Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andy Slaughter and Greg Clark

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I do agree with my hon. Friend. In providing homes in all communities for all types of people we need to make sure that we have diversity of tenure, especially in rural areas. My hon. Friend is right.

[Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

The idea that any of these schemes are affordable is an Orwellian myth. In my constituency, people need an income of £70,000 to be able to get an affordable home, and that is going up to £90,000 before long. To whom is that affordable?

[Greg Clark]

I do not think the hon. Gentleman does a good service to his constituents. He should know that under the combination of Help to Buy and shared ownership, the deposit that a London first-time buyer can be required to pay on the average price paid of £385,000 is as low as £4,800. The hon. Gentleman would do his constituents a service by promoting these schemes to them.

Housing and Planning Bill

Debate between Andy Slaughter and Greg Clark

Tuesday 12th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right in what she says, and she has made an important contribution to the proceedings. It is vital that we see an improvement in the quality of design of our housing stock. One feature of the last housing bubble that was experienced before the Government came into office was a dearth of new family homes. Instead, most of the increase in housing that came during that time was in the form of flats. That arose from the particular incentive structure in place, whereby units, rather than any suggestion of quality, were important. The points she made have been well noted; in fact, in some of the announcements the Prime Minister made in recent days we have stressed the importance, in regenerating our estates, of adhering to standards of the highest quality.

[Andy Slaughter]

It is no surprise to hear that the Secretary of State wants to move away from talking about council tenancies, because his treatment of them is a disgrace. He was not asked about inheriting succession rights; he was asked about security. Why can council tenants not continue, as happened under the Housing Act 1985, introduced by Margaret Thatcher, to have security in the same way that anybody else would want in their home? The situation is appalling. Why is he only building starter homes, which nobody can afford, in Old Oak in my constituency, instead of social homes, which people need and want?

[Greg Clark]

The hon. Gentleman is completely wrong, and if he looked at our housing plans, he would see that they include building 100,000 houses for affordable rent as well as 200,000 starter homes. It is right, and it is the mandate on which this Government were elected, to provide homes for people who aspire to own their own home, as well as for those who want to rent. One failure during recent years has been that people who wanted to own their own home, in the way that many Members of this House have, have been denied that opportunity.

Housing and Planning Bill

Debate between Andy Slaughter and Greg Clark

Monday 2nd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

As I hope the right hon. Lady will recognise from my remarks, our purpose and intent in this Bill is to increase the number of homes—that is our absolute objective—so that those children have the prospect of a roof over their heads in the years to come.

I was reflecting on how it has been many years—more than a generation—since this country built the number of homes that we need. During the financial crash, house building in Britain suffered what might be called a cardiac arrest, because in the third quarter of 2008 we were fewer than 20,000 homes away from stopping building altogether—the lowest rate of peacetime house building since the 1920s. It was not just that the banks would not lend, though they would not; it was a reckoning for a decade in which we had a top-down planning system, which the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey), when he was Planning Minister, was magnanimous enough to concede had few friends. When that was imposed, it built bureaucracy and resentment but not many homes. It followed a decade in which the number of affordable homes fell by nearly half a million, and in which fewer than 200 council houses a year were built in the whole of England. It was a lost decade in which the rising level of home ownership fell into reverse in 2003 for the first time since the 1960s.

[Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State explain how selling housing association properties, subsidising that sale by selling council properties—half the stock, in the case of my local authority—reducing local authority incomes to build properties by reducing rent, and allowing developers to get away without building any social homes helps the thousands of people in housing need in my constituency?

[Greg Clark]

I will come on to address those points, but I say now that the reason it helps is that we are requiring a new home to be built for every home that is sold to council tenants, and that will improve the housing stock in London.

We had a decade when the housing market almost ground to a complete halt and home ownership fell for the first time since the 1960s. It was a period in which the Chairman of the Select Committee, the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), who is in his place, said, reflecting the shared view, that the Government whom he had supported for 13 years did not build enough homes. Other Labour Members, including Front Benchers such as the shadow Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), agreed, concluding that Labour did not do enough when in government. We agree. As is obvious from what I have said, Governments of different parties did not do enough over the years.

During the previous Parliament, home building revived and we got Britain building again. We scrapped the regional spatial strategies and we reformed planning policy. That was fiercely resisted at the time. Some of us, including the hon. Member for City of Durham (Dr Blackman-Woods), who I believe is to wind up for the Opposition, will remember those debates, in which Members were very critical of our proposals. Now, three years on, nearly 250,000 homes a year are receiving planning permission—up by nearly 60% since 2010.

National Planning Policy Framework

Debate between Andy Slaughter and Greg Clark

Tuesday 27th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

It is a reasonable expectation that if a business has located in an area and traded successfully, it ought to be able to continue in its line of work, especially if it is creating jobs and is part of the local scene. The new framework provides protection for businesses to continue in their trade.

[Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

Mike Slade, the chairman of the Conservative property forum, has given more than £300,000 to the Tory party over the past decade individually and through his property company Helical Bar. Mr Slade says:

“You do run the thin line of someone saying: I’m only doing this to have access and influence, but that was what politics was always about. It’s a little unfair, but there must be 20 per cent truth in it.”

It is easy to see what is in this policy for the Tory party and the developers. What is in it for my constituents?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andy Slaughter and Greg Clark

Monday 20th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

13. What recent assessment he has made of the effects of reductions in central Government funding for local authorities on levels of charges for local authority services.

[The Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)]

I can tell the House that I have made a new assessment of the consequences for local authorities of paying down the deficit. Currently, the average reduction in spending power for councils this year is 4.4%. However, if VAT were reduced, as per a recent suggestion, the £13 billion a year needed to pay for it would require the average cut in council spending to be 29.1%. In my view, that would be to go too far and too fast.

[Mr Slaughter]

That is all very interesting, but from next month, nine Sure Start centres in Hammersmith and Fulham will lose more than 90% of their funding, and therefore will close. Parents at one of them—Cathnor Park—have got a judicial review going, but they are having to expedite it, because the council is going ahead with 50 redundancies and closing services, despite the fact that the courts have not yet considered these matters. Will the Minister at least go as far as advising that rogue council not to proceed with those closures until the courts and the parents have had their fair say?

[Greg Clark]

That is a superb council, and it certainly does not need any advice from me. In fact, I am astonished that the hon. Gentleman has not taken the opportunity to congratulate his council on saving every library in the borough, by merging the service with neighbouring boroughs, and on saving £1 million. When he was leader of the council, he doubled the council tax and his Labour administration was booted out at the election. The current, Conservative administration was returned with a healthy majority at the last council election.