§ 1. Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West)If he will make a statement on his policy for (a) improving the quality of and (b) increasing the quantity of social housing. [112970]
§ The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. John Prescott)On 5 February I launched the sustainable community action plan. It marks a step change in our approach to housing in communities. We will invest £22 billion over the next three years, including £5 billion for affordable homes and £2.8 billion to bring local authority housing up to decent housing standards.
§ Mr. SwayneMy district council has been attempting to sell a mobile homes park in Ringwood to its residents, who in turn have made an enormous effort to raise the mortgage money. The deal has been jeopardised by the abolition of local authority social housing grant. What can I say to the residents of Stillwater mobile homes park to reassure them that they will not be left behind, and that they will get a fair deal?
§ The Deputy Prime MinisterAs the hon. Gentleman knows, the local authority housing condition grants were not being used in a proper manner. Some authorities were not using them to provide the social housing for which they were intended. I explained to the House why I had changed the arrangements in the community plan. Difficulties were caused for projects that were half finished, so we have applied different arrangements from those that are in the process of implementation. The project referred to by the hon. Gentleman does not fall into that class, and I assume that a certain amount of planning took place in the hope that the money would be available.
296 On balance, I think that our judgment was correct. I think that what the hon. Gentleman should tell his constituents is that the argument was very much against the implementation of the right-to-buy policy in this instance.
§ Ms Debra Shipley (Stourbridge)Will my right hon. Friend explain exactly how social housing will be improved by the warm homes initiative?
§ The Deputy Prime MinisterIn the community programmes we allow for money not just to build houses but to enable them to meet the new energy standards that we are applying. That is not happening in most parts of the country, and I shall ensure that greater priority is given to it.
§ David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden)The Deputy Prime Minister has claimed in the past that abuses of the right-to-buy scheme reduce the availability of social housing for new tenants. On Monday, the Government introduced their plans for savage cuts in the discounts available to right-to-buy tenants. Are those cuts designed to stamp out abuses, or simply to deny the right to buy to thousands of poorer tenants?
§ The Deputy Prime MinisterI think the right hon. Gentleman would agree that where there is abuse we should deal with it, because this is the taxpayer's money, but the reduction in interest rates under our policies—which is considerably greater than any reduction that occurred when his party were in government—has allowed more than 1 million people to buy their houses. The subsidy of nearly £40 billion simply allowing people to buy houses, rather than allowing the public stock to be improved or increased, worked against a good housing policy.
§ David DavisMay I drag the Deputy Prime Minister back to the question? Cutting discounts by more than half will not hit the abusers; it will hit the poorest tenants. Only on Monday the Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the hon. Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty), confessed that these savage cuts were designed to reduce the number of families exercising the right to buy by 9,000—and it will be 9,000 of the poorest families.
Most of those families cannot afford to move out of social housing, so few if any of the homes will be released to new tenants. According to the figures given by the Under-Secretary of State on Monday, only about 30 homes a year will be released for new tenants in London. Denying the right to buy to 9,000 families will deny the public purse £900 million—about enough for 5,000 new social homes.
Will the Deputy Prime Minister confirm that what he is doing is not only shattering the hopes and dreams of 9,000 poor council tenants who wanted to own their homes, but denying thousands of homeless people their chance of occupying social housing?
§ The Deputy Prime MinisterIf the last Administration had been seriously interested in increasing the housing stock and the availability of social housing, they would not have reduced the moneys available to local authorities to provide social housing, year on year. 297 Their sole housing policy was to provide the right to buy. We have restricted that by reducing the discounts in housing crisis areas. We think that that policy is right, and we intend to pursue it.
I repeat: I think that our policy of reducing interest rates is better than spending £40 billion on subsidising houses simply to implement the principle of the right to buy for 1 million people, and it increases the number of people owning their homes by the same amount. The right hon. Gentleman should have discussed that during his most recent bonding session with his leader.