Housing was a key campaign issue for me and, following my election, a matter which I have pressed the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Government Ministers on. I want to help my local communities and councils to build the properties we need whilst ensuring that the infrastructure and public services are in place. These developments should fit their surrounds, be stylish and enhance the landscape. I also want to ensure that we do not become a commuter zone - our places of work must not all become new housing estates.
I spoke in the Housing debate in the House of Commons. You can read below the full transcript of the speech I prepared. In Parliament, the more times you speak for your constituents in the chamber, the less time you get given. Having spoken many times since being elected, I got called last! You can view below the transcript the part of my speech which I could fit in.
Speech:
Mr Speaker,
I wish to address three key matters:
1. The disappointing performance of the Housing sector over recent years
2. What this Government is doing to champion an improvement in the number of Homes built
3. What more could be done to help more people get on the housing ladder
1. Housing Sector Over Recent Years
I note that the motion makes comparisons between 2010 and the present but, according to the Office of National Statistics, the Housing sector has disappointed over a longer term trend.
In 1991, 65% of 25 – 34 year olds owned their own home. By 2012, this figure had declined to under 45%.
The figures are not much better for the 35 – 44 year olds. 80% owned their own home in 1991 compared to 65% in 2012.
In the 80s and 90s, 1 in 3 of 16 – 24 year olds earned enough money to own their own home. That figure is now 1 in 10.
Since 1996, the number of 20 – 34 year olds living with their parents has risen by 25% (despite that proportion of the population remaining the same)
In 1996, the typical first time buyer had to raise 2.7 times their salary to afford a new home. That figure is now 4.5 times salary.
Tougher lending criteria, often requiring 25% deposits, and rising private rents and low savings returns, making it harder to save, have caused more young adults back to the family home.
Making it even harder for first time buyers has been the rise of the buy-to-let market, which started to make an impact in 2003 and has risen since, and the inward flows of foreign investment which have started to crowd out our cities to local buyers.
We are simply not building enough to keep up with both demand and the challenges which many of our constituents face in order to buy a home of their own.
2. Government Initiatives to Improve Homebuilding and Homeownership
The cost of housing is now so absurd that there appears to be a recognition that something has to change to give our young people the opportunity which many older homeowners were able to take for granted.
Housing having been one of my election themes when elected for Bexhill and Battle Constituency, I welcome the focus from the Government via the Housing and Planning Bill and via changes in the taxation system to make Housing affordable for domestic buyers (particularly for First Time Buyers).
I am buoyed by the ‘ambition’ of one million more new homes to be delivered by 2020.
There are three segments which I believe will play a role in homeownership renewal:
1. The doubling of the Housing Budget to £2bl
With this comes a package to see 200,000 starter homes delivered with discounts offered to buyers, 135,000 help to buy properties with shared ownership and the freeing up of public land to provide capacity for 160,000 homes.
2. A change in the tax system to make it harder for buy-to-let landlords to snap up available properties or overheat the market.
I applaud the reduction in Mortgage Interest Rate Relief to basic rates of tax (and would advocate removing it altogether). I further applaud the Chancellor’s announcement of additional stamp duty for buy-to-let investors. For too long, it has been too hard for first-time-buyers to compete with cash-rich investors. With the recent changes to pensions giving more rights to utilise pension pots, these measures should redress the balance away from buy-to-let landlords.
3. Right to Buy for Housing Association tenants
In the two District Councils within my constituency, one has council housing stock and the other housing association stock. Leaving the politics out of this decision, any opportunity to give a tenant the right to purchase their own housing association property in Rother, thus enjoying the same rights as council house tenants hold in Wealden, has to be fair. Provided that this policy puts an absolute requirement for one new, and comparable, Housing Association property to be built, this policy will boost both homeownership and housing numbers.
3. What more could be done to help more people get on the housing ladder?
Government initiatives are radical and welcome but I would advocate going further with some of the following policies being considered:
1. Building on Green Spaces
In the Bexhill and Battle Constituency, almost 80% of my geographical spread is designated as AONB.
There is little in the way of local employment but, where it is, it is situated on brown-field sites.
If the 20,000 properties, which Wealden District Council plans to build, and the 10,000 properties, which Rother District Council plans to build, are designated, via their local plans, on brown-field sites then where will our current, and next generation, of homeowners work?
We cannot become a commuter-dormitory for London – the transport network cannot cope as is.
In one of my parishes, the village petitioned the District Council to allow a small housing complex to be built on a green field just outside the building boundary.
By campaigning to build on this green field, Etchingham now has a new school, a new village hall and new housing (some of which is affordable).
I would like the Government to make it easier to allow Parishes and Town Councils to make these decisions.
The Government maintains that it is making matters easier but, where a District Council has a plan, Parishes and Towns are required to conform to that plan otherwise their own local plan will not be approved by District Councils.
I would like to free Parishes and Towns from the shackles of District Plan compliance.
If they want to designate a site then let them so do and let them override District plans for their parish or town (if within planning laws).
2. Delivering Infrastructure
Whilst the argument is being won that we need more housing, real concern exists that communities will not have the schools, doctors and other essential public services until the housing has been completed.
If authorities could deliver infrastructure at the same time as building commences, the public may embrace more housing and may even ask for more housing than scoped if, say, a new secondary school would be viable for x more homes.
I would like to see local authorities given the power to borrow money against the receipts from New Homes Bonuses (which would only work if the New Homes Bonus would be continued beyond its current term and towards the District Council plan end date).
3. Turning Consent into New Homes
The amount of land where planning consent has been granted, but work has not commenced, continues to cause alarm.
Whilst the planning consent can expire, I know, as a former District Councillor, that it merely needs some pathway construction to remain live.
The lack of building not only adds to a problem of a shortage of housing numbers, it also deprives local authorities from collecting receipts from S106 funding or Community Infrastructure Levies.
I would support a policy whereby developers are required to pay a first instalment of S106 or CIL within 12 months of the planning consent being granted and not upon completion.
This policy would not only incentivise house building, and increase stock, it would also permit local authorities to deliver vital infrastructure in parallel with house building.
Conclusion
The need to tackle our housebuilding shortage is a huge priority.
It is a national tragedy that our young constituents believe that a right that many of their parents would assume to be an eventuality is, for them, seen as a distant dream.
The average UK home now costs £287,000.
I support the Government in its desire to build more houses to allow demand to better meet supply.
I also support, and advocate, even more radical plans which will give our young people the chance of a home for their own.
Video of speech: