House of Commons
Wednesday 5 March 2003
The House met at half-past Eleven o'clock
PRAYERS
[Mr. Speaker in the Chair]
PRIVATE BUSINESS
Transas Group Bill (By Order)
Order for Second Reading read.
To be read a Second time on Wednesday 12 March.
Oral Answers to Questions
OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
The Deputy Prime Minister was asked—
Housing Licences
1. Dr. Brian Iddon (Bolton, South-East): When he plans to bring forward legislation to license (a) rogue landlords and (b) houses in multiple occupation. [100648]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. Tony McNulty): As announced in the Queen's Speech, the Government intend to publish a draft housing Bill this Session. The Bill will, among other measures, include powers for local authorities to license landlords in areas of low demand and introduce the mandatory licensing of houses in multiple occupation. Following consultation on and pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill, the Government intend that it should be introduced to Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity.
Dr. Iddon : That, of course, is good news, but what help can my hon. Friend give local authorities such as Bolton metropolitan borough council, the regeneration schemes of which are often blocked by non-compliant landlords, whose houses in multiple occupation attract prostitutes and their associated drug dealers?
Mr. McNulty: I fully appreciate my hon. Friend's concerns. We have made it clear that, before the housing Bill is introduced, we will introduce pilot projects from June 2003 to help local authorities tackle the problems as effectively as possible, using the portfolio of existing powers under legislation. I am happy to tell my hon. Friend that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is
engaged in serious negotiations with Bolton metropolitan borough council to ensure that it is one of the five pilots.
Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby): Will the Deputy Prime Minister or any other Minister have to make a declaration under the ministerial code of conduct if such a Bill is introduced?
Mr. McNulty: As ever, the hon. Gentleman continues to bore the House, and the answer is no.
Ms Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent, North): We have exactly the same problems in Stoke-on-Trent. This legislation cannot come quickly enough, as we have neighbourhoods that are being blighted by the activities of absentee landlords. Will my hon. Friend look favourably on a pilot project in Stoke-on-Trent, so that we can take action in advance of the legislation?
Mr. McNulty: I welcome my hon. Friend's welcome of the housing Bill. We have spoken before about the difficulties in Burslem and Stoke, and I will happily carry on talking to her specifically about how regeneration, housing and low demand fit together across a range of projects.
Housing (South Swindon)
2. Ms Julia Drown (South Swindon): What steps he is taking to ensure that there is adequate affordable housing in South Swindon. [100650]
The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. John Prescott): The Government have provided £6.5 million via the Housing Corporation for an accelerated housing development programme in Swindon that has delivered some 650 affordable homes since 1999, including a 46-unit scheme for key workers, Isambard House. Clearly, there is a lot more to do, which is what our statement on sustainability, recently made to the House, is designed to achieve.
Ms Drown : I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that reply. A serious need exists for more affordable housing in Swindon, yet developers object even to providing the Government's minimum—that 30 per cent. of homes must be affordable—and say that it is an unjustified and onerous demand and contrary to Government circular 6/98. A fear also exists that asking for more than 30 per cent. will put off developers from making any proposal. Will my right hon. Friend make it clear that we should listen to people on housing waiting lists, and not to developers making spurious objections? Given that places such as London and Oxford are going for 50 per cent. affordable homes—
The Deputy Prime Minister: I sympathise with a number of my hon. Friend's points. There is a clear need for more affordable homes, but unfortunately it was not achieved in the recent planning for housing in her area. She will well appreciate, however, that the private and the public sectors negotiate the proportion of social housing or affordable homes within a planned
development: it is not set at 30 per cent. The Mayor of London has suggested 50 per cent. or 30 per cent., and we are discussing how we might maximise the proportion of affordable homes.
David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden): The Deputy Prime Minister has in the past stated his belief that shortages of low-cost social housing are caused by the actions of property companies abusing the right-to-buy scheme. As a result, he has proposed to cut discounts available to council tenants throughout the south of England. That does not yet include Swindon—it has a local election in May, which I am sure is not relevant—but, undoubtedly, if housing pressure continues, it will do so. Will he explain how this discount reduction will stop right-to-buy abuses in property companies?
