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Rented Housing

I have certainly seen figures from the Department in the past that show there is some disparity between the section 106 agreements that are reached and the number of houses that are eventually built. Again, that is something Ministers may wish to look at. I shall make two other points about section 106. There is still nervousness about the effect of the community infrastructure levy on section 106 agreements for social housing. I support the community infrastructure levy, as it is right to have a policy that ensures that the public purse benefits from the private gain from planning permissions. We have received assurances from Ministers about the interaction between section 106 agreements for social housing and CIL, but we still seek reassurances that there will not be any adverse effects. As I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey), the Chair of the Committee, will testify, when we travelled around the country, the Committee saw how section 106 agreements sometimes lead to the provision of nice-quality landscaped private sector housing in a development, but that somewhere at the back of the site—almost as an embarrassment—a few social housing units are tucked away so that no one can see them. In some cases, a wall is built around such units to separate them from the private housing and prevent too much contamination between the two lots of residents. That must stop. Local authorities must be required to ensure that where provision for affordable social housing is made, it is done in a way that does not lead to an obvious ““us and them”” feeling about the scheme. At a recent public meeting about how to develop a new site in my constituency, such an attitude was shown by a constituent who said to me, ““We aren't going to have any of those people living here, are we?”” Unfortunately, those attitudes exist and local authorities have to stand up to them and ensure that we have mixed communities. On mixed communities, I want to discuss the point that the Committee made about the right to buy. We could all rewrite history in relation to the right to buy. When I was a member of Sheffield council, I was chairman of housing at the time of right to buy and we resisted it. I accept that there is a place for the right to buy and I am close to agreeing with the hon. Member for Chesterfield on the matter, which worries me slightly. I can see that the right to buy has helped some people on to the housing ladder and that it has introduced a mixed tenure into some areas that were monolithic and contained only council housing—we had enormous estates in Sheffield. However, there is a disproportionate tendency for right to buy to prevail on smaller estates that are in the nicest areas. That has obviously happened because such areas are where people want to buy—they have nice properties that will increase in value after purchase. Even in urban communities, we are in danger of creating areas in which, although there were relatively few council houses to begin with—probably only 20 per cent. of the stock—more than half of those houses are sold. In such areas, there is now only a residual number of council houses or, in some cases, where stock transfers have taken place, social rented houses are owned by a housing association. In those circumstances, if the right to buy is simply allowed to continue, regardless of the demand for rented properties and the limited supply, that will ultimately have an effect that is opposite to the creation of mixed communities. Monolithic communities of owner-occupiers will be created and there will not be any opportunity for people who cannot afford to buy to live in those areas. That is a real worry in parts of my constituency—for example, in the old mining village of Mosborough. That village has a heart to it, and part of that heart is a small number of rented properties that are owned by Sheffield Homes, which is an ALMO. Enormous numbers of private homes have been built in the area and many people have said to me, ““I'm now quite well off and have moved on and got my private home, but I come from a poor background. I'd like my mum and dad to come and live near us, but they are council tenants and there aren't any council properties in the area, so we can't live in the same area together.”” That is a real problem. The Committee referred to the Netherlands solution: where there is a shortage of houses to rent in an area, a housing strategy ought to be developed with the local council and housing providers. That is particularly the case in relation to certain types of houses, as there might be plenty of flats but a shortage of family homes. The strategy should state that because of the enormous shortages, if we continue with the right to buy, no houses of a particular type will be left to rent. In those areas that are affected we should be able to suspend the right to buy, at least for certain property types, to try to ensure that we allow people who cannot afford to buy to live in those areas and keep a mixed community. The Government have said they will consider that matter in their response, which I welcome. I hope that they will look at that issue and introduce policy changes. I hope that we can return to a situation in which councils and ALMOs can start building houses. It is possible to access the funds that the Government have made available, and there are three pilot projects. Again, I would be grateful if my right hon. Friend the Minister explained where we have got to with the pilot projects that were established to try and let ALMOs build houses—if she is unable to do so today, would she do so in due course? I know that Sheffield Homes, together with Sheffield council, was awarded a social housing grant last autumn. I am not aware yet whether they have an agreed plan for what to do with the money, let alone whether they have started building any homes. After a year of a chronic housing shortage, I understand that that grant is still sitting somewhere in the treasury coffers in Sheffield and that it is not actually doing anything. It is important to introduce pilot projects, and I welcome the fact that the Government have decided not to include them in the housing revenue account—that was an important step. However, while I am on that subject, the housing revenue account is the biggest obstacle to making any sense of housing finance in this country. A review is under way on and, the other day, my right hon. Friend the Minister told us, when giving evidence to the Committee, that it will be next year before we sort the matter out. However, I cannot stress too strongly—and everyone else who has spoken has mentioned this—that in terms of the rules, the housing revenue account is a disaster, as authorities have no idea where they will be in future years. There is the possibility there will be redundancies at Sheffield Homes because its subsidy system has changed drastically over a three-year period. There is an inability to plan ahead and there is no relationship between the service its tenants receive and the rents they pay. Sheffield Homes cannot say to its tenants, ““We'll improve the service if we can increase rents by £1 a week.”” Neither can it say to an individual tenant, ““We'll put a central heating system in if we can increase your rent by £2 or £3 a week.”” There is not connection between the service provided and the rent charged. It is a bureaucratic nightmare which, I accept, is difficult to resolve because there are losers and winners— unless the Treasury can be persuaded to put some funding in to unscramble the whole thing and get back to having a more direct relationship between what tenants pay and the service that they receive. No doubt my right hon. Friend has been brought up to speed on some of these things in the past few weeks, but I am sure it is one of the more complicated things she has had to consider so far. That issue is a nightmare and it needs to be addressed.