Social Housing Bill [HL]

Lord John of Southwark Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord John of Southwark (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak after the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill of Bexley. I fondly recall the times in London Councils meetings when we would sit around the table and agree on virtually everything—sadly, this will probably not be so today, but it is still a pleasure to speak after her. I am pleased to speak in support of the Social Housing Bill and in particular the restrictions which the Bill introduces on the exercise of the right to buy. In doing so, I declare my interests as non-executive chair of H4Life, in Quoin Partners and as a member of the advisory board of LHG.

There are some policies pursued by Governments which are very much of their time. Perhaps regrettably, we do not review those policies sufficiently regularly and they become enshrined in our body politic, but they were the answer to the question of a different era. Right to buy is one such policy. That does not mean that Conservatives cannot be proud of that policy, but nor does it mean that it is the right policy for today.

Let us look at the differences between then and now. In 1980, London was a city whose population was declining, down to 6.8 million from 7.5 million the previous decade. Councils had vacant council housing stock and—can noble Lords believe?—hard-to-let properties. The average property price in London was about £22,500; that is £75,000 in today’s money. For this city, the policy of right to buy met a number of challenges—the realistic aspiration which many people had of owning their own home, at a time when property prices were relatively low, and there was surplus housing stock across the capital.

Today the figures are starkly different. London’s population is 9.1 million, having risen from 8.2 million 10 years ago. That is an increase of a third from 1981. Councils have ever-increasing waiting lists for council housing, and they face the massive financial and social challenge of dealing with the need for and cost of temporary accommodation.

There is no spare housing, let alone properties which are hard to let; there is a housing shortage. The average property price is £542,000—more than seven times, in real terms, the cost of a home in 1980. Sadly, the aspiration of owning your own home is something which many young people regard as being a wholly unrealistic prospect. Renting their own home, rather than a room, is their property ambition.

It is in this context that we consider the Bill. It is plainly right that local authorities should be allowed to protect their existing stock when it is such a scarce and valuable commodity. I welcome the extension of the qualifying period from three to 10 years—it is clearly right. I was also struck by the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Murphy, that maybe we should be looking for a longer qualifying period.

I particularly welcome the indefinite right of first refusal, which will be given to local authorities which have had to sell property under the right to buy. Bringing former social housing stock back into use as general needs housing is often a speedy and cost-effective way to increase council housing stock. If it can be used as a way to help regenerate estates and provide more housing for future needs, that must be a good thing.

I am pleased to see the protections given to newly built stock in Clause 18. When I was leader in Southwark and we embarked upon our council housebuilding programme, which was, and remains, the largest programme in the country—a commitment to build 11,000 new homes—we were concerned that we would be building stock which we might lose relatively swiftly to right to buy. The proposed protection of that stock for 35 years will give some reassurance not only to Southwark but to those local authorities across the country which are building new stock, and it will convince them that they are right to build. I think that there is an argument for considering a longer period because quite often the cost of the build has not been repaid after those 35 years; let us look at the real-terms period when those costs will be repaid.

Many problems remain with our ability as a country to deliver the new social housing which we need—not just social housing but housing as a whole. The money spent by local authorities on building new homes is undermined by the amount which we seem content to spend on temporary accommodation and homelessness. But, importantly, with that restriction on right to buy, the Bill protects what we do have, and for that reason it should be hugely welcomed.