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Affordable Housing

My hon. Friend has seen a very deleterious change in housing provision and policy in his borough since the Conservatives took control in May, and, sadly, tenants and others in housing need will bear the brunt of that change. My hon. Friend the Minister has been enormously sympathetic and of great practical assistance in responding to the problem of overcrowding. Westminster is one of the boroughs with the highest levels of overcrowding in the country, and the words ““Shirley Porter”” are not entirely out of context in that regard. Unfortunately, despite my hon. Friend’s support, the situation is not only bad but deteriorating. In the last fortnight, I have been visited by people from three new households. Families of six are sharing one-bedroom flats. Can Members imagine the pressures that that causes? Children risk growing up in surroundings in which they cannot study, in which they have no privacy and in which any illness will spread like wildfire. Overcrowding has been known to cause tuberculosis to spread among family members. Mothers tell me that their teenage sons have left home and are on the streets because they cannot bear to return to a household where they cannot retreat to a bedroom of their own—in which they may have to share a bedroom with a 12-year-old sister. Indeed, there may be four or five family members sleeping in a single bedroom. That is intolerable. My hon. Friend has announced investment in loft extensions and deconversions. I welcome that, and the planning changes that will help us to deal with overcrowding. We should, however, bear in mind that the Housing Corporation’s programme for 2006-08—new housing supply is, of course, entirely driven by the Housing Corporation—contains provision for 3,300 homes with three or more bedrooms. That represents a 1 per cent. increase in the supply of property in that band. There are 13,867 households waiting now, even before the inevitable pressures gain momentum. We are still in the foothills when it comes to meeting that crying need. As my hon. Friend knows, some housing need in London is met through sub-regional housing partnerships, because not all boroughs can meet their own needs. That is, I think, a strong argument against allowing entirely local determination for planning provision. Some of the boroughs in our sub-regional partnership are playing deeply deceitful games. All the anecdotal evidence shows that outer London boroughs are designating almost all their new housing developments ““disabled housing”” in order to deny the legitimate expectations of central London boroughs to draw on that stock. I hope that my hon. Friend will pursue the boroughs that engage in such practices. If we cannot rely on the meeting of demand in the round rather than simply in our own boroughs, and if local authorities are implicitly encouraged to take part in those games, we shall not be able to meet our housing needs. It is entirely right for us to try to fulfil the legitimate wish of young families to buy their homes, but I have a few caveats. The first relates to the way in which home ownership has squeezed out the investment that is required to meet the needs of homeless families, those in overcrowded accommodation and those in social housing generally. Secondly, there are real risks in promoting home ownership to categories of people who cannot afford to sustain it. The Minister knows that I had a recent Adjournment debate on the impact of major works and service charges on council leaseholders, some of whom are in serious need. A steady flow of households have bought into temporary accommodation and then found that they could not maintain their homes because of service charges or major works bills or, for instance, a young family who were overcrowded in a one-bedroomed shared ownership property have been unable to stay. Some families have lost their shared ownership property and have had to present themselves as homeless as a consequence. It is therefore important that we do not see such ownership as a panacea. It is often not recognised that shared and affordable home ownership involves subsidy. There is a slight political tendency to see those in social housing as feckless poor who get handouts from the state, as opposed to entrepreneurial home owners. In fact, however, we are subsidising shared ownership by £50,000 per unit in London. That may or may not be the right choice, but it is important to understand that all forms of affordable housing investment have financial consequences. The Mayor’s housing strategy for London, which I very much welcome, also strongly emphasises the targeting of investment in home ownership towards intermediate housing to meet the needs of families. He estimates that there are 91,000 tenants in London who could buy their own homes but need family-sized homes. Shared ownership is too heavily skewed towards small units such as studios and one-bedroom flats, which do not allow families to grow and stay in central London. The Government’s children strategy is based on the concept that every child matters. Demonstrably, and sadly, every child does not matter at the moment. Children in homeless families and in grossly overcrowded accommodation do not matter in the sense of receiving the kind of support and investment that would get them out of a crisis situation. Next year’s comprehensive spending review is our last and best opportunity to put an end to the worst crisis in public policy.