Vol. 754 Wednesday No. 13 25 June 2014 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDER OF BUSINESS Questions Housing: Accessibility..................................................................................................1235 Bovine Tuberculosis.....................................................................................................1237 Assisted Suicide ...........................................................................................................1240 Women: Wages.............................................................................................................1242 Wales Bill First Reading................................................................................................................1244 National Security Strategy Joint Committee Membership Motion .....................................................................................................1244 Serious Crime Bill [HL] Order of Consideration Motion...................................................................................1245 Infrastructure Bill [HL] Order of Consideration Motion...................................................................................1245 First World War Motion to Take Note ..................................................................................................1245 Iraq Motion to Take Note ..................................................................................................1315 Written Statements ....................................................................................................WS 115 Written Answers .........................................................................................................WA 155 £4·00 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. 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The first time a Member speaks to a new piece of parliamentary business, the following abbreviations are used to show their party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative Con Ind Conservative Independent DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Lab Labour Lab Ind Labour Independent LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2014, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 1235 Housing: Accessibility[25 JUNE 2014] Housing: Accessibility 1236 those standards and having those national standards House of Lords will now make it much simpler for developers to comply. Wednesday, 25 June 2014. 3pm Lord Shipley (LD): My Lords, does the Minister agree that we need a national campaign to build more Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Birmingham. bungalows to the lifetime homes standards because they are accessible and adaptable? Will she look at Housing: Accessibility ways in which the community infrastructure levy could be adapted to encourage builders to build more homes Question to the lifetime standards? 3.06 pm Baroness Stowell of Beeston: We need a range of Tabled by Baroness Wilkins different types of housing to meet a range of needs. To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps One of the things that the Government are doing is they are taking to ensure that future housing is providing special funding for accessible homes that accessible and able to meet the needs of the greatest are aimed precisely at older people and adults with number of people. disabilities. We are expecting 3,500 of those homes to be delivered before 2018. Lord Best (CB): My Lords, on behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, and at her request, I beg leave Baroness Andrews (Lab): My Lords, is the Minister to ask the Question standing in her name on the Order aware that one disabled person is six lives in unsuitable Paper. accommodation? Is she further aware that, while it costs £28,000 to treat a hip fracture, it costs about The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department £1,800 to put in a stair lift? Does she agree that it for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Stowell makes absolute economic sense to invest as much as of Beeston) (Con): My Lords, the Government are possible in accessible housing? She has spoken about taking a number of steps to support accessible housing, new regulations. Can she assure me that they will including introducing new accessibility requirements require all developers to build new houses to the into the building regulations and funding programmes lifetime homes standards? to improve housing choice for older and disabled people. Baroness Stowell of Beeston: We certainly want to Lord Best: My Lords, I thank the Minister on make sure that more and more homes are available behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins. She had a and that more and more of them are at a standard to terrible accident in the other place, has broken both meet the needs of a range of people. The noble Baroness her legs and will be in Stoke Mandeville Hospital for makes an important point: investment in this area some months. saves money in the longer term. Having those national Can the Minister reassure the House and external standards will ensure that developers are much more bodies such as Leonard Cheshire Disability and the inclined to comply with this requirement in future. Habinteg Housing Association that, in the quest to increase the quantity of new homes, the Government will not sacrifice quality, particularly in terms of space Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con): My Lords, is the standards and accessibility, as otherwise today’s rabbit Minister aware that the Habinteg Housing Association, hutches will be tomorrow’s slums? Will she encourage referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Best, has built all councils to follow the good example of the Mayor homes to these standards for more than 40 years? of London, Boris Johnson, and his predecessor, Ken Leonard Cheshire has done much the same. Surely we Livingstone, in insisting on the lifetime homes standards should all aim at housing that people will not be for accessibility that not only help all of us, particularly forced to leave because they are old or a bit disabled, as we grow older, but are there to save money in terms even apart from the more special adaptations that of people’s admission to hospital and admission to might be required for those who are more severely residential care homes? disabled. Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, I do not Baroness Stowell of Beeston: The more we can think that it is presumptuous to say on behalf of the ensure that this is achieved the better, but we think the whole House just how sorry we are to hear about the right approach is the way we are following, which is to tragic accident that the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, have a national planning policy in place that requires experienced. We all wish her a speedy recovery. local authorities to determine and plan for the needs In response to the noble Lord’s question, it is of their local people. important for me to say that this Government are going further than any previous Government in making Lord Low of Dalston (CB): My Lords, there is new homes accessible because for the first time ever we provision in the Deregulation Bill to incorporate lifetime are bringing two new access standards into building home standards and wheelchair accessible standards regulations. That has never happened before. Local in regulations, to which I think the Minister has referred. authorities are best placed to decide the housing needs To give them a statutory basis for the first time is of older and disabled people in terms of applying obviously very much to be welcomed. However, the 1237 Housing: Accessibility[LORDS] Bovine Tuberculosis 1238 [LORD LOW OF DALSTON] working to implement its recommendations in advance housing standards review consultation suggests that of the second year of culling in Gloucestershire and planning authorities will be able to enforce these standards Somerset. only if they apply a particularly rigorous needs test. Is there not a danger