argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Roberta Carol Blackman-Woods (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman is being uncharacteristically unfair. Many Labour Members argued strongly for more co-operative housing. In fact, I am sure the hon. Gentleman is very well aware that we had a whole section on the Lyons review that addressed this very topic. I think we are doing our bit Amendment 32 is really important. Indeed, the Minister himself acknowledged on a number of occasions that not only do we need homes as places to live in, but that they need to be built in communities that people want to live in. New homes have to be supported with the right infrastructure so that those who rent or purchase them have access to good quality healthcare, schools, further and higher education, transport links, employment and so on. It would be very useful to hear from the Minister this evening what he intends to do to address the concerns raised by a number of local authorities, including Milton Keynes, which pointed out that, because of the lack of community infrastructure levy applied to starter homes, there is a very real risk there will not be enough money available to support the infrastructure that is needed Amendment 33 would ensure that starter homes are affordable at locally determined rates of income and on a multiple of median incomes within the local area, rather than set centrally, which puts the homes out of the reach of many people, as my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) said. Homes that are priced at £250,000 outside London or £450,000 in London are simply unaffordable for too many people Amendment 34 seeks to exclude buy to let property from the definition of a starter home. In Committee, we thought this was a really, really important issue to address. We assumed the Government’s intention is for these to be starter homes for people and not starter homes for landlords. In Committee, we did not get the assurances we sought from the Minister. This is a straightforward amendment, and we would like to hear how he intends to give us the reassurances he indicated in Committee he would. At the moment, nothing has come forward.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Roberta Carol Blackman-Woods (Labour, Centre-left): I do not accept the hon. Gentleman’s logic. The new starter homes would be coming up for resale, as well as the additional starter homes still being built, so I am not quite sure of his logic Amendment 40 would ensure that local authorities can ask for planning gain measures providing for a range of affordable homes, rather than just starter homes Amendment 41 suggests that the Government should really ask local authorities to provide a full assessment of housing need in the area and then deliver the number of homes that meet that housing need, rather than prioritising starter homes above all other types of affordable housing. It does not seem to us that the Government are proposing a sensible measure here, and again we need to hear from the Minister why he is moving away from the NPPS requirement to ensure a full assessment of housing need locally and subsequently that local authorities plan to meet it rather than go off at a particular tangent Amendment 42 is designed to secure an exemption from the requirement "to promote starter homes" where a site has a scheme that is either a "build to rent" scheme or one that contains some other sort of "supported housing for younger people, older people, people with special needs and people with disabilities", for example—or otherwise one that contains a "homeless hostel", "refuge accommodation" or "specialist housing". This is another very important amendment because we feel these sites could be exempted from the requirement to promote starter homes on the grounds that they already delivering a scheme that brings about enormous community benefits Amendment 43 asks for information about starter homes to be displayed on a local authority’s website and updated annually. It should also be put in the context of all other types of housing being built in an area. To provide an example, there might be 640 starter homes produced in an area, but how many affordable homes that are social homes for rent might actually have been built? We think that people need a full range of information about the type of housing and the applicable tenure in order to make sense of starter home information Amendment 44 is designed to ensure that the land set aside for starter homes "is not needed for employment, retail, leisure, industrial or distribution use." It is important for ensuring that starter homes do not crowd out other forms of development Amendment 45 would remove clause 6 from the Bill, as we think it is an imposition on local authorities, which takes away important community rights to have a say about what is happening in an area, while amendment 46 would ensure that in moving to promote self-build, the cost of servicing plots is not unreasonable for local authorities.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I want to raise three concerns about the Government’s proposals on starter homes. Obviously it is right, given the aspirations of many people to own their own home who currently cannot afford to, that we should look seriously at measures that enable that to happen. What we should be concerned about is whether those measures are good value for the taxpayer and have any unintended consequences. If it is such a good idea to help people on to the housing ladder, why do we not help the next group of people on to it by ensuring that the discount, or assistance, continues in perpetuity?