Rachel Maclean: When I have finished my remarks. I would like to remind the House that the Mayor of London is responsible for housing in London. He is a Labour Mayor of London and the problems there lie firmly at his door. Many Members have also spoken about councils. I would like to point out my own local council’s record. Conservative-run Redditch Borough Council is delivering council housing. That is...
Rachel Maclean: ...for one will be looking at that with great interest. I thank all other hon. Members, and I will come to their remarks before I finish speaking. The Government fully recognise the importance of SME house builders, and we are committed to ensuring that SMEs survive and thrive. We all share that objective. In case of any doubt, I will confirm that we support this critical part of the housing...
Rachel Maclean: The Government is driving up the supply of new homes by supporting diversification of the market, investing in affordable housing, and increasing land supply for new homes by investing in infrastructure. We also remain committed to continue working towards our ambition of delivering 300,000 homes per year to help create a more sustainable and affordable housing market. We welcome new...
Rachel Maclean: As set out previously, the Government has been examining ways to incentivise the prompt build-out of permitted housing sites and to support councils to act against those who fail to meet these commitments. Through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, we are requiring housing developers to notify local authorities, via a Development Commencement Notice, when they commence development. We...
Rachel Maclean: ...point. I repeat that we are committed to moving to a fairer, simpler and more equitable system. We are committed to the promises in our manifesto, as the Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, my hon. Friend the Member for North East Derbyshire (Lee Rowley), set out in his opening remarks. These promises have been repeated by previous Secretaries of State with...
Rachel Maclean: ...forgive me, because I have a lot to get on the record. My right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden has passionately advocated for new towns. We agree that an ambitious pipeline of housing and regeneration opportunities is crucial. I am a representative of a new town, Redditch, which currently houses about 70,000 people, so I know how successful and how important those...
Rachel Maclean: .... I would be absolutely delighted to meet my hon. Friend’s residents. I implore her to contact my office so that we can arrange that as soon as we can. I hope this debate has demonstrated to the House, leaseholders and homeowners on freehold estates across the country our continued commitment to reform and to making things better. I am grateful to Members across the House, campaign...
Rachel Maclean: ...what we are doing. To support continued delivery, in March this year we announced that local authorities will have access to a new concessionary Public Works Loan Board interest rate for council house building from June this year. Local authorities have a real part to play in that endeavour. We are giving them the flexibility to make locally led decisions that deliver the best deal for...
Rachel Maclean: I thank the hon. Gentleman. On his first point, we believe that we currently have the right balance. Of course, the Bill will proceed through the House. On his intention to table an amendment, I am of course happy to meet him to discuss that. A number of Members referenced housing issues more generally. The Opposition Front-Bench spokesperson, the hon. Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen),...
Rachel Maclean: What I take issue with in the right hon. Gentleman’s questions—plural—is his comment that we scrapped housing targets. We have done no such thing. We are committed to building 1 million homes during this Parliament, and we have the target of building 300,000 homes every year. That is a very important target that we stand by. What we are doing, unlike the Labour party, is taking account...
Rachel Maclean: ...already makes clear that planning policies and decisions should be responsive to local circumstances in rural areas. Our Rural Exception Sites policy allows for the development of small affordable housing sites in rural areas, with the majority of housing on these sites being available to local people in perpetuity, and we published planning practice guidance in 2020 to help local...
Rachel Maclean: This Government is committed to accelerating housing delivery to make home buying a reality for a new generation. We want decisions about homes to be driven locally and we want to get more local plans in place to deliver the homes we need. That is why we remain committed to a 300k target and to retaining a clear starting point for calculating local housing needs, and we know the best way to...
Rachel Maclean: The provision of affordable housing is part of the Government's plan to build more homes and provide aspiring homeowners with a step onto the housing ladder. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country. We would encourage Local Authorities in Leicester to work with social housing providers to bid...
Rachel Maclean: It is a pleasure to wind up this wide-ranging and impassioned debate on behalf of the Government. We have heard from Members across the House of the challenges inherent in the leasehold system—challenges that we are determined to tackle through further reforms in this Parliament. I am grateful to hon. Members on both sides of the House who have given powerful examples from their...
Rachel Maclean: ...rent increases through the First-Tier Tribunal, and enable tenants to be repaid rent for non-decent homes. At Autumn Statement 2022, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the social housing rent cap would be set at 7% for 2023-24. The cap was set at 7% as it strikes an appropriate balance between protecting social tenants from high rent increases and ensuring that Registered...
Rachel Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Whole Housing Approach pilot, which was funded by the Department from 2018 – March 2021.
Rachel Maclean: Where co-operatives provide social housing, they may register with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and then they must comply with the regulatory standards set by the RSH.
Rachel Maclean: The department does not hold official statistics on this but the 'English Housing Survey Older people's housing 2020-21' includes data on households headed by an older person aged 65 and over. Announcements will be made in the usual way.
Rachel Maclean: The Government provides landlords with funding for new supply of affordable housing, including for regeneration schemes where that investment delivers net additional housing. However, we generally expect landlords to fund repairs and other regeneration themselves from the income they get from rents and their own market activities.
Rachel Maclean: I will be happy to meet the hon. Lady to discuss housing targets in Coventry. In the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill we have set out the measures under which local areas will have more power to ensure that the right housing is built in the right places. I am happy to discuss that with her.
