Rachel Maclean: We have announced £10 billion of investment in housing supply since the start of this Parliament, with our interventions due to ultimately unlock over 1 million new homes. We are also investing £11.5 billion in the latest Affordable Homes Programme to provide tens of thousands of new homes across the country. Annual housing supply is up 10% compared to the previous year with over 232,000...
Rachel Maclean: ...the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 185863 on 30 May 2023. Almshouses play a valuable role in providing homes for communities across the country. Registration with the Regulator of Social Housing is voluntary for almshouses, and a number of almshouses do choose to register. Where almshouses are registered with the Regulator, they are required to meet the Regulator's economic and...
Rachel Maclean: ...the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. Let me end by saying that I think it important for us all to work together proactively across the entire system. Landlords have a stake in this. Bromford Housing Association in Redditch told me that although people are in arrears when they go into its housing, there is not a single case of an eviction. Rather than evicting vulnerable tenants, they...
Rachel Maclean: ...data on private landlords is the English Private Landlord Survey. As part of the English Private Landlord Survey, we collect data on landlords' plans for their portfolio. It is important we have a housing market that works for everyone. The Government is driving up the supply of new homes by diversifying the market; investing in affordable housing; and increasing land supply for new homes...
Rachel Maclean: I was not expecting to be called, Mr Speaker—thank you. Will the Leader of the House please advise me how best to raise in this House the issue of the £29 million that is ready and waiting for the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch? It wants to start the work, and the patients are looking forward to the investment and the improvements in our health service for which they have waited a long...
Rachel Maclean: I am aware that my hon. Friend represents an area with acute environmental sensitivities and he is right to raise those concerns on the Floor of the House. We work across Government not only to tackle the storm overflow issue to which he refers, but to find a way to allow house building and other types of building that is much needed to drive jobs and investment, and to support businesses in...
Rachel Maclean: The Government strongly believes that self and custom build housing can play a crucial role as part of a wider package of measures to boost home ownership and diversify the housing market as well as helping to deliver the homes people want. We have put in place a number of interventions to support the sector, including the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding legislation, sometimes known as...
Rachel Maclean: ...To be clear, our approach means that there will be no overall loss in environmental outcomes. Not only do the measures that we are taking address the very small amount of nutrient run-off from new housing, but at the same time, we are investing in the improvement of environmental outcomes. We do not agree that this is regression on environmental standards. We are taking direct action to...
Rachel Maclean: ...from the outset. We know there is more to be done, which is why we are taking two key further steps on new homes. First, we have made great strides in tackling the needless practice of selling new houses as leasehold. Our actions, including prohibiting Government programmes such as Help to Buy from funding new leasehold houses, have seen the share of new houses sold as leasehold cut from...
Rachel Maclean: ...to make sure that the Government deliver a strong, functioning private rented sector. As has been reflected during the course of the debate, private rented accommodation is the second largest housing sector in England, providing homes for 4.6 million households and an estimated 11 million tenants. It plays a vital role in supporting people to study away from home, explore new locations or...
Rachel Maclean: ...to conclude my remarks, so let me reiterate my huge thanks to my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden. He is absolutely right to articulate so powerfully the case for driving up housing supply. That is our ambition—to build the homes that this country needs—and that is what this Conservative Government, working with Members on all sides of the House, will achieve.
Rachel Maclean: This Government remains committed to supporting local authorities to continue to deliver their new and existing supply plans for council housing. In March of this year, we announced a preferential borrowing rate for council housebuilding from the Public Works Loan Board. We have also recently introduced greater flexibilities on how councils can spend their Right to Buy receipts to make local...
Rachel Maclean: More than 70 Opposition Members have brought us back to this House today, supposedly to talk about and scrutinise Brexit, when we have had three years to talk about Brexit in this House, and I have not heard a single original point made by any Opposition Member today. Has the Prime Minister heard any new arguments? Does he think that the people in this country are interested in what is being...
Rachel Maclean: No, that is not the case. It is a pleasure to respond to the hon. Gentleman. This Government are taking the delivery of affordable housing across the whole country incredibly seriously. That is why more than 243,000 affordable homes have been provided in rural local authorities in England, such as those represented by Members across this House, between April 2010 and March 2022. We must get...
Rachel Maclean: ...) set out. I want to be very clear that there has been no U-turn, as some have tried to characterise it. This is about timing. As hon. Members will know, it is a long-standing tradition of this House that Ministers cannot comment on precise timescales and details of forthcoming legislation, but I can reassure the House today that officials in my Department are working flat out to bring...
Rachel Maclean: On 7 February the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published the Final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23. The Settlement sets out a core council tax referendum principle of 2%, which means North Yorkshire FRA will be able to increase their average Band D council tax by up to 2% next year without requiring a local referendum. The referendum principles were...
Rachel Maclean: ...of England. We welcome ideas from existing and new partners who have an ambition to deliver more affordable homes. More details are online here. The Mayor of London, through the London Plan and Housing Strategy, sets out where homes should be built and what level of affordable housing is required.
Rachel Maclean: ...the hon. Lady on the detail of the clauses in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, but I am proud of the Government’s record in bringing forward levelling-up across the whole country, with house building backed by billions of pounds of public funding and taxpayers’ money. As I said in answer to the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), our house building record is...
Rachel Maclean: Variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to works or services, the works or services must be of a reasonable standard. We believe that charges to leaseholders and social housing tenants should be transparent and communicated effectively, and there should be a clear route to challenge them if things go wrong. With regard specifically to social housing tenants I refer...
Rachel Maclean: What I would like to see from Members on the other side of the House is an apology for talking this country down, which they have done repeatedly. I am not sure whether the hon. Lady was able to tune in to Treasury questions recently when the Chancellor set the record straight on how we now have one of the fastest-growing rates in the G7. It is this Conservative Government who will get every...