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I agree, but I do not think that that is the issue in this instance, because by and large starter homes will be produced by volume house builders These homes will be built instead of other housing, and the Government are almost ignoring the right of local authorities to have an influence on the assessment of housing need. When the Minister appeared before the Select Committee, he said that it would be up to developers and local authorities to negotiate deals, including deals on starter homes, on the basis of individual sites and planning applications. How can that fit into a framework in which the Government have a target—I think it is a target rather than an aspiration; no doubt the Minister will tell us whether that is the case—of 200,000 starter homes? If the Government have a target, they will have to use their powers of direction to ensure that local authorities deliver starter homes on each site that will add up to the 200,000 total. In other words, they will override the rights of local authorities to assess housing need in their areas and arrive at the best deal on each site, so that the best possible balance of housing is available. Starter homes will simply push out the other houses for rent that local people really need.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): Is the hon. Gentleman aware that in certain constituencies, including mine, Help to Buy has helped as few as one household? When I last looked, one household in Hornsey and Wood Green had been assisted in May this year.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): On that point about direction, will the Minister tell me what freedom local authorities will have to assess housing need in their areas if they decide that, on balance, they need to provide more rented or shared ownership homes as part of a package relating to a section 106 agreement on a particular site?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Public Lands
John Mann (Labour, Centre-left): Would the Minister consider a new classification of floodplains within the development framework, to allow an additional specification for local authorities? I am prepared to reshuffle to the Tea Room to discuss this matter further if he would like to join me.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Teresa Pearce (Labour, Centre-left): I will speak to new clauses 55 and 56 and amendments 49, 47 and 48. New clause 55 would require local authorities to put in place a scheme to license and provide for the accreditation of private sector landlords in their area. Private rented housing is an important part of the housing sector. Nine million people rent privately and the sector is growing. In the past, the private rented sector was often a place for young people to find short-term solutions to their housing needs, perhaps while studying or establishing their careers. Now, almost half of those who rent are over 35 and they need security and stability. Many people are stuck in the private sector, unable to secure any of the declining amount of affordable social housing or to save for a deposit to buy their own home owing to the ever-rising rents Most landlords are effective and efficient in letting their property. They provide good properties and support their tenants. Many landlords are already accredited through independent or local authority schemes and some are licensed as they provide houses in multiple occupation. However, there are a few rogue landlords, as we call them, who bring down the name of the private rented sector and the reputation of all landlords. Such rogue landlords often provide substandard accommodation at extortionate prices, sometimes intimidate tenants and often cannot be reached until the rent is due The accreditation of landlords has been a feature of the private rented sector for more than 15 years. A local authority-led accreditation and licensing scheme would allow all private landlords to meet set standards. As it would be administered locally, it would give councils the power to establish the scheme that best suited their local housing need. Some local authorities might have particular difficulties with private landlords in respect of housing standards and want to address those through the scheme. Others might have no real problem, but might want to better understand the housing need in the local area and to monitor standards. An accreditation and licensing scheme would also support other measures in the Bill, such as the database of rogue landlords and banning orders. A local authority-led accreditation and licensing scheme would undoubtedly drive up standards across the private rented sector—something we all want—and bring the select few rogue landlords up to the standards of the many good landlords across the country.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Karen Patricia Buck (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend share my concern that although it is estimated that 700,000 properties in the private rented sector have a category 1 hazard under the housing health and safety rating system, just 2,000 landlords have been prosecuted in the past eight years? In addition to the measures she is supporting, does she agree that we should make it possible for tenants to take action when their properties are not fit for human habitation, and update the legislation, as she sought to do in Committee and I did in my private Member’s Bill?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Teresa Pearce (Labour, Centre-left): I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. The rogue landlord proposals in the Bill and the banning orders are responses after the fact. We want to improve standards so that people do not end up needing banning orders, and do not have to go through the trauma of living in substandard accommodation. Such accommodation often makes people unwell and unfit to work; it lowers their productivity and hampers their children’s education.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Teresa Pearce (Labour, Centre-left): I could not agree more. In Committee we tabled an amendment that asked local authorities to report quarterly to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs on all housing benefit paid, so that some of the landlords who are literally putting money in their back pocket and not providing a decent service could be caught. Unfortunately, that amendment was not accepted.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Mixed Topics
