Housing: Completions and Starts (Hansard, 14 November 1990)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, in Great Britain during the first nine months of 1990 103,900 dwellings were started by private enterprise, 12,700 by housing associations and 7,300 by local authorities and other public sector bodies. The corresponding figures for completions in the same period were 112,000, 9,000 and 12,700, respectively.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for giving those detailed figures. In relation to the public sector, is she aware that the figures are probably the lowest within living memory? Is she also aware that between the early 1920s and the late 1970s local authorities, whatever their political control and under whatever government, built more than 6 million houses for people within their areas? Why are the Government persisting with a policy of seeing local authorities as enablers and not builders? It is clear that the charitable and housing associations cannot fulfil that role, and the private rented sector certainly cannot do so. Will the Government now do an about-face and allow the local authorities increased access to more than £2 billion that has been raised from council house sales but withheld in order to let them get on with a rapidly increased building programme to provide the houses that are badly needed?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, there is a fundamental difference between the noble Lord and the Government on this issue. The noble Lord believes that those in local authorities should be the only 334 people in the business of providing housing for the community. Credit approvals for local authorities have increased by £102 million for 1991–92; revenue subsidy has reached £3,490 million; by 1993 gross expenditure on housing corporations will have bust the ceiling of £2 billion, which is an 88 per cent. increase on the current year; and home ownership has increased from 50 per cent. in 1979 to 69 per cent. this year. Given the difficulties of this year, a record number of first-time buyers have entered the market. We believe in a pluralism of provision and the important issue is that people are housed.

§ Lord Gisborough
My Lords, can my noble friend say why one sees so many blocks of council houses with windows boarded up?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I cannot give the reason. Some local authorities manage their housing stock better than others. Where houses are boarded up we appeal to the local authority to do what it can to bring them back into use as soon possible.

§ Lord Mellish
My Lords, the Minister will understand that the construction industry is a barometer of the nation's economy. No Member on either side of the House can deny that at present the industry is in a bad state. When is there likely to be an upturn in the industry and in its output?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Mellish, is right in saying that these are difficult times for the construction industry. However, I must link my reply to one given by my noble friend Lord Hesketh earlier today. The enemy is inflation and there are signs of it falling; indeed, interest rates have begun to fall. That will do more to help the construction industry to get back on track than almost anything else.

§ Baroness Fisher of Rednal
My Lords, is the Minister satisfied that the housing corporations have the ability to solve the housing crisis? Does she agree that the local authorities need a massive amount of money in order to solve the problem of homelessness? Ten years ago in Birmingham 2,700 people presented themselves as being homeless. Last year the figure had risen by 244 per cent. to 8,700. When the Minister speaks she must think of the dire misery of the homeless in this country.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the noble Baroness posed many questions in that statement. The housing associations alone are not the answer; nor are the local authorities alone. There must be an amalgam of all the agencies that I mentioned in my Answer. As regards the homeless, the Government have recognised that there is a difficulty. During the next two years an additional £130 million will be made available. Of that, £50 million will be made available to relieve local authorities' provision of poor temporary accommodation and £80 million will be paid to housing associations to relieve those sleeping rough on our streets and in our cities. There is a total of £300 million intended specifically to aid the homeless.

§ Baroness Hollis of Heigham
My Lords, does the Minister agree that permitting local authorities to recycle the housing receipts into new housing would, 335 at a stroke, add to the plurality of provision and meet the needs of the homeless as I am sure all Members of the Hc use would wish?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I do not agree with the noble Baroness. Often the best receipts are in areas which are not the poorest and where the need is greatest. Therefore, one must consider a distribution mechanism. Secondly, as I have said in two previous answers, putting the issue in the hands of the local authorities does not increase pluralism. We are increasing the amount of money given to local authorities but we believe that other agencies are equally and sometimes better able to provide accommodation for the homeless and those who wish to buy homes in the private sector.

§ Lord Glenamara
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the point of view that she put forward in her reply would be more credible if private builders were building more low-cost houses? They are not doing so because that is not as profitable as building bigger houses. Is she further aware that in hundreds of villages in the North of England private builders are buying up sites and building houses in the £150,000 to £200,000 range, which does nothing to help local people? Will the Minister persuade her friends in the private building sector to build low-cost houses even though that may reduce their profits a little?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I shall not condemn the private sector by saying that it is not building. It is providing housing across the range from low-cost to high-cost housing. As regards low-cost housing specifically, registered housing associations already provide homes for more than 1 million people and are now the main providers of subsidised homes for rent and low-cost home ownership for those on low incomes and with the greatest housing need. In recognition of its new role the Housing Corporation's capital investment programme is planned to double between 1989 and 1993. In addition, Housing Estate Action has been given a boost of funds to deal with the refurbishment of our large estates. More money has also been made available for low-cost housing in rural areas where there are exciting and innovative schemes by local authorities and housing associations.

§ Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone
My Lords, is it not the case that these intricate matters of argument on both sides are better reserved for argument in debate rather than oral Questions?

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, the Minister gave many complex figures but the fact is that the Government's reports show that the nation needs at least a further million houses for rent by the turn of the century. At the present rate of progress announced by the Minister there is no possibility of reaching that target by the end of the next century. When are we to make a start on eating into the present figures?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, given the fact that there is always further to go, I believe that the Government's record on tackling all housing problem; on all fronts is greater than that of any previous government, particularly that of the noble Lord's party. Today more people own their own 336 homes and are buying for the first time. More people are being helped at the bottom of the income scale, more low-cost housing is being provided and more is being done for the homeless. We are tackling the problem on all fronts and it would help the Government if energies were geared towards that end.

§ The Earl of Shrewsbury
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that, contrary to what the noble Lord opposite said about low-cost housing, many of the major house building companies in the West Midlands are setting their sights firmly on building low-cost housing, especially considering the fall in land prices during the past six or seven months?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that question. Considerable acreages are being made available on land in rural areas that would not normally be available for housing. Much is happening on the housing front.