---

Rented Housing

Localism is the way forward. Areas need to develop in a way that suits them. The response says that community land trusts—or something that sounds like that—are a very good way of ensuring that individual areas can do their own thing and invest in the way that they want and keep the land in public ownership or in a trust ownership in perpetuity for the benefit of people in the future. None of us can deny that there is a big debate over right to buy. If one did not believe that public housing had seized up, that there was a record waiting list of 1.7 million families and that some of the reason is that people are not moving out of homes that are no longer suitable for them and their families, they would not have grasped the scale of the housing problems in this country. We know that 1.7 million families—perhaps 5 million people—are on a public waiting list, and that that has to be tackled. I think that right to buy has a part to play and that could extend into registered social landlords. However, we have to ensure that when such properties are sold, the money is reinvested in producing more affordable and social housing. That makes perfect sense.