Teresa Pearce (Labour, Centre-left): I am aware of the Scottish scheme, but this measure applies to England and it is perfectly possible that we could do it better. We will discuss our amendment on the ombudsman later, so I hope the hon. Gentleman will bear with me.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Teresa Pearce (Labour, Centre-left): I do accept those facts, and in Committee there was much in this section of the Bill that we agreed on. Amendments were tabled that the Minister took away and has now agreed to, which I welcome. New clause 55 is just to ask whether accreditation and licensing by local authorities would create a more professional private rented sector. New clause 56 would give the Secretary of State the power to introduce a pilot scheme that would see the housing ombudsman extend its cover in London to the private sector. It would require a report from the Secretary of State following the pilot scheme and give the Secretary of State the power to extend the powers of the housing ombudsman to the private sector nationwide after that pilot.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend agree that private landlords being subject to the ombudsman scheme, and subject to the scrutiny that comes with being a part of the scheme, would also help to drive up standards more generally in the private rented sector in a way that is very badly needed?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Government for taking up two of the proposals from the Select Committee’s report in the previous Parliament on rent recovery and civil penalties. That was something the Committee agreed unanimously. I see the hon. Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey) in his place. He was a member of the Committee at that time. It is right to give local authorities a lighter-touch way of dealing with the less serious problems that may exist in private sector properties by introducing civil penalties and rent recovery. The idea that landlords should be getting public money when clearly providing a property that breaches legal requirements is outrageous. It is good that the Government are acting and legislating, I think with all-party support, to ensure that the money paid out in those wrongful circumstances can be properly recovered by the public sector and indeed by tenants where their money has been used to pay for rent for a property that has not met the legal standards I want to raise one or two issues mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Teresa Pearce) and refer to the Select Committee report. When the Committee published its report—I am sorry to cut slightly across my hon. Friend on this issue—we concluded that licensing schemes should be a matter for local discretion. We said that they were a useful tool in the armoury of local authorities to deal with particularly bad problems in areas with poor landlords and poor-quality housing, but we adopted a localist approach and said that in the end it should be a matter for local discretion. However, we did raise the problem—it is right that my hon. Friend raised the issue again—that many authorities chose not to take up licensing schemes, not because they thought they were a bad idea, but because the whole bureaucracy around the schemes deters authorities and makes it expensive to get them in place. I hope the Minister will have another look at that I speak from experience, not in my constituency but in the next-door constituency of Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough. A licensing scheme that was introduced in Page Hall has been very successful in dealing with the real problems caused by bad landlords and bad properties, but the process of establishing it involved a great deal of bureaucracy and money that could have been better spent on enforcement and attempts to deal with the inadequate housing situation.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I think that when authorities have been able to target resources at a particular area, go for the bad landlords and try to get them to sign up, the system has been relatively successful. I have had experience of one case, but there is a bigger case in Newham, where the local authority has been licensing all the private sector properties in the borough If the necessary resources are put in, a licensing scheme can be effective. The difficulty is that local authorities can charge only for the administration costs. They cannot charge for the costs involved in following up inadequate properties, and trying to enforce proper conditions in those properties. The problem that currently affects private sector housing relates not to the powers that local authorities may or may not have, but to the fact that, in many instances, they do not have the resources that would enable them to use their powers effectively. That is a real challenge that needs to be addressed, and on which we ought to reflect further. I do not know whether the Government have any more ideas, but rent recovery and civil penalties may help a little Let me return to another issue that was raised by the Select Committee, and to which the Minister referred. Why cannot local authorities keep the fines that are imposed on bad landlords for failing in their duties? It seems a little odd that in the less serious cases authorities can keep the proceeds of civil penalties, but in the most serious cases, which often cost the most in terms of local authority officers’ time—and, in my experience, authorities often do not recover the costs when they go to court—the fines go back to the central Exchequer. What is the Government’s problem with allowing authorities that are involved in the most serious cases, with the greatest costs, to keep the fines that are levied?