Parliamentary Search

Backbench debate on Thursday, 5 May 2011, in the House of Commons, led by Jeremy Corbyn. The answering member was Robert Neill.

Social Housing in London

Twenty-fifth backbench debate. Agreed to on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
527 c793-880 
Session
2010-12
Department
Department for Communities and Local Government
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Karen Buck | 527 c870-1 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry; I meant my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown). All those speeches addresse...
Show all contributions (164)
Andy Slaughter | 527 c871 (Link to this contribution) I want to get something off my conscience; I promise that this will be my last intervention. Last Fr...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c863-5 (Link to this contribution) It seems okay to me. Mr Johnson is in charge of some of the most controversial and largest developm...
Baroness Brown of Silvertown | 527 c866-70 (Link to this contribution) Follow that! Today's debate would be really important at any time, and I am really grateful to my ho...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c865-6 (Link to this contribution) I hope that my constituency neighbour, who is not, from what I have heard of her comments, in that c...
Karen Buck | 527 c870 (Link to this contribution) I begin, as many others have done, by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c862-3 (Link to this contribution) Yes. I do not want to get too far off the subject and speaking about individuals can be invidious, b...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c857 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. Those areas presented a win-win situation. They maintained buildings that we now value, ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c857 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend acknowledge that housing action areas came in at the end of the wholesale buildi...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c855-7 (Link to this contribution) Having listened to the whole debate this afternoon, I hope that the rest of the country leaves us to...
Jane Ellison | 527 c855 (Link to this contribution) That is a fair question, and it takes us back to my point about leadership. We will have to engage w...
John McDonnell | 527 c858-9 (Link to this contribution) It is a process of discouragement. I know of families in my borough who have been threatened with ha...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c857-8 (Link to this contribution) I have not read that particular book, but my hon. Friend is absolutely right to make that point. In ...
Clive Efford | 527 c857 (Link to this contribution) Has my hon. Friend read a book by Professor Peter Hennessy, who is now in the House of Lords? One of...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c859-62 (Link to this contribution) It is anecdotal, but it is a consistent stream—from the year a Labour administration was elected in ...
Jim Fitzpatrick | 527 c875 (Link to this contribution) The Minister and I share several passions: the Thames Gateway, because we both live there, the no to...
Robert Neill | 527 c875 (Link to this contribution) I give way to a fellow West Ham supporter.
Robert Neill | 527 c874-5 (Link to this contribution) I do not want to tempt the hon. Gentleman into being too optimistic, but I do appreciate the spirit ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c874 (Link to this contribution) So the Minister agrees with some of it?
Robert Neill | 527 c874 (Link to this contribution) I thank and congratulate the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) on obtaining this debat...
Karen Buck | 527 c871-4 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right, and that is extremely sad. In some cases, there appears to be a deliberate ...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c842-3 (Link to this contribution) It is refreshing to hear that from a housing association. The quote is from the same report that I m...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c843 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is completely right. Our debate about what it is affordable to pay out in housing cos...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c843 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a very important point and I have intervened on her now so that the Minister ca...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c843-5 (Link to this contribution) It is a complete trap. I look forward to the Minister's response to that. I used some figures to de...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c839-40 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree. Many people look forward to that sort of thing in later life. We need to ensure th...
Frank Dobson | 527 c840 (Link to this contribution) In my area, those who, like my hon. Friend's constituents, want to move out of a large place—perhaps...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c840-1 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a very good point, with which I entirely agree. Interestingly, I spoke a ...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c841-2 (Link to this contribution) It does not, which is partly why I am making this speech in the House. When Boris Johnson stands th...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c839 (Link to this contribution) Well, I am really pleased to be able to tell my hon. Friend that the housing association—it is quite...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c838-9 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) on securing this debate...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c839 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an important point in that under-occupation is only a slight issue and tackling...
Frank Dobson | 527 c837 (Link to this contribution) I would rather not. I will just get on, because other people want to speak. There is no chance now ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c837 (Link to this contribution) Is my right hon. Friend aware that the Government's claim is that when the housing benefit allowance...
Frank Dobson | 527 c837-8 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree. Even if we transferred the money from the housing benefit account into the account...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c837 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Frank Dobson | 527 c837 (Link to this contribution) I will certainly give way to my hon. Friend, and then I will finish.
Heidi Alexander | 527 c855 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady has made a thoughtful and persuasive speech. On some of the understandable concerns th...
Jane Ellison | 527 c854-5 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure I entirely agree with that, if we are talking about older people and pensioners, in pa...
