Rachel Maclean: ...232,000 homes for the last year for which data is available – over 75% of the way towards our goal of ensuring there are 300,000 new homes a year. We have announced £10 billion investment in housing supply since the start of this Parliament, with our housing supply interventions due to ultimately unlock over 1 million new homes over the Spending Review 2021 period and beyond. We are...
Rachel Maclean: ...all from her. I saw her work as the Home Secretary, which is definitely the most difficult job in Government. Back to matters connected to Witham, we share my right hon. Friend’s desire for the housing and planning system to work for absolutely everybody. We want to make this a country of home ownership. We are the party of home ownership, and we completely agree with her that we want to...
Rachel Maclean: ...own homes. Funding is un-ringfenced, which allows councils to use the funding as best suits their area, including measures to support guests to access the private rented sector. The Local Authority Housing Fund provides capital funding directly to councils in England to obtain housing for Ukrainian and Afghan families and in the longer term will provide a new and permanent supply of...
Rachel Maclean: The Welsh Labour Government have a shocking record on house building, as they have on many issues. What is more, they are not tackling the issue at source, which is why we are bringing forward our catchment plans and our protected site strategies. A lot of the rivers that are draining from Wales are impacting negatively on constituencies in England. The only thing I agree with in the hon....
Rachel Maclean: ...and I thank every Member for making powerful contributions. I start by reaffirming the unshakeable commitment of the Government to driving up both the quality and quantity of this nation’s social housing stock. It is a core tenet of our levelling-up agenda, and that has been reflected in recent years, starting with our affordable homes programme. The Government have been clear that they...
Rachel Maclean: The Secretary of State set out, in the House, his intention to bring the 'outdated and feudal' tenure of leasehold to an end. The Government wishes to extend the benefits of freehold ownership to more homeowners. That is why we have committed to end the sale of new leasehold houses, and to reinvigorate commonhold so it can finally be a genuine alternative to leasehold; it is why we have...
Rachel Maclean: ...do not have long to wait. They will have all their questions answered in due course. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Ben Everitt) for his excellent speech on social housing. I reassure him that social housing will be part of the infrastructure levy, and it was a pleasure to meet his small builders and business experts. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for...
Rachel Maclean: To improve the length of time taken to process medical licensing applications, the DVLA has recruited additional staff. This includes increasing the number of in-house doctors it employs and temporary administrative staff. Nurse caseworkers are being utilised to deal with specific conditions. The DVLA is also working with the relevant bodies to explore ways of reducing the time taken to...
Rachel Maclean: The Greater London Authority has responsibility for delivering Affordable Housing in London, with a delegation of £4 billion to invest in new housing from the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes to rent and to buy right across the country, including thousands of new homes for social rent. Between...
Rachel Maclean: This is exactly why we have introduced to the House the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. If the hon. Lady was listening to my earlier remarks, she would have heard me setting out the stronger sentences, the increase in electronic tagging for these perpetrators and the raft of protections to keep women and girls safer. She will also know through the many exchanges that we have had in...
Rachel Maclean: ...for Manchester, Gorton (Afzal Khan) is not in his place at the moment, but he is an honourable man and I respect his campaign on this issue. Of course he has garnered a lot of sympathy across the House. We have heard about the issues that our constituents have with boundaries, and they are valid concerns. It is right that we should be airing them in this House. However, the assertion seems...
Rachel Maclean: Shared ownership rents are increased annually in accordance with the terms of the lease. We are however aware of the impact that inflation has had on rents. That is why we welcome the fact that housing associations representing 95% of the sector's shared ownership homes have confirmed - through the National Housing Federation - that they will voluntarily limit rent increases to no more than...
Rachel Maclean: ...effectively challenge their landlord if they consider their fees are unreasonable. We are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this parliament. With regard specifically to social housing tenants living in housing associations I refer the Hon. Member to the oral answers given on 27 March 2023 (Official Report, HC, Volume 730, Column 644) and to the answers given to...
Rachel Maclean: We assess levels of damp and overcrowding by tenure through the English Housing Survey, which can be found here. Local level data will be held by the local authority in question. Everyone deserves a decent home - one that is free from dangerous damp and mould and overcrowding - which is why we committed to reducing the number of non-decent rented homes by 50% by 2030. We are reviewing the...
Rachel Maclean: ...Government, and it is fantastic compared with the woeful record of the last Labour Government. At the same time, we are not complacent about the scale of the challenges that have dogged England’s housing market for decades, as many hon. Members have mentioned: demand outstripping supply, local shortages and residents being priced out of the places they grew up in. That is why we have...
Rachel Maclean: The hon. Gentleman must be telepathic, because I was just about to come to that point. We are more broadly focused on accelerating housing delivery to make home buying a reality for a new generation, so we must build homes in the places that people want to live and work. As the Prime Minister said, and I agree with him, we want decisions about homes to be driven locally, which is why we need...
Rachel Maclean: ...determination and, as she says, that of the Opposition Members, including her opposite number on the Front Bench, the hon. Member for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris), and other Members across the House. I pay tribute to everybody, because I know how much work has gone into the Bill. The Minister knows as well as anybody else that changing the law on its own is not enough. She has been clear...
Rachel Maclean: No. I need to wind up. This Conservative Government have made the provision of affordable housing part of our plan to build more homes across the country, including in Luton, so that we can provide aspiring homeowners with a step on to the housing ladder. The affordable homes programme is worth £11.5 billion and will deliver thousands of affordable homes to rent or buy. The Government are...
Rachel Maclean: ...such a huge impact on her constituents. The Government stand firmly behind local leaders, in Oxfordshire and elsewhere, through upcoming measures such as legislative changes supporting sustainable housing growth. I think the hon. Lady started from 30 years ago, but I will not go quite that far back—I will go back just to 2017. Oxfordshire has long been pivotal to the UK economy, with...
Rachel Maclean: ...help them and that places duties on them to intervene earlier, so that they can be there when families most need their help, which is what we all want to see. Of course, we need to fix the broken housing market. My goodness, how many times have we heard that in this place? Again, this is not a new issue. For 30 or 40 years, all Governments have not built enough houses. We heard absolutely...
