HC Deb 05 March 2003 vol 400 cc800-1
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—

Mr. Speaker

Order.

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.