Monday Volume 539 30 January 2012 No. 257 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 30 January 2012 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2012 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 531 30 JANUARY 2012 532 the National Gallery, the Wolseley and the Cinnamon House of Commons Club. It may be of interest to know that Labour Ministers were not alone—the Audit Commission managed to go Monday 30 January 2012 to L’Escargot, Coq d’Argent and the Cinnamon Club, and its board members even went to an oyster bar to discuss corporate governance, and then lost the receipt. The House met at half-past Two o’clock Empty Properties PRAYERS 2. Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): What plans he has to return empty homes to use. [92055] [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] 5. Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD): What plans Oral Answers to Questions he has to return empty homes to use. [92058] 6. Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con): What plans he has COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT to return empty homes to use. [92059] The Secretary of State was asked— TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof StateforCommunities Public Spending and Local Government (Andrew Stunell): We have put in place powerful tools and incentives to support local 1. Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con): What steps communities to tackle empty homes. The Government his Department has taken to increase transparency in published “Laying the Foundations—A Housing Strategy (a) local government and (b) departmental spending. for England” on 21 November 2011. This sets out our [92054] plans for tackling empty homes. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Sir Bob Russell: I thank the Minister for that reply Government (Mr Eric Pickles): We have replaced the and I congratulate the coalition Government on taking previous Administration’s byzantine bureaucracy with action after 13 years of failure. While I welcome the transparency and local accountability. We have asked empty homes premium and the empty homes fund—and every council to open up their books and to publish bearing in mind that the borough of Colchester has their spending over £500. Every council is doing this, 2,024 empty houses, 591 of which have been empty for apart from Nottingham city council, which finds it a bit more than six months—may I urge him to bring more difficult. pressure to bear on local authorities, especially as 2,000 My Department is practising what we preach. Not dwellings is roughly the size of a sprawling estate, land only do we publish our spending over £500, but we have for which is short and which would be a planning and also published every single item of corporate credit card environmental disaster if it went ahead? spending since 2004. Mr Carswell: Will my right hon. Friend join me in Andrew Stunell: I certainly agree with my hon. Friend congratulating and applauding Tendring district council, that it is a scandal that there are so many empty homes, which has decided not only to publish items over £500, especially if they are empty for more than six months. but to publish all items of expenditure every month? The total at the moment is 270,000 across the country, This has created a climate of thrift that has allowed it to but the good news is that that is a reduction of 21,000 in cut council tax. Will he ensure that Whitehall Departments, the last year. It is important to tackle the problem and agencies and quangos take similar steps? that is why we have committed £150 million to bringing empty homes back into use. I am sure that his friends in Mr Pickles: I am happy to join my hon. Friend in Colchester will want to take advantage of that. congratulating Tendring. The council did not make the headlines for many years, but suddenly it has started coming up with lots of new initiatives. It is certainly in Dr Huppert: Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating the forefront of transparency, and where Tendring leads, councillors Sian Reid and Catherine Smart of Cambridge I am more than happy to follow. city council on their work to reduce the number of empty homes in Cambridge since 2004? The Government’s Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): Frankly, it £150 million empty homes fund is welcome. How can is not good enough, because the Department is not Cambridge city council access it in order to get even publishing spending between 50p and £500, and that is more empty homes back into use? where—on credit cards and in other areas—a lot of things go wrong. Can we have some transparency in this wretched Department, instead of the cover-up it is Andrew Stunell: Local authority bids will be invited currently practising? shortly for the £100 million that we have announced for providing affordable housing, and I hope that Cambridge Mr Pickles: I am afraid that the right hon. Gentleman will be right there. We are currently drawing up the is quite wrong. We have published every penny of spending criteria for the £50 million to tackle the worst concentration on credit cards, and that is why we know that Labour of empty homes. I also know that several community Ministers wined and dined at some of the finest restaurants and voluntary groups in the east of England have their in the country, including the Boisdale, Somerset House, eyes on Cambridge. 533 Oral Answers30 JANUARY 2012 Oral Answers 534 Charlie Elphicke: Although the number of homes Private Rented Sector empty for six months in the Dover district has fallen sharply, to 872, do Ministers agree that a lot more work 3. Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab): What is needed to undo the damage of the past in Dover? In recent assessment he has made of value for money and 2005, there were 674 empty homes. I urge the fastest standards for tenants in the private rented sector. possible action. During the same time, the social housing [92056] waiting list has grown by 14%. The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Andrew Stunell: I absolutely agree with my hon. Shapps): The English housing survey shows that standards Friend that it is an urgent task to get empty homes back in the private rented sector have continued to improve into use, particularly affordable use. Often, the waiting more rapidly than in other sectors. In most areas, renting lists facing many local authorities could be shortened if remains more affordable than purchasing a home. those authorities tackled empty homes vigorously. That is why we have provided the new homes bonus as a Alex Cunningham: Shelter’s rent watch report 2011 reward and are investing £100 million to switch empty found that, on average, private rents in 55% of local homes to affordable homes. authorities in England were unaffordable for ordinary working families, and that 38% of privately renting families with children had to cut down on food to pay Gloria De Piero (Ashfield) (Lab): Does the Minister their rent. Also, many rogue landlords are still out accept that making use of empty homes is vital not just there, providing appalling accommodation at poor value. to tackling homelessness but to protecting the green What are the Government doing about those issues? belt from house building? Grant Shapps: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to point out those issues. I am concerned to ensure Andrew Stunell: The hon. Lady is absolutely right. that quality in the private rented sector is as good as An empty home already has planning permission and is possible, and I am undertaking work in that direction. capable of use without all the aggravation often created It is worth considering, though, that satisfaction rates by new development. More than that, an empty home is in the private rented sector are higher, at 85%, than often the cause of antisocial behaviour and other problems those in the social sector, at just 81%. in a community, so it is a double win; in fact, a treble win. I agree entirely. Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD): What is the Department’s view on local landlord Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab): Sefton has a accreditation schemes, and what advice does he give on shortage of land for building houses but has 6,000 empty such schemes to local authorities? homes. Why do the Government not let councils such as Sefton include those homes in their housing strategy? Grant Shapps: Local accreditation and licensing schemes That would also be a way to protect the green belt and can be good value for local people. I attended a local urban green space. accreditation in Welwyn Hatfield on Thursday evening. The scheme is very good and designed locally to address local problems; in our case, it happens to be a student Andrew Stunell: I strongly urge Sefton council to population. That is the advantage of doing it locally: it develop a stronger policy on tackling empty homes. I can be fitted in with what the community requires. hope that with the incentives that we have provided—the new homes bonus, the investment in affordable housing Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab): Rents and the £50 million available to tackle the worst are soaring in the private rented sector, and too many concentration of empty homes—it will do exactly that.