UK Parliament / Open data

Housing and Regeneration Bill

Proceeding contribution from Baroness Wilkins (Labour) in the House of Lords on Monday, 28 April 2008. It occurred during Debate on bills on Housing and Regeneration Bill.
My Lords, I apologise for missing the first few minutes of my noble friend the Minister’s splendid exposition of the wide scope of the Bill. I am afraid that I was overoptimistic about my speed. I strongly support the Bill’s underling objectives to enable the delivery of the 3 million new homes that we need by 2020. Housing is rightly at the top of the political agenda. We now need concerted action to meet the appalling shortfall in affordable, accessible and sustainable housing. I applaud the vision set out in the housing Green Paper, the recent eco-towns consultation and the National Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society. It is a vision for housing which is well-designed, inclusive and sustainable and is linked to thriving accessible communities. The gap between vision and reality, however, is nowhere more stark than in relation to the housing situation for disabled people and their families. According to the latest figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government, 1.5 million disabled people in England remain in need of accessible accommodation, and 371,000 live in completely unsuitable housing. Our ageing population means that over the next 20 years we will see an increase in the number of disabled older people of between 57 and 67 per cent, making accessible, lifetime housing and increasing housing choice and opportunity for disabled people vital mainstream priorities for housing policy. Legislation should reflect this, but I see no reference to increasing the supply of accessible, lifetime housing in the Homes and Communities Agency remit as set out in the Bill. That is all the more surprising given the very welcome recent commitment to ensure that all social housing is built to the lifetime homes standard by 2011. The outgoing Housing Corporation’s affordable housing investment programme for 2008 to 2011 takes us nowhere near that target, making it doubly important in the eyes of disabled people that the HCA’s remit includes specific reference to inclusive homes and communities. I am of course delighted that the Bill makes provision for all new homes to be given a rating under the Code for Sustainable Homes and that the Government have included the lifetime homes standard in the code. This, along with planning policy, is one of the few levers that the Government have provided to address the dearth of private sector housing built to the lifetime homes standard. Private housing accounts for at least two-thirds of completions. If we are serious about equality of opportunity and independent living for disabled people, we cannot limit the choice of accessible homes to social housing. Under current plans, it will be 2013 before the private sector is expected to build to lifetime homes standards, and that is only an aspiration rather than a guarantee. This pace of change hardly reflects the need for urgent action that we face today. I echo the call by RADAR, Care and Repair England and Habinteg Housing Association for a faster and more robust timetable for incorporating lifetime homes standards into building regulations, as the Government pledged to do more than four years ago. The National Housing Federation, too, has said that private developers should be required to meet the same timetable as housing associations through building regulations. Perhaps I may anticipate the Minister’s response to this. She will quote from many strategies and tell us that the Government are moving things forward; she will say that these things take time and that there are potential changes to the standards to consider and so on. To that, I say this: every single home built to existing Part M rather than lifetime homes standards costs us dear. It costs us in avoidable adaptations, accidents and hospital stays paid for out of taxpayers’ pockets; it costs individuals their independence and security; and it involves a sustainability penalty as we waste material and energy by retro-fitting. Alongside lifetime homes, we need to make enhanced provision for housing built to full wheelchair-access standards. Can the Minister tell me what role she expects the Homes and Communities Agency to play in tackling the shortfall of 300,000 wheelchair-accessible homes nationwide? Will the Government require regional planning authorities to follow London’s example in setting appropriate targets? If we are to meet the accessible housing challenge, it is crucial that we also look at bringing existing housing stock up to scratch. Sadly, the Decent Homes programme has not contributed to that goal. Perhaps the Minister will tell the House what specific role the HCA will play in ensuring that such programmes mainstream and maximise access and equality in future. Further, just as concerted action is required to bring hundreds of thousands of empty homes and vast tracts of surplus public land back into use, so we must also ensure that our current stock of accessible or adapted homes is used much more efficiently than it is at present. The current housing allocations process creates needless waste and inefficiency. On average, only one in six wheelchair-standard dwellings in the social housing sector is let to a household containing a wheelchair user, despite overwhelming demand for wheelchair-standard property from wheelchair users. I strongly welcome both the planned National Register of Social Housing, which will help ensure that social landlords gather information on the accessibility of their stock, and the Government's support for the London Accessible Housing Register which will give disabled people greater housing choice across London. However, I return to an issue which I and many other noble Lords, across all parties have raised on numerous occasions in this Chamber: the need for statutory provision for accessible housing registers. The Government have no quibble with the efficiency, desirability, positive impact and cost-effectiveness of such systems, but all they are prepared to do is encourage. Encouragement has not worked and will not work. Surely, it is time to legislate. Finally, I would like to welcome the major new investment planned for disabled facilities grants. Central government will increase grants to local authorities by 31 per cent in the next three years. This is a very welcome start. However, I would welcome assurances from the Minister that the decision to remove the requirement on local authorities to contribute 40 per cent of DFGs from their own resources will in no way undermine delivery on the ground. DFGs will remain mandatory for all those who meet the eligibility criteria, but such are the pressures on local authorities' budgets that there must be a real risk of resources being channelled elsewhere. As a result families will continue to suffer intolerable delays, trapping them in often atrocious, degrading housing conditions. Perhaps the Minister could also outline Oftenant's role in improving access to timely adaptations for disabled households and ensuring quality service for disabled tenants more generally. Nothing is more fundamental to freedom, choice, control and dignity for disabled and older people and their families than a decent, accessible home. Government policy is undoubtedly heading in the right direction, but there is deep frustration at the slow pace of change and continued inertia over accessible housing registers. Let this Bill mark the beginning of a bold new approach to delivering homes and communities that are truly fit for the future.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
701 c90-2 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Back to top