Andrew Love | 527 c850-1 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. That reinforces the message that we are looking for flexibility and a recognition of the...
Jane Ellison | 527 c852-4 (Link to this contribution) Before I make my few remarks, I draw Members' attention to my entry in the Register of Members' Inte...
Baroness Brown of Silvertown | 527 c854 (Link to this contribution) I say gently to the hon. Lady that although that is a very humane way of looking at it, the current ...
Andrew Love | 527 c849-50 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. That is the question that we wish to put to the Minister, and I hope that he will respon...
Clive Efford | 527 c850 (Link to this contribution) One of the things that the Government have never understood about their cap on the housing benefit l...
Baroness Brown of Silvertown | 527 c848 (Link to this contribution) Is it not the case that the Government have changed and cut housing benefit for 1 million people to ...
Jane Ellison | 527 c848 (Link to this contribution) We all accept that some of the exceptional cases that make the newspapers are just that. Nevertheles...
Andrew Love | 527 c848 (Link to this contribution) I would not disagree with anything that has just been said, or deny that that was in my party's mani...
Andrew Love | 527 c848 (Link to this contribution) If we searched long and hard enough we might be able to find an individual instance of someone recei...
Andrew Love | 527 c846-8 (Link to this contribution) It is a delight to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Heidi Alexander). I shall be ...
Baroness Bray of Coln | 527 c845 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Lady agree that one problem with aggressively setting such a target, as the previous M...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c845-6 (Link to this contribution) There will be different situations in different parts of London, but I suggest that the hon. Lady go...
Clive Efford | 527 c825 (Link to this contribution) My local authority has foolishly considered the possibility of fixed tenancies, but its objective is...
Matthew Offord | 527 c825 (Link to this contribution) I thank the shadow Minister for making that interesting point, but a principle could be set that som...
Clive Efford | 527 c826-9 (Link to this contribution) I will in a moment. Calm down. [Interruption.] Hon. Members will notice that I was more restrained i...
Jane Ellison | 527 c826 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Clive Efford | 527 c826 (Link to this contribution) Hang on a minute; I have hardly started. We can make excuses—they are good ones—about the amount of...
Jane Ellison | 527 c826 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Clive Efford | 527 c825-6 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mary Macleod) referred to 1.8 million people being on t...
Matthew Offord | 527 c825 (Link to this contribution) Bob Crow earns enough—if we can call it earning—to house himself, so I do not think that he will nee...
Robert Neill | 527 c829 (Link to this contribution) I do not intend to intervene very much. The hon. Gentleman raises an interesting point, but how does...
Clive Efford | 527 c829 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for that point, but I am slightly confused because I saw him nodding e...
Stephen Pound | 527 c829 (Link to this contribution) The Joseph Rowntree Foundation produced a report on the desirability of mixed tenure back in 1990. W...
Clive Efford | 527 c829 (Link to this contribution) I would like to know what public subsidy the Minister is referring to; perhaps he will elaborate whe...
Clive Efford | 527 c829-32 (Link to this contribution) I agree. Buy to let has not been the success that some thought it would be in providing rented accom...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c832 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has made an important point. I do not believe that the Government now believe their o...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c832 (Link to this contribution) ““Mixed communities”” is now a euphemism for building the poor out of London.
Stephen Pound | 527 c833 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Lady, my neighbour, for giving way. She says that family-sized homes are t...
Baroness Bray of Coln | 527 c833 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Having rightly been chastised by you for allowing my intervention t...
Clive Efford | 527 c832-3 (Link to this contribution) I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. It is a fool's paradise to suggest that we can continue...
Frank Dobson | 527 c836-7 (Link to this contribution) But no one claimed that famous connection. Indeed, English Heritage was quite happy to nod through t...
Stephen Pound | 527 c836 (Link to this contribution) I am reluctant to intervene on my right hon. Friend, but as one who spent 10 years as a hospital por...
Frank Dobson | 527 c834-6 (Link to this contribution) Research by the school of medicine at University College in my constituency suggests that apart from...
Baroness Bray of Coln | 527 c833-4 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for that important contribution. Of course it is true that not everybody ...
Stephen Pound | 527 c837 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c879-80 (Link to this contribution) In closing the debate, I would like to thank the Backbench Business Committee for allotting us the t...
Robert Neill | 527 c875-7 (Link to this contribution) I understand the hon. Gentleman's point, but two things have to be recognised. The first is the acce...
Robert Neill | 527 c878 (Link to this contribution) I will finish this point, then I need to make way for the hon. Member for Islington North. Some of ...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c877 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is talking about supply-side interventions. Can he explain why the Government have insi...
