Housing and Planning Bill

Order. May I ask the noble Lord to give us a second while noble Lords leave the Chamber? We canno...

My Lords, I shall start again in a moment.

I can almost hear the Minister’s reply, which ma...

My Lords, this group of amendments contains some important provisions that would be welcome on th...

My Lords, perhaps I may make a brief intervention following specifically Amendment 43, which the ...

Will the noble Lord not agree that that is because we have taken the clauses out of order?

If indeed we have made slightly swifter progress than that arithmetical calculation would—

Will he not therefore agree that his point is not a valid one?

Returning to the theme, Amendment 43 seeks to add a qualification for those who are eligible for ...

My Lords, the thrust of these amendments, as I read them, is to try to deal with potential abuse ...

It is 20%.

I am sorry, 20%. Having done that, the developer might simply inflate the starter price. Who will...

Does my noble friend agree that one reason for raising these points today is the wholly unsatisfa...

My Lords, building on some of the things that my noble friend has said about Amendment 41B, what ...

My Lords, I suspect that the Minister will be grateful that my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours...

My Lords, I have a simple question—this is not a speech—to ask the Minister. As far as I can see,...

My Lords, all sorts of scenarios have been put forward, many of which I agree with, including the...

My Lords, I want to speak to government Amendment 45B. I was wondering if I should wait until the...

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Hollis was absolutely right when she suggested that the only restr...

It would be really helpful if the Minister could assure the House—we really do need this—that pro...

May I ask one question? We were told on Monday, I think, that there were so many hundred thousand...

My Lords, we have started today with another interesting debate on starter homes. I am conscious ...

Is the Minister aware that, in the other place, they took 17 Committee days to discuss this Bill?...

I am not disputing that at all. I was going to give a bit of a recap of Tuesday if that is okay b...

My Lords, in that case will local authorities be able to claim Section 106 land which has now bee...

Before the Minister replies to that, how does this aspiration match the Government’s imposition o...

My Lords, to go back to the first question from the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, the councils wil...

I am sorry, my Lords, but that is not good enough. In the past, local authorities and housing ass...

My Lords, Section 106 can still be used for infrastructure but cannot be used where it would dama...

My Lords, I have been chair of a modestly sized housing association across Norfolk, and virtually...

My Lords, if it is viable developments can use Section 106, for example to provide infrastructure...

But, my Lords, the infrastructure in rural villages is already largely in place. We are talking a...

My Lords, as I have said this will happen through a variety of mechanisms. I appreciate that we a...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way but broadly speaking, it is right to say that in ter...

I cannot say at the Dispatch Box what the percentage will be, because it will be out for consider...

My Lords, we need to know whether these are affordable homes for rent. Otherwise, what the Minist...

My Lords, all I can say is that local authorities know their market, and they can use Section 106...

The Minister is right to say that local authorities know their market. The core problem with this...

Those powers are a specific type of power for the Secretary of State, but that does not take away...

Does the Minister know what the remortgage payments are on a mortgage of £450,000?

My Lords, I do, because I have a rather large mortgage myself. I think the noble Lord may be refe...

Yes, but £450,000 is the price at which most developers are going to build houses in London.

My Lords, the first-time buyer price of a house in London is currently £356,000. I appreciate tha...

Does that include all properties?

It includes all sorts of properties, and that is for first-time buyers. But the price cap is a ca...

I thank the Minister. I referred to this when we discussed similar matters the other day. The sug...

I apologise to the noble Lord and to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, because the figure th...

I have just looked this up. The cost of a £450,000 mortgage on a new house in London, at 4%, is £...

My Lords, first, if someone is paying 4% on a mortgage, they might not be getting the best deal o...

But the point is that the figures she referred to are for the whole of London. The price of a pro...

My Lords, I recognise there are vast variations in house prices in London. We talked about Lewish...

Does that mean that the proposed draft regulations will be available to noble Lords before Report...

My Lords, I do not think that I can undertake to provide the regulations by Report, given that th...

I am sorry; it may be a matter of when Report happens. The Minister should recognise that noble L...

My Lords, let me pick up the point my noble friend has just made. Given that there is a consultat...

My Lords, let me add that the danger is that the Bill will be treated as a skeleton Bill under th...

I hope to answer the noble Lord’s points as fully as I can. I know that if I do not, he will inte...

My Lords, perhaps it is my fault that I have not noticed yet, but while we are on the question of...

My Lords, it will be at the time they complete. That is when they become the owner of the house.<...

That is an interesting answer and I am grateful for it. May I suggest that we find a way of discu...

I appreciate that. I keep coming back to the point that this is to address a specific demographic...

When is that date going to be? Of course consultations should be meaningful; they are often not, ...

I expect that it will be in the next few weeks. I will keep noble Lords posted. As I say, I am ha...

My Lords, does that mean that the consultation period will be through by the end of March, the en...

I hope the noble Baroness will forgive me if I cannot give her an exact date. What I have elected...

My Lords, if that means we will not get the results of the Government’s response to the consultat...

I can only reiterate my commitment to sharing the consultation once it has been published and to ...

Can the Minister not go a bit further than that? Can she not just agree here today to go through ...

My Lords, matters may have been resolved by Third Reading, but I will speak to officials to see w...

My Lords, I would like to revert from this dreadful series of process issues and assert that the ...

