[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Housing (Greater London)

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 10:32 am on 11 November 2008.

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Photo of Sarah Teather Sarah Teather Shadow Minister (Communities and Local Government) (Housing and Planning) 10:32, 11 November 2008

I apologise for the state of my voice. I have a very bad cold, so I hope that you can hear me, Mr. Bayley.

I congratulate Jeremy Corbyn on securing this important debate. Mr. Field described housing supply and lack of housing provision as an issue that is dear to the heart of every London MP. That is very true. As a fellow London MP, it is certainly an issue that is dear to my heart. Lack of housing, poor, overcrowded, unaffordable and unsuitable housing have all been mentioned today, and they are among the key issues brought to my own office every week. Like the hon. Member for Islington, North I hear the same stories week after week. We hear similar stories about how poor housing causes misery, breaks marriages, ruins health, destroys education and, most importantly, extinguishes hope for many families in London.

Up to 50,000 children are stuck in temporary accommodation in London. In my constituency, that represents one in 10 of Brent's children. The continual moves and the unsuitable housing affects their ability to thrive at school. Just as they settle in one school, they are moved on somewhere else. If that temporary accommodation is also overcrowded, there is no way that they can do their homework. That point has been made by many hon. Members today.

More than 300,000 people are stuck on waiting lists for social housing in London, and 20,000 of those are in Brent, many of them in my constituency. That is an issue of both lack of supply and extreme demand. Falling house prices will not necessarily help the matter. As mortgages become less affordable, we expect a knock-on effect on the affordability of renting as well.

Many hon. Members mentioned cases from their own constituencies. I want to mention a couple from mine. Mr. H. has been on the housing list since 1984. He is in band C, so he is classed as someone in housing need. He is disabled and unable to work. He is single, but he has children who do not live with him. He cannot get a property because he is a single man, which means he cannot get proper access to his children. Mr. H. has been left on the housing list under four different Prime Ministers and still has little chance of finding a home.

Miss G. was registered for re-housing 11 years ago. She was in band C but, after representations from our office, she was upgraded to band B two years ago. She is in a two-bedroom property with four children, all of whom share a bedroom. Her son suffers from autism and learning difficulties. He has to share with his sisters, which has affected all of them.

The hon. Member for Islington, North described other such heart-rending stories. Mr. Randall spoke about how often such stories tip over into racial tension. Housing is one of the few issues in my constituency—an area of probably unqualified tolerance—that will bring tension about immigration to the fore, which is why I hope the Government will now accord greater priority to the matter.

Like other hon. Members, I was very anxious about the ideas that were floated in The Times yesterday. We need to find new and innovative ways to deal with the lack of housing. We already have a situation in which a person has to have a severe physical and/or mental health problem—probably a drug problem—and probably also has to be a single mother to have any chance of social housing. It is hard to see how the situation can be improved if such people are threatened with eviction if they fail to look hard enough for a job, and also if they get a job and their circumstances change.

The Government must tackle the supply issue. I hope they will consider using the current downturn to take advantage of falling land prices to buy up land and properties, where appropriate. They will have to lift registered social landlords' borrowing limits and extend that flexibility to local authorities. We have that opportunity, and we should not let it go by. We can deal not just with the current crisis, but with the long term.

The Government must be more flexible with their house-building targets. As Ms Buck mentioned, we have to accept that funding schemes through sales programmes will cause problems at the moment. I hope the Government will bring forward that subsidy and allow RSLs to fund their own building programmes through a greater proportion of subsidy rather than relying on private sales, otherwise we will end up with no build at all, which will mean that the Government miss their housing targets.

We must have a coherent programme to tackle the issue of empty properties. A number of hon. Members mentioned partially built properties. Developments that are not completed often lie empty. I said that RSLs should be able to buy up some of those properties. However, as the hon. Member for Islington, North mentioned, that will not always be appropriate because such buildings will not necessarily be of suitable size to meet the long-term needs of social tenants.

The Government could make better use of their own scheme, the empty dwellings management orders, to ensure that such buildings are put back into use for private rent. Moreover, I hope they will consider more short-term rent options. Other options exist in other countries in which property is brought into use on a short-term basis. We must be innovative when we consider this issue. It is no good for town centres to have many properties lying empty and available for squatters to inhabit when we have tens of thousands of people in the same area waiting on the housing list for more property.

On repossessions, it is vital that we do whatever we can to keep people in their homes. It will be a disaster not just for those individuals who lose their homes but for local authorities, because they will have to deal with even more people who are desperate for housing at a time when the system is creaking at the seams.

I have concerns about the pre-action protocol that the Government have announced. There is considerable doubt that the courts will enforce much of what is in the protocol. Instead, I hope the Government will consider amending the Banking Bill, which is going through Parliament at present, to put some of those things into law.

Housing is a vital issue that affects all of us here today regardless of our party. The Government have made a number of announcements recently to tackle the problem. Unfortunately, when we go through the detail, we find that there is not a great deal of action. I hope that that will change and that the Government will accord greater priority to the matter.