Robert Neill | 527 c877-8 (Link to this contribution) It is not a gimmick; it is a holistic solution. With respect, the hon. Lady is making exactly the er...
Robert Neill | 527 c878 (Link to this contribution) This will have to be the last time I give way to anyone.
Karen Buck | 527 c878 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister confirm something for the record? I understand, following the consideration of the...
Robert Neill | 527 c878-9 (Link to this contribution) The point is that it is a voluntary change in the arrangements, not what exists at the moment. At th...
Matthew Offord | 527 c823-4 (Link to this contribution) I have given way to the hon. Gentleman once, so I am going to continue with my speech. My experienc...
Baroness Bray of Coln | 527 c824 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that too often the special circumstances in London seem to get missed out ...
Speaker | 527 c824 (Link to this contribution) Order. All afternoon, we have been drifting into longer and longer interventions. Interventions are ...
Matthew Offord | 527 c824 (Link to this contribution) I was enjoying my colleague's contribution. She certainly has some relevant experience in her consti...
Karen Buck | 527 c824 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes quite a lot of an anecdote about Mr Crow—we could all make policy by anecdo...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c799 (Link to this contribution) The cuts in the Budget are even greater than those made by Margaret Thatcher's Government in the 198...
Mark Field | 527 c799-800 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way again. He is making a thoughtful speech, and I hope that h...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c800 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that extremely valuable point. In London, at one end of the sca...
Jim Fitzpatrick | 527 c798 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is making a powerful case for the social housing policy that Opposition Members stron...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c798-9 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely, and I endorse what my hon. Friend said. The average for Tower Hamlets is £248, but if it...
Andrew Love | 527 c799 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend mentioned 1979, which has a resonance for many of us, because it was the year in whic...
Mark Field | 527 c800 (Link to this contribution) The issue in London today is: what is housing need? I know it sounds absurd—the hon. Gentleman was o...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c801 (Link to this contribution) Obviously people on what are seen as relatively high incomes do have housing needs and are paying, a...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c801 (Link to this contribution) The definition of ““affordable”” in Hammersmith and Fulham now goes up to £80,000 a year, and I am s...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c795-7 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. London is a rapidly changing city, and that is, in many ways, part of the joy and attrac...
Mike Gapes | 527 c797 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes some very important points. The knock-on consequence of those people being forc...
Mark Field | 527 c795 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for being so generous in giving way. I would like to associate myself wit...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c795 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman touches on an important point. In my borough, there are 15,000 names on the list ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c797-8 (Link to this contribution) Possibly, yes. I would like that Government to bite the bullet, just as Harold Wilson's Government b...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c797 (Link to this contribution) I can only agree. If the problem were limited to housing benefit in the private rented sector, that ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c793 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House has considered the matter of social housing in London." I thank the ...
Mark Field | 527 c793 (Link to this contribution) I do not disagree with the hon. Gentleman, but does he also recognise—I see it particularly in my co...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c794 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is referring to George Peabody and the Peabody Trust, which has a very large numb...
Frank Dobson | 527 c794 (Link to this contribution) In my constituency there is a block called Parnell house, which was built in 1848, before George Pea...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c794 (Link to this contribution) It seems a sad reflection on the great revolutions of 1848 that we should expunge them on the altar ...
Mark Field | 527 c794-5 (Link to this contribution) While I accept that the policies are somewhat different, and I suspect that most of my residents in ...
John McDonnell | 527 c817 (Link to this contribution) I was head of the Camden council's policy unit during the 1980s. I remember with pride the engagemen...
Frank Dobson | 527 c817 (Link to this contribution) I had a hand in the setting up of Community Housing in Camden. At one point, it announced that in fu...
John McDonnell | 527 c815-7 (Link to this contribution) I also want to apologise for having to leave the Chamber for a period—not because of an appointment ...
Tom Brake | 527 c814-5 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to give local authorities and others the powers to change the terms of tenure and I hope ...
John McDonnell | 527 c817 (Link to this contribution) Some of the smaller ones in the Irish community with which I have been involved, such as Innisfree a...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c817 (Link to this contribution) I should be grateful if my friend commented on the lack of democracy in the running of housing assoc...
John McDonnell | 527 c818-21 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree. I want to be able to attend my other debate so that I can say wonderful things ab...
Matthew Offord | 527 c821-2 (Link to this contribution) Today's debate is very valuable and I congratulate the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corby...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c822 (Link to this contribution) I am just glancing through a report from Family Mosaic, a large housing association that is very goo...
