the Women and Equalities Committee’s report. We expect to respond next month. Colleagues also raised the issue of space. As the hon. Members for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) and for Rochdale (Tony Lloyd) will know, we have committed in the White Paper to reviewing the nationally described space standards, because of feedback from the sector.

My hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) talked about building out. We will amend the national planning policy framework to address the scope for higher density housing in urban locations.

The Government will continue to work with industry, local communities, developers and all those with an interest in the quality of new homes to drive up standards and create the type of places that people want to live in. It is clear that Members and their constituents want that to happen, and I want that to happen too.

[Tony Lloyd]

Before the Minister sits down, will he give way?

[Alok Sharma]

Of course.

[Tony Lloyd]

May I press the Minister on this point? He said that the Government’s intention is to review the national space standards. That is welcome, but the suspicion is that the review will reduce the standards rather than enforce them. Will part of the review be about making them obligatory across the length and breadth of the appropriate domain?

[Alok Sharma]

Let me be clear: we are not talking about a race to the bottom. We want new development to be well designed, but that does not mean that current space standards are sacrosanct.

Housing Supply

Debate between Alok Sharma and Tony Lloyd

Thursday 13th July 2017 Westminster Hall

[Alok Sharma]

As I have acknowledged, we need to be building more homes—there is no doubt about that. I am happy to discuss with the hon. Lady that particular case. I am not here making excuses; I acknowledge the tone of this debate, which is that we need to be building more houses.

[Tony Lloyd]

Will the Minister reflect on the question of incentives to new home ownership? Restricting the scheme to new properties does a number of things. First, it restricts the supply. Secondly, it breaches the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier) put forward about people wanting to stay in their communities. On top of that, older properties are often cheaper. The policy does not make a lot of sense.

[Mr Peter Bone (in the Chair)]

I remind the Minister that it is normal for the proposer to have a chance to reply.