Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, I, too, welcome the publication and circulation of the draft order, because it enables us to focus clearly on the Government’s intentions in this matter. The amendment moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, sets the threshold at an extremely high level, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has just indicated. We have to address why some of the proposals have been made in the first place. They have been made because of an acute shortage of affordable housing in London and across the south-east. That is bad for the British economy: it is bad for London; it is bad for Londoners; but, above all, it is bad for the British economy. It must be remedied. The London Plan has set a target for 50 per cent of new housing to be affordable, but, in practice, during the past few years, only one third of housing output in London has been affordable, which is well short of that 50 per cent target. In some boroughs, the number of social rented homes completed has been in single figures. For example, I understand that in 2005-06 only six rented homes were completed in Havering and nine in Wandsworth. I understand that the figure in Westminster—an amendment in this grouping relates specifically to Westminster—was only 21 per cent during the period 2003-04 to 2005-06. So there is a need to raise performance across London in terms of the amount of social and affordable housing provided. That is why the modest threshold of 150 homes contained in the order is the very least that the Government can do to support the objective agreed in the London Plan. I have received a briefing from the Labour members of London Councils and presume that everybody had the same opportunity to comment on the draft order when it was promulgated. They estimate that the vast majority of planning decisions, more than 99 per cent, will remain with the boroughs. They consider that a strong set of safeguards is already built into the proposals as contained in the draft Mayor of London order, ensuring that the new powers can be used only in a small number of cases that are of strategic importance for the city. My understanding is that we are in practice talking about perhaps 40 additional applications during the course of the year. That hardly seems to be an onerous burden, but it is extremely important in sending a clear signal that affordable housing in London is a critical national issue and that we support the Mayor of London’s objective of achieving a much greater supply. For those reasons, I must regrettably oppose the amendment proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham.