HC Deb 28 April 1993 vol 223 cc949-50
7. Mr. Rowe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many houses were purchased under the special package announced in the autumn statement.

15. Mr. Stephen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many houses have now been brought into use by the housing package announced in the autumn statement.

Sir George Young

Housing associations have purchased some 18,000 additional homes in England using the £577 million allocated for this purpose in the autumn statement. This is a very great achievement, exceeding by 2,000 the target of 16,000 homes set in November. I congratulate heartily the Housing Corporation and the 81 associations involved. Purchases have been widely spread across the country, with acquisitions in some 97 per cent. of local authority areas. Grants to local authority and housing association tenants have enabled some 3,300 to become owner-occupiers, freeing their current homes for those in need. So, overall, the package has provided more than 21,000 permanent new homes for families in England.

Mr. Rowe

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that encouraging reply. Does he agree that a number of other developments have enormously enhanced the value of that package, not least the considerable fall in interest rates?

Sir George Young

My hon. Friend rightly points out that there have been significant improvements in the housing market, working with the grain of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor's autumn statement. My hon. Friend will know that building societies' net advances were up 40 per cent. in March compared with February and that new lending commitments, at more than £3 billion, were double the January level. So there is every sign that the autumn statement package was effective in restoring confidence in the housing market.

Mr. Stephen

Does my hon. Friend agree that there are still far more empty houses than there are homeless families? Does he further agree that the way in which to provide housing for those who need it is to bring those empty houses into use and not to cover our green fields and gardens with more buildings?

Sir George Young

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There are some 60,000 families in temporary accommodation and some 600,000 properties empty, so my hon. Friend makes a valid point. This Administration have taken steps to bring into use many of those empty properties. We have introduced a scheme, using housing associations as managing agents, to persuade the owners of those empty properties to bring them back into use and to rent them to those in need. We are also developing proposals to continue the revival of the private rented sector, to which the Government attach particular importance.

Mr. George Howarth

Has the Minister had the opportunity to study the Rowntree report, which suggests that the estates that are being bought up for this purpose are in danger of turning into ghettos of the 1960s and 1970s style? If the Minister has studied the report, does he have any proposals to stop that happening? I hope that he agrees that it would not be in the interests of anybody to re-create that type of problem.

Sir George Young

I have read the very interesting report published last week by Rowntree. The hon. Member will know that housing associations do not, by and large, develop large estates. The average size of a housing association development is about 20. The report, however, acts as a useful warning to housing associations that may be looking at the larger schemes that there are management problems that could go with them. In practice, most housing association schemes on large sites are already broken down into smaller sites operated by different housing associations, so there is diversity of tenure and of management on the large estates where housing associations are active.

Mr. Gerrard

While I welcome the fact that money is being spent on housing, does the Minister accept that, in London at least, the impact of this package on both the housing market and family homelessness has been very limited? In the main, the money has gone on buying newly built properties—only 5 per cent. have been repossessions—and mainly one-bedroomed flats rather than family housing. Will the Minister look again at whether more money can be spent by both housing associations and local authorities to buy family housing, so that we can start to do something about the growing number of families in London who are in temporary accommodation?

Sir George Young

The hon. Member will find that the package was focused on two-bedroomed properties rather than one-bedroomed homes. In my constituency, the London borough of Ealing has been able to end the use of bed and breakfast. Only one person is now left in bed and breakfast, who is there voluntarily. Part of the reason why the council has been able to do that is the use of the autumn statement package to take people out of bed and breakfast and move them into homes acquired under that package. I think that the hon. Member will find that London has benefited from the package. There has been a 38 per cent. fall in bed and breakfast over the past year, and I would expect to find that improvement maintained when we have the next figures in a few weeks' time, which will show the full impact of the package.