My Lords, there will be a power to stop letting because this is a very important aspect. For the ...

That is obviously right. The question is how it is going to be done. Will someone be going around...

The noble Lord gets to the heart of some of the issues on which we shall be consulting and which ...

In a free market, how do you calculate the 20% discount within the first five years? Take year th...

The noble Lord is right. Market values can go down and they can go up. I would expect that an ind...

I cannot see how you can calculate it. I am the purchaser. There is a house—a discounted property...

If the noble Lord is happy, we can discuss this further. There are all sorts of complexities in i...

Why not simply say, “No 99-year or 125-year leases?”. Why not just say that they should all be 99...

Or freehold.

A 999-year lease is a virtual freehold, is it not? Why not have those extra-long leases? Why have...

I get the noble Lord’s point entirely. We expect that if these properties were leasehold, the lea...

But market-standard length at the moment can be anything from 99 to 999 years. I am just saying, ...

I entirely take the noble Lord’s point. As I say, that is our expectation, but we will continuall...

What worries me is where someone inherits a house in the area where the noble Lord, Lord Greaves,...

It would, but it would give them a very good deposit on a home if they were to then sell that pro...

It is defined in the 2003 Act. If you have acquired a house by way of inheritance, under this leg...

My Lords, if you have acquired a home and then you live in it, you are the owner of that home. Yo...

I am not qualified to take part in these legal technicalities but this is clearly something that ...

Theoretically a person could, within the five-year period, have to move somewhere else and theref...

My Lords, there are all sorts of theoretical circumstances that we can put ourselves in but peopl...

My Lords, the matter here is resale. I will certainly write to the noble Lord to clarify the issu...

On that last point, we want to help people to buy a starter home if they have a good chance of af...

My Lords, I am sure that we will go on to talk about “in perpetuity” today. The Government are qu...

I want to revert for a moment to the conundrum posed by my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours, to...

I think that the noble Lord is right. If the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, will indulge me, ...

All I am saying is that where the Bill states:

“’First-time buyer’ has the meaning given by...

Perhaps I may take that point away because, like other noble Lords, I am no legal expert. The nob...

Just to wrap up this point if we can, when might decisions be made? The point is that if there is...

My Lords, Help to Buy is a government loan guarantee scheme as opposed to a discount, but I shall...

It was how to ensure that, once the starter homes are sold on, having been occupied for two or ho...

My Lords, unfortunately you cannot really stop that, much as we would like to see a perfect housi...

My Lords, I apologise, but these are new houses and therefore subject to new planning permission....

My Lords, I think the idea is that we want to make the system as simple as possible, but I comple...

Could I just challenge something that the Minister said? The nub of this is a point that we are g...

I take the noble Baroness’s point, but the Government’s wish is that people who want to move—and ...

My Lords, I wonder whether it might not be sensible also to look at possible urban exception site...

I support my noble friend in what he says. This morning, I was sent briefing data from the city o...

My Lords, as I said, we are keen not to introduce complexity generally. The reason I homed in on ...

My Lords, I understand why the Minister has been unable to pick up all the questions that have be...

My Lords, we have not considered an income cap; we have considered the age demographic that has b...

If there is the demand that the noble Baroness thinks that there will be, how will she reconcile ...

My Lords, if you look at the demographic, you see that it is this age group that is restricted. I...

My Lords, I am very sorry to interrupt the Minister yet again, but on various occasions during th...

My Lords, the Minister has ruled out a mortgage but, in this context, perhaps the Government coul...

My Lords, I hope that I have demonstrated—I do not think anyone is disputing it—that if this mark...

The Minister is happy later in the Bill to have an income restriction for council tenants but not...

My Lords, I do not think it is correct to say that we want an income restriction for council tena...

Yes it is, my Lords, because under “pay to stay”, two tenants—a couple—each earning £15,000 a yea...

The noble Baroness made the point that they would not be able to access these properties; they wi...

My Lords, I am sorry to keep saying this, but I shall keep saying it until the Government start t...

Perhaps I may ask the Minister an Andrew Neil-type question, one that is very simple: why should ...

My Lords, I shall take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, first. He has talked today...

I am sorry; I do refer to the place I know best, but this is not about a single place in England....

My Lords, I shall reiterate the point I made the other day. The noble Lord is absolutely right to...

My noble friend Lord Shipley has tabled this amendment on mortgages for precisely that kind of re...

I think I have explained that having a mortgage will not stop gaming. There are always going to b...

Can I push the noble Baroness a little further on this? I do not think it is good enough to say t...

I do not disagree—

Perhaps I may add to the point made by my noble friend. Many of the abuses will indeed be made if...

My Lords, I was trying to articulate my point about housing mobility. People buying starter homes...

My Lords, if you have served your five-year term, as it were, and you make your £100,000 or so pr...

My Lords, the effect of introducing 1 million more new homes into the housing market by 2021 will...

My Lords, I realise that I am ploughing a different furrow from other noble Lords in these interv...

My Lords, before my noble friend answers, this has gone beyond a joke. My noble friend has given ...

No, my Lords; the problem with the noble Lord’s comment—I do not know whether he was here when we...

Following on from my noble friend Lord Young’s remarks, the Minister has been on her feet for nea...

My Lords, I had not anticipated, when I moved my probing Amendment 37B, that we would be discussi...