Matthew Offord | 527 c822-3 (Link to this contribution) We should allow the social rented sector to help the people who really need that help. The hon. Gent...
Tom Brake | 527 c813 (Link to this contribution) I understand the point that the hon. Lady is making, but that does not really address the budgetary ...
Karen Buck | 527 c813 (Link to this contribution) One of the issues that I will set out later is the absurdity of cutting—indeed, slashing—spending on...
Tom Brake | 527 c811-3 (Link to this contribution) I must also start by apologising for having to leave before the end of the debate; I have a pressing...
Joan Ruddock | 527 c811 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend. He uses the term ““rough sleepers””, but we should bear in mind that th...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c811 (Link to this contribution) Every borough has a duty to deal with homelessness, but although there are usually charities that de...
Joan Ruddock | 527 c810-1 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Indeed, I pay tribute to the Labour administration in Lewisham f...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c810 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that it ill behoves the Tories to be smug about the achievements of ...
Joan Ruddock | 527 c810 (Link to this contribution) I do accept that, but the fact is that before Ken Livingstone there was no such requirement—no aim, ...
Tom Brake | 527 c813-4 (Link to this contribution) That might well be among the solutions that the hon. Member for Westminster North will list later. I...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c814 (Link to this contribution) Moving on from the Centrepoint briefing, does the hon. Gentleman support the removal of security of ...
Andrew Love | 527 c813 (Link to this contribution) One of the arguments that has been deployed in the Finance Bill debates this week—which will be cont...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c808 (Link to this contribution) Of the 16,000 on the Lewisham housing register, how many are in a position actively to bid or apply ...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c805 (Link to this contribution) I am listening carefully, and I have heard about no under-occupation for social tenants, so long-sta...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c804-5 (Link to this contribution) That question is best directed at the Minister, who will, I think, disagree. I am sure that he will ...
Baroness Brown of Silvertown | 527 c805-6 (Link to this contribution) I like the hon. Lady, who often comes out with some good stuff. However, today, she is not on the be...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c805 (Link to this contribution) I take every single person who comes to my surgery with housing problems extremely seriously, and I ...
Joan Ruddock | 527 c807 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) on securing the debate,...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c806-7 (Link to this contribution) When any constituent comes to me in dire need, I work with the council to find a solution. I work to...
Jim Fitzpatrick | 527 c807-8 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is making a strong start to what clearly will be an important contribution to t...
Joan Ruddock | 527 c808-10 (Link to this contribution) Some 50% of those on the list are deemed to have a choice and a need. None the less, the other 50%, ...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c804 (Link to this contribution) All I know is that there is an incredible shortage of housing in London, so the last Government did ...
Heidi Alexander | 527 c804 (Link to this contribution) Before the hon. Lady moves on, I want to come back to the national affordable housing programme. She...
Mark Field | 527 c803 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is coming to the point about the huge scarcity of social housing. I would argue that ...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c802-3 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) for securing this debate. As he clearly ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c801-2 (Link to this contribution) I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the way in which he has represented his constituency and pointed...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c804 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman states one of the problems in London. There is a range of models from which peopl...
Jim Fitzpatrick | 527 c803-4 (Link to this contribution) I recognise that the Government are giving housing associations the flexibility to charge up to 80% ...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c803 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. I agree that that is happening across London and we need to...
Andrew Love | 527 c804 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Lady confirm that the new homes bonus will not include any new money? It is all being ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 527 c850 (Link to this contribution) I want to follow up the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham (Clive Efford). I was rec...
Andrew Love | 527 c850 (Link to this contribution) We are waiting to see. As I understand it, there is not complete clarity on how people in work will ...
Teresa Pearce | 527 c862 (Link to this contribution) Is it true, as far as my hon. Friend believes, that that contract was given to Mr Nick Johnson under...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c848 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that in some cases, albeit not many, ridiculous sums of money were...
Andy Slaughter | 527 c817-8 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has hit a rich seam, which I shall develop when I have an opportunity to speak in the...
Joan Ruddock | 527 c808 (Link to this contribution) I am most grateful to my hon. Friend. He anticipated what I was about to say—[Interruption.] There i...
Mary MacLeod | 527 c810 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Lady accept that Ken Livingstone previously set a target of 50% for affordable h...
Subjects
Council housing Finance Greater London Housing stock Private rented housing Social rented housing Rents Security of tenure Housing trusts
Link
View this Parliamentary proceeding on www.publications.parliament.uk