The fight to be heard

Third of June, 2010. The date on, or before which, the people must have gone to the polls to elect the next UK government. That leaves just 259 days - and potentially far fewer - for politicians to persuade us to vote for them. Which is why Inside Housing presents you with another date: 19 October 2009.

A month from now we’re bringing the politicians’ election pledges to you at the inaugural Inside Housing hustings. We’ve lined up housing’s biggest political animals - housing minister John Healey, his Conservative and Liberal Democrat shadows Grant Shapps and Sarah Teather respectively, and London Assembly member Jenny Jones for the Green Party - to answer your questions on their plans to shake up the housing landscape.

Even better, we’re giving you the chance to come along and quiz our panel for free. All you have to do to win a place is let us know what you’d ask our panel. The entrants with the five best suggestions will be invited to London to join the hustings audience.

To get you started, here is a taster of what the panel members stand for - and what topics get them especially hot under the collar.

Grant Shapps - Conservative Party

Age 40

Won the marginal seat of Welwyn Hatfield from Labour in 2005

Appointed shadow housing minister by Tory leader David Cameron in 2007

Before becoming an MP he ran a printing company which he founded in 1990, aged 21
Lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and three children - he has no second home

First thing he’d do as housing minister would be to scrap national house building targets

Hates Home Information Packs

Change the record The prime minister only has to mention the word ‘reshuffle’ and Mr Shapps is lamenting the high turnover of housing ministers under Labour (nine so far, for those counting)

Locks horns with Mr Healey frequently in the House of Commons, most recently over what he sees as the inadequacy of low cost homeownership products and mortgage rescue schemes

Best line in the commons referencing former housing minister Caroline Flint’s resignation claim that the prime minister won’t allow women in his inner circle:

‘I know that [John Healey] sat around the cabinet table for the first time this morning. He may have harboured concerns that it was his rugged good looks that had won him a seat around the cabinet table, but I am absolutely confident that he is there for much more than window dressing and that he will do a fine job’

Key policies

Last month shadow communities minister Caroline Spelman, Mr Shapps’ boss, wrote to councils to say that a Tory government would introduce new housing and planning rules within a year of gaining power. So what could a Conservative-run nation expect?

• Social housing - incentives for well-behaved tenants, including ‘right to move’ to any social home, regardless of landlord.
• Council housing - match-funding of council tax take for every home an authority builds.
• New homes - the creation of ‘local housing trusts’, more community land trusts and protection for gardens from development.
• Regeneration - just this month Mr Shapps promised that a Conservative government would give individual streets the power to decide how and when their areas are regenerated.
• Sustainability - £6,500 interest-free loans for greening all households; the Tories are also critical of eco-towns.
• Planning - local, local, local: the party will abolish the regional planning system and development targets.
• Quangos - a merger of the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tenant Services Authority is not out of the question, while the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment is also said to be on the Tories’ hit list. Regional assemblies will not survive.

The big rumour

Many consider it the worst kept secret in Westminster, but the Tories dismiss as tattle the idea that they’ll abolish tenancies for life if they win the next general election.

Worth probing on

Security of tenure; will he remain as housing spokesperson if the Tories win the next election, and does he even want to?

John Healey - Labour Party

Age 49

Elected MP for the safe Labour seat of Wentworth in 1997

Appointed housing minister in June 2009

Before becoming an MP his incarnations included a PR man, union campaign manager and part-time tutor at the Open University business school

Government posts include financial secretary to the Treasury and local government minister

The first thing he did as housing minister was vow to reform the housing revenue account system

Likes beer and strong coffee

Is good at not answering the question - see minutes of the Communities and Local Government department’s select committee for evidence

During Westminster debates he frequently attempts to goad Mr Shapps into saying a Conservative government would end security of tenure

His biggest slip-up as housing minister came when Inside Housing asked him about the housing green paper, expected this summer. ‘Was it?’ he replied.

