Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

House Building

Monday 11 January 2021 · 4 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Government delivered more than 243,000 homes last year, the highest level in over 30 years.
  • Government provided 12 billion for the affordable homes programme to build more social and affordable homes.
  • Government directed the Mayor of London to include a tall buildings policy in the forthcoming London plan.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 David Simmonds Con Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner
Housing
Context

The MP is inquiring about the government's efforts to increase house construction.

Question

What steps his Department is taking to promote house building. The Government has a responsibility to ensure more homes are built for various needs, including affordable housing and addressing specific community requirements.

Answer from Robert Jenrick

The Government care deeply about building more homes and delivered more than 243,000 last year, the highest level for more than 30 years. We have gone to great lengths to keep the whole industry open during the pandemic, sustaining hundreds of thousands of people's jobs and livelihoods, while continuing to stimulate the market through our stamp duty cut. Covid will impact starts significantly, so we are taking steps to sustain activity, including delivering up to 180,000 homes through our £12 billion investment in affordable homes, the biggest investment of its kind for a decade.

Answered
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Q2 Edward Leigh Con Gainsborough
Housing Agriculture & Rural Affairs
Context

The MP is concerned about the lack of social housing construction in his constituency's small rural villages over the past four decades, impacting young couples and their ability to buy homes.

Question

There are about 100 small rural villages in my Gainsborough constituency, and I doubt there has been any building of social housing in any of them over the past 40 years. It is virtually impossible for young couples, who often do precisely the jobs we want in rural areas, to buy into villages. Will the Secretary of State do a massive campaign like the Macmillan campaign at the beginning of the 1950s to build social housing and rent to buy in our rural villages in England?

Answer from Robert Jenrick

Like my right hon. Friend, I want to see more homes of all kinds built in all parts of the country, and I want to deliver as many social and affordable homes as we possibly can. I was delighted that the Chancellor gave us the funding for the £12 billion affordable homes programme, which as I say is the largest for a decade. It has a target to deliver 10% of those homes in rural areas, so it should support his community in Lincolnshire.

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Q3 David Simmonds Con Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner
Housing
Context

The MP welcomes recent announcements on improving conditions for leaseholders and preventing overly tall buildings from blighting local neighborhoods.

Question

My constituents particularly welcome my right hon. Friend's recent announcements in respect of improving the circumstances of leaseholders and ensuring that overly tall buildings are not permitted to blight local neighbourhoods. When can we expect to see the benefit of those measures being implemented?

Answer from Robert Jenrick

I congratulate my hon. Friend on the work he has done in this area, along with a number of his colleagues representing London constituencies. I have corresponded with the Mayor of London, directing him that in the forthcoming London plan there now be a tall buildings policy for London, which will ensure that every borough can determine if and where tall buildings should be built.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The answer does not provide a timeline or specific implementation details.

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Q4 Thangam Debbonaire Lab
Housing
Context

The MP criticises the government for failing to increase house construction and for pushing up property prices, making it difficult for first-time buyers.

Question

Hard-working young people saving up for their own home have been let down by successive Tory Governments, and this Government are missing their own target of increasing to 300,000 the number of homes built per year by the mid-2020s. The stamp duty holiday pushed prices out of reach of first-time buyers, and the first homes scheme built literally no homes. So what does the Secretary of State say to the young people whose dream of home ownership he has so badly let down?

Answer from Robert Jenrick

Let us remember that the last Labour Government left house building in this country at its lowest ever level in peacetime—the lowest since the 1920s. The statistics that we published at the end of last year show that this Government are building more homes than any Government has built for almost 40 years, and were it not for covid, we would have built more homes than any Government since that in which Harold Macmillan was Housing Secretary many years ago.

Not addressed: The answer deflects by discussing past Labour government performance instead of addressing current target failures.

How: Discussing Past Performance

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