Oral Answers to Questions

Hannah Bardell Excerpts

Monday 6th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I will indeed. My hon. Friend has been a big champion of the Dunsbury Hill Farm link road, which was funded by the LEP. I understand that the business park has its first tenants signed up and is creating 3,500 jobs, which is a further boost to the very successful time already being enjoyed on the Solent and in Havant in particular.

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

14. What assessment he has made of the effect of the right-to-buy scheme on the availability of low-cost housing for people on low incomes.

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (SNP)]

16. What assessment he has made of the effect of the right-to-buy scheme on the availability of low-cost housing for people on low incomes.

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Brandon Lewis)]

Within England, a new affordable home has been provided for every additional right-to-buy sale since 2012 under a reinvigorated scheme. Under the groundbreaking voluntary agreement, housing associations will also deliver an additional home nationally for every home sold.

[Hannah Bardell]

The right to buy has had a disastrous effect on the availability of affordable housing. The SNP Scottish Government have had the courage to abolish it and have built more than 6,000 new council houses in Scotland. Has the Minister carried out an assessment of the effect that abolishing the policy would have on the supply of housing UK-wide?

[Brandon Lewis]

Abolishing the policy would actually reduce supply. We are extending it to 1.3 million more people, and, as I outlined, because a new home is being built for every home sold, it will, by definition, increase the supply of affordable homes.