Housing and Regeneration Bill

In replying to this amendment, I think that I have been cast as the unwitting curmudgeon and I am not looking forward to the task. My political spirit is very much with the amendment. As I listened to the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Graham, I thought back to when I chaired a housing committee a long time ago. We wrestled with some of these issues but managed successfully to resolve them when we created the Two Piers Housing Co-op in the 1980s. This issue has been around for a long time and noble Lords with more wisdom and knowledge than I have discussed it. We understand what the noble Lord is trying to do here and we are very much in tune with its direction and political spirit. His amendment seeks to add community land trusts to the list of organisations which are defined as ““English bodies”” and which may consequently become registered providers. It is a clever way of trying to get the issue into the Bill. In doing so, he has argued about the important role that community land trusts can play in helping to deliver affordable homes, which we all agree are much needed by communities, in a way which is sustainable and supported by the community. As I said, I am sympathetic to the arguments behind these amendments and the Government very much support the whole concept of community land trusts. My notes say that I must resist these amendments but I shall explain why that is the case. First, I emphasise that the Government believe both in empowering people to make decisions about their own lives and in the importance of home ownership in giving people a stake in their community. We want to capture people’s enthusiasm, solve the problem of affordable housing supply in a way that is right for their local area and give them the opportunity to get involved and influence decisions about local services and assets. The CLT approach is a way of doing that. Community land trusts provide an opportunity to enhance those policy aims and objectives, and we are keen to explore what role they have to play in providing more households on lower incomes with the opportunity of home ownership. We have therefore provided community land trusts with access to funding through the Housing Corporation’s national affordable housing programme. That programme has been working closely with the University of Salford to assist 14 pilot community land trusts across the country. Seven of them are in urban areas, and the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, and the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, will be pleased to know that a further seven are in rural areas, so we recognise the contribution they can make in both settings. The university recently released a report on the experience of the seven urban pilots. It included some helpful pointers for communities wishing to explore the potential of a land trust. It also provided the Government with food for thought and observation in recommendations about what we can do to pave the way for the development of more community land trusts. As the Government, our task is to take the lead. We will be consulting further over the summer and seeking views on how we can develop the community land trust and address some of the issues that the report raises. The noble Lord anticipated that I would ask the proponents of this approach to wait—