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Housing and the Credit Crunch

This is an interesting story, and it is not a new one. That scheme, which enabled people to acquire a property of their choice on the open market, followed in a long line of similar schemes, of which perhaps the most famous historically was known as DIYSO—do it yourself shared ownership. That followed a similar model. The individual identified a property that they wanted to buy and then went to a lender and secured a shared ownership advance on that property. The scheme was popular with the public, but unfortunately it was rather expensive in terms of public subsidy and did not deliver quite the same benefit as a more targeted scheme. At a time when we are looking to assist developers to begin to develop again, when we want to generate new homes and when we want, as my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe (Mr. Betts) rightly highlighted, to ensure that we are sustaining capacity and skills in the construction industry, it may be right for the Government to put the focus on the elements of homebuy that are geared towards supporting new construction and new building, rather than assisting people to buy properties on the open market. I rather regretted the passing of DIYSO, because it was popular, and I regret the fact that the Government have taken what seems to be a very negative stance on the latest formulation, but I understand the logic in times when finance is inevitably very tight and there is a clear wish to use public resource to best effect. As my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, South-West rightly said, the Homes and Communities Agency is playing a vital role in the current situation and, had it not existed, there would undoubtedly be a strong case for creating it. I pay tribute to Sir Bob Kerslake and his team. What they have managed to do in very difficult circumstances is remarkable. The agency was created against a background of expectation that it would drive an expansion programme. When the agency came into existence at the end of last year, it was clearly in a completely different context, in which it had to operate a rescue scheme to assist the housing market to come through the worst crisis that it had faced for many years. Sir Bob Kerslake and his team have responded admirably to the challenge. We are already seeing, in a series of ways, results that are testimony to their effectiveness. I sincerely hope that they can continue to intervene in a range of ways to help individual new schemes to go ahead—sometimes regeneration schemes that would otherwise have stalled. Such interventions allow an increase in the output of social rented and affordable housing, and ensure that the skills base is maintained and capacity retained in various parts of the country where that is necessary. They also ensure that people can afford to obtain housing that otherwise they would not be able to. The HCA plays a vital role. My concern is about the lukewarm position of the Opposition in relation to the HCA. I hope that the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) can amplify his party's position when he responds to these comments, because I recall that when we were members of the Committee that considered the Bill that became the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, which brought the HCA into effect, there were quite strong voices in his party that questioned whether the agency had any purpose and whether it should come into existence. I am pleased that he has not been adopting a strident line of promising the abolition of the agency, unlike some of his colleagues, who seem to believe that calling for a bonfire of the quangos is a good news story. It may be. It may get a cheap headline, rather like the headlines about mortgage lending of more than 100 per cent., but it may be wrong. In the position that we are in at the moment, an agency that has shown itself to be so competent in addressing the problems and challenges of a very difficult market, that has given confidence in relation to a series of regeneration schemes that otherwise would not have happened, that has assisted with maintaining output of social and affordable housing at a higher level than otherwise would have been possible and that is helping to restore confidence in the market is vital. During the run-up to a general election, it would be damaging for there to be speculation about the continued existence of the Homes and Communities Agency, were the Conservative party to form the next Government. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will put our minds at rest that that agency, which has played a vital role, will continue to be able to do so, whatever the outcome of the general election. I would like to say some words about the expansion of affordable and social housing. That expansion is essential and has been called for on many sides. We all recognise the need not only to deal with the large backlog of people in need, but to ensure that we sustain capacity and support a recovery faster than would occur otherwise. I am concerned to ensure that we do not lurch back into what I believe was one of the most pernicious characteristics of housing in the last century—the social segregation of people according to tenure. The pattern of building single-tenure estates, with social housing uniquely for social tenants in one area, and owner-occupied homes uniquely for home buyers in another, has not served us well and is an historical anomaly. Traditionally, it was not the case that people of different economic circumstances lived in entirely segregated areas. Of course, richer people lived in larger, pleasanter and more attractive homes or, in some medieval towns I can think of, in the larger and more attractive rooms of a house that was also occupied by poorer people. That was the pattern historically. People of different economic circumstances did not have to live geographically segregated from each other. One of the great Housing Ministers in the history of this country, and one of the great figures of the party that I am proud to be a member of—Aneurin Bevan—made a famous speech on the subject in the 1940s, and talked about his dream of seeing a community where the doctor, the greengrocer, the artisan and the baker all lived in the same street and were not segregated. We must retain that vision of social cohesion and communities that are not segregated by tenure. Earlier this week, I was pleased to be present at the launch of a new Fabian pamphlet, "In the mix", which strongly endorses the case for sustaining mixed-tenure housing and building mixed communities.