Housing Reform

Jeremy Corbyn Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I can definitely reassure my right hon. Friend that that is exactly the intention of our housing strategy. A number of our recommendations and policies will lead to that conclusion. It is important to get work moving on land that is available, particularly where planning permission has been granted. That is exactly what we intend to do.

[Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab)]

Some 30% of constituents in my inner-London constituency live in private rented accommodation without security of tenure and with very high rents. Many of them are threatened with eviction because of the Minister’s changes to housing benefit. Does he not think that it is important to bring about real changes in the private rented sector by giving longer-term tenancies at fixed rents, and at the same time to deal with the problem of homelessness in London by building more council housing as quickly as possible?

[Grant Shapps]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that the answer to many of these problems is to build more homes. That is why “Laying the Foundations” puts such a big emphasis on that. He might also be surprised to hear that I agree with him that we need to ensure, as the private rented sector has expanded from 8% to 16%, that the quality is of a sufficiently high standard. I will be doing more work on that in the coming months and will report back. I should also say to him that satisfaction levels in the private rented sector are about 85%, which compares favourably with the social sector, where the satisfaction level is 81%. I take his points and will certainly reflect on them.