Key policies

Mr Healey has wasted no time during his three months as housing minister in acting on his brief. In grasping the nettle of housing revenue account reform, talking tough on housing association rents and championing a return to councils building homes, he has arguably achieved more than many of his eight predecessors since 1997. His actions have both delighted and appalled…

• Social housing - plans to reform allocations under the banner ‘local homes for local people’.
• Council housing - just last week announced 47 councils will share £127 million to build 2,000 new homes as part of a £460 million local authority new build programme. This shortly after Mr Healey addressed council housing finance reform by challenging authorities: redistribute the HRA’s £18 billion debt by early next year or he’ll do it for them.
• ALMOs - ouch. Arm’s-length management organisations are threatening legal action against the government after the £150 million earmarked for their decent homes work was given away to pay for new homes. The government insists the cash has merely been ‘deferred’.
• Housing associations - ouch again. Mr Healey’s decision to impose a 2 per cent rental floor on housing associations for 2009/10 prompted the National Housing Federation - which favours a rent freeze - to label him ‘economically inept’. The move threatens some associations’ lending covenants.
• Regeneration - continuing to fund market renewal pathfinders, but criticised for recently withdrawing £128 million from growth funding to bankroll Gordon Brown’s £1.5 billion new housing pledge.
• Sustainability - recently declared carbon emissions to be his top regulatory priority and all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016; few ideas for greening existing stock.
• New homes - still pledging the ‘ambition’ to build 3 million homes by 2020.

The big rumour

The Treasury plans to add outstanding repairs and maintenance bills to the £18 billion HRA debt authorities are to share in return for increased freedom.

Worth probing on

The future for ALMOs yet to gain two stars. Why most of the latest money for new council homes is going to ‘low demand’ areas, with Yorkshire getting enough cash to build almost the same number of homes as pressurised London and the south east.

Jenny Jones - Green Party

Age 59

Elected first Green Party member of the London Assembly in 2000, re-elected in 2008, and a member of Southwark Council since 2006

Appointed chair of London’s planning and housing committee in May 2009

Previous roles include a stint as deputy London mayor under Ken Livingstone, whom she also advised on green transport

Insists the Greens are a not a single issue party

Regularly lambasts Boris Johnson at the London mayor’s weekly question time and argues he needs ‘to get an urgent grip’ on the capital’s environmental challenges

‘Dimwitted people’ is her description of 4x4 drivers

Enjoyed being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman, calling him ‘great, trying to get the truth’, but says ‘Richard and Judy were dreadful, just shouting for effect’

Key policies

Argues for a massive social house building programme, as part of a ‘Green new deal’, to solve three problems in one: the housing crisis, struggling house builders and rising unemployment - and all with an environmental twist. Here’s what the party suggests:

• Council housing - £6 billion for local authorities to buy, convert or build new housing for rent, and pay for 60,000 new, low-carbon homes.
• Struggling homeowners - £3 billion for councils to buy homes about to be repossessed and rent back to occupiers.
• Sustainability - insulate 20 million uninsulated homes and ensure all new homes are built to environmental standards.

Worth probing on How the Greens propose to fund their plans

Sarah Teather - Liberal Democrats

Age 35

Elected MP for Brent East in a 2003 by-election

Appointed Lib Dem housing spokesperson in 2008

Before becoming an MP she analysed policy for a cancer charity and was a member of Islington Council

She faces a tough fight at the next election - redrawn electoral boundaries have seriously jeopardised her comfortable majority

Is passionate about building affordable housing for families

Says the Tories ‘whinge’

Has criticised the government for what she sees as dithering over HRA reform

Key policies

Ms Teather’s personal housing priorities are HRA reform, tackling empty homes and reforming mortgage law to offer greater consumer protection.

Other Lib Dem ideas include:

• Family housing - audit of 3,100 hectares of public land to discover how much could be used to house families.
• Council housing - speed up HRA reform and give councils a ‘fifth option’ allowing council tenants to transfer to a mutual housing association.
• New homes - scrap national targets, hold community land auctions to bring more land forward for development.
• Planning - introduce a third party right of appeal; abolish national infrastructure planning commission.
• Sustainability - improve energy efficiency of existing homes.

Worth probing on Security of tenure. Ms Teather is a staunch defender and if there’s talk of scrapping it, sparks may fly.

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