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): In some instances, particularly in London boroughs, it is so lucrative to be a landlord that the civil penalties are not enough of a disincentive. People can be in court at one moment and building another shoddy flat at the next. They will simply pay the fine, because ultimately it will represent only a tiny proportion of their profit.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Roberta Carol Blackman-Woods (Labour, Centre-left): I wish to make some comments about the Government new clauses on deregulation of housing associations and ask the Minister some questions. In Committee we raised several probing amendments relating to clause 78, which covered reducing regulation but did not specify what measures the Government would be taking to deregulate the social housing sector. Of course, we understand that the Government are now seeking, under amendment 4, to leave out clause 78 and replace it with new clause 6 and new schedule 1. As the Minister said in Committee in response to probing amendments: "I intend to introduce a package of measures on Report. The ONS announced the reclassification decision on 30 October, which has not yet given us the time to carefully work through a package in time for the Committee."––[Official Report, Housing and Planning Public Bill Committee, 1 December 2015; c. 465.] This is our first opportunity to see these new measures We welcome replacing the general with the specific. Removing clause 78 and replacing it with new clause 6 and new schedule 1 is primary legislation. Clause 78 gave Ministers a sweeping open power to repeal regulations affecting housing associations. At least new clause 6 and new schedule 1 have the merit of being precise—but they are very long. In total, the new clauses and schedules in this group amount to 34 pages of new legislation—almost a quarter as long as the Bill itself. They were tabled close to the deadline for debate on Report, and over the Christmas recess, so there is no way that this House, or the organisations and experts that have a direct interest in these provisions, can properly scrutinise or challenge the Government on the content of this newly introduced legislation. We can see that the new clauses and new schedule contain several elements that address some of the issues raised by the ONS as part of the reclassification of housing associations. They will address the issues through the removal of the Government’s consent power over how housing associations hold their assets.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Other
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): It is good that the Minister has an interest in pursuing the ideas that the hon. Lady has raised, but if the group reports back in three to six months, that means that this Bill will be passed without these changes being introduced. If the working group came up with the view that these proposals were needed, what is the earliest reasonable date by which they could be implemented?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Karen Patricia Buck (Labour, Centre-left): Given that there are three quarters of a million properties in the private rented sector that have a category one hazard, does the Minister share my disappointment that only 250 landlords a year have been prosecuted over the past eight years? Why does he not think it sensible to make a simple change in the law to allow tenants themselves to take civil action against rogue landlords?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I signed the amendments tabled by the right hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) on the necessity of demonstrating to communities how the infrastructure requirements of any development will be completed and carried out. I agree with him that the greatest concerns that people have about developments, whether they be in small villages, city centres or suburban areas, is what the impact will be on local traffic arrangements, whether local public transport will be provided, whether there will be sufficient capacity in doctors’ surgeries and schools, and whether the water and sewerage systems will be capable of dealing with the demands of the developments. All those things are extremely important. Currently, there seems to be no automatic way in which a planning authority has to reassure communities that those issues will be taken into account when it approves a planning application I draw the House’s attention to a report that the Communities and Local Government Committee produced in the last Parliament, in which we looked at the operation of the national planning policy framework during its first two or three years. Recommendation 11 stated: "In setting out the reasons for approving development, decision-makers should fully explain the consideration they have given to its impact on infrastructure and explain how and where they expect the infrastructure to be provided, and to what timetable." In other words, if an application is to be approved, it should be clearly laid out that a planning authority has considered how the infrastructure associated with, needed and required by that development will be provided, who will pay for it, and to what timetable it will be produced.