The Deputy Prime Minister: Our study of abuses of the right to buy identified 42 areas in which we wish to apply the reduction in the discount. In those areas, particularly one or two in London, the huge discount attracted a number of people to offer to buy with the local authorities or to buy on behalf of the tenant, with the local authority, to take advantage of selling at a higher price later. That is what we have discovered in our surveys, and that is why we have reduced the discount.
David Davis: Interestingly, the Deputy Prime Minister referred to a study because, before he began his latest attack on the right to buy, the Government commissioned a report from Heriot-Watt university on the supposed abuses of the policy. The report was supposed to be published in January, but it has not yet been formally released. We now know why. It shows that council tenants use property companies because they cannot get a mortgage on their house or flat. It should be obvious to anyone with even limited financial acumen that, for poor families, the lower the discount, the harder it is to get a mortgage. Therefore, the effect of cutting the maximum discount first from £50,000 to £38,000 and now to £16,000 will be to drive many poor people into the arms of property companies—the opposite of what the right hon. Gentleman says he intends. Will he now reconsider this policy, which will not make available any more houses and will harm the interests of all council tenants and the least well off in our society?
The Deputy Prime Minister: I am not aware that that is a problem in Swindon, but I can tell the right hon. Gentleman that, in the 42 areas that we have identified and in respect of which we will lay an order tomorrow, more people have applied to take advantage of the schemes that I have proposed for reducing the discounts.
I must apologise. I thought that the Heriot-Watt report had been published, but I am now advised that it will come out tomorrow with the statutory instrument.
Regional Government
3. Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater): If he will make a statement on regional government in the south-west. [100651]
The Deputy Prime Minister: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister asked for responses by 3 March from the south-west and the other English regions outside London on the level of interest in holding a referendum for an elected regional assembly. We are now evaluating the responses.
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: The south-west area multi-modal study—the SWARMMS report—is now slopping around in the south-west, but it is doing nothing for my constituency or for that of my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton (Mr. Flook). An unelected, unaccountable regional assembly is administering it. When will the Deputy Prime Minister take the report back under control, so that it will bring benefits to the south-west?
The Deputy Prime Minister: I think that the regional assemblies have been quite successful. [Laughter.] I take as one indication of that the active participation of Tory councillors on the assemblies. In fact, more than 160 Tory councillors sit on the boards. They think that they are doing a good job, and we will retain them. No doubt the referendum will provide people with a good opportunity to state whether they want to go further and have a regional referendum. The indications are that well over 60 per cent. of people in the south-west want to have a referendum.
Jim Knight (South Dorset): I am keen to make the regional assembly for the south-west accountable through the introduction of an elected regional assembly, but there is some concern in the region, which is fuelled by the Conservative party, that that may spell the end of the shire counties. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the Government are neutral about whether county councils could form the basis of unitary authorities following the introduction of regional government?
The Deputy Prime Minister: We have made it clear that we do not want three layers of administration. If people in a region choose to have a referendum, they will decide in that referendum whether they want regional government. Before they make that decision, they will receive an indication on what type of local government structure will apply. The local government body will consider the matter and recommend whether and how the unitary authority system will operate alongside regional government. If people vote for that, clearly the county council structure, as we know it, will change.
Mr. Hugo Swire (East Devon): In the event of the eminently sensible people of the south-west wishing to have nothing to do with an elected regional assembly, will the Deputy Prime Minister enact a framework by which we can get rid of the unelected regional assembly and return the money that it spends to the taxpayers of the south-west? [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker: Order. There is too much conversation in the Chamber, which is unfair.
The Deputy Prime Minister: If the people of a region choose to have a referendum and then reject the idea of regional government, it is clear that the concept will not
apply. It will be a decision for people in the region. On the question of whether the assembly that is in place at present would remain, it is my judgment that it should, along with the regional development agency. I note that the hon. Gentleman did not ask for the abolition of the regional development agency.
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