Bored or inspired?

Last Monday, Inside Housing held its inaugural hustings, where housing’s top politicians were grilled by the BBC’s home editor, Mark Easton, and a 100-strong audience.

‘Congratulations to Inside Housing for firing the starting gun on the general election,’ said housing minister John Healey at the beginning of
his opening speech. So, the countdown has begun: who should you vote for?

Mr Healey may have only been in his job for four months, but he and shadow housing minister Grant Shapps already appeared to be well-established competitors. Indeed, they were keen to express their mutual respect for one another, with Mr Shapps describing Mr Healey as ‘fantastic’ in comparison to the three previous Labour housing ministers he has faced since he became shadow housing minister in 2007.

Although they broadly agreed on a number of policies, the tensions bubbling underneath the bonhomie became apparent when it got down to the finer details. One area on which the two certainly could not agree was the amount of regulation that should eminate from the Houses of Parliament - visible from the 29th floor of Millbank Tower, where the hustings event was held.

The Green Party’s Jenny Jones, chair of London’s planning and housing committee, said she was used to keeping representatives from other political parties in order.

But it was the Liberal Democrats’ housing spokesperson, Sarah Teather, who seemed to be most in the mood for a confrontation.

‘What frustrates me about the government’s policies is that they seem to have continued the flawed policies of the Conservative Party previously,’ she said.

The debate ranged from localism to right to buy, prompting the odd chuckle or round of applause from the rapt audience. On the following pages find out what the politicians say about the issues that matter to you, and what housing professionals made of the policies on show.

On the housing revenue account

Labour and the Conservatives agree that an HRA review is long overdue. Mr Healey said he aimed to have a firm offer for a review on the table in the new year for local authorities to consider.

Mr Shapps pointed out that ‘tenants are sick and tired of paying 47 per cent of their rent over to the government, only to be redistributed, sometimes to areas that have been much more reckless with their housing management’.

The government is proposing to reallocate £18 billion of housing debt between the 202 English local authorities in the HRA system, including those which are in the black, as part of moves to allow councils to keep the money they generate from their stock.

But ‘unwinding the situation is extremely complex’, Mr Shapps said, using his own constituency, Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire, as an example. ‘I understand that my authority doesn’t really want to pay £2 million to buy its way out of a problem,’ he said. ‘I’m going to try to be as supportive to John Healey as possible with this.’

Mr Healey responded by saying that if Mr Shapps wanted to be supportive, he could urge Conservative councils to ‘accept that the debt is historic local government debt that has been in the system for decades’.

Ms Teather strongly disagreed that this was the right way forward. She did not believe that councils should have to pay back money owed by others. ‘You’re still expecting poor council tenants to pay off the problems of other poor council tenants,’ she exclaimed. ‘We have to stump up the cash from general taxation.’

On ALMOS

All four politicians had neglected to mention arm’s-length management organisations in their opening speeches - but when questioned, they were generally supportive. ‘On the whole, experience suggests that ALMOs do a good job,’ said Mr Healey.

‘My own view is that it is good to have a mix of ALMOs, housing associations and council-owned properties, but in the end, the decision has got to be one for the tenants.’

He confirmed that those ALMOs that have not yet reached the two-star standard necessary to receive decent homes funding would get investment - eventually. ‘They may be on a timescale that differs from their original plans,’ he said.

ALMOs are the ‘unsung heroes in housing’, announced Mr Shapps, who was the most enthusiastic about this subject. ‘We will look to give you guys more flexibility to be able to do much more with our housing stock in future,’ he added.

‘Greens support all options that enable people to have a say in their own housing,’ said Ms Jones, who added that ALMOs were one of these options, along with housing co-operatives.

Ms Teather, however, was undecided. Some ALMOs do excellent work, but some are not performing as well, she said, before adding that it is good for tenants to have the option of an ALMO.

On localism

Throughout the debate, Mr Shapps returned to the same subject: localism. ‘Local authorities will have an absolutely essential part to play in this Conservative government,’ he chimed.

He added that relying on organisations such as the Tenant Services Authority to manage councils and registered social landlords is ‘just wrong’.

When asked by Mr Easton about the agency’s future should the Conservatives win the next general election, Mr Shapps answered that organisations such as the TSA and the Homes and Communities Agency would be ‘judged on their record until this point’.

Ms Jones was more vague on localism, arguing that the government needs to give councils ‘more money’. However, she insisted that even if there was to be more emphasis placed on localism, the HCA would still be needed to give a national overview.

It was Ms Teather who made the more tangible suggestions. ‘The priority is to make sure local authorities are able to borrow and to build and to do so quickly,’ she said.

Mr Shapps said that a Conservative government would introduce incentives for those local authorities that built homes. ‘They would get to keep the council tax generated by those homes, and for the next six years, they would be given a further 125p for every pound of tax collected,’ he explained - which provoked a tête-à-tête between Mr Shapps and the housing minister.

‘[The government proposes] that every penny of council tax that is raised in every local authority area is retained, in full, in that area. The idea that this is something new…,’ started Mr Healey in response to Mr Shapps’ plan.

‘But it will be doubled,’ Mr Shapps interrupted.

‘No, no, let me finish,’ insisted Mr Healey. ‘It’s a con from top to bottom. You say that you will double [receipts], in fact you will multiply them, 125p per pound - this is money that will largely come from other parts of local government. In other words you will be robbing councils to pay this so-called incentive. If anybody doubts that, look at footnote 41 of Grant Shapps’ housing green paper. Always look in the small print.’

After pausing for breath, Mr Healey responded to the other two panellists’ comments by saying that the relationship between central and local government needed to be a two-way street. ‘We should expect them to do more with their land, with their housing associations and with private investors,’ he said.

On decent homes

There was no hesitation from Mr Healey on this one. He stated that Labour is ‘totally committed’ to the programme, having invested more than £30 billion so far.

Mr Shapps said he was equally committed, but added that regulation should be kept to a minimum. ‘The answer to getting decent neighbourhoods is not just introducing another layer of bureaucracy,’ he stated. ‘If everything could be done from Parliament, we’d have had housing fixed a long time ago.’

Ms Teather thought decent homes funding should be extended to local authorities, as it was unfair if council tenants missed out because they opted to stick with their landlords.

For the Green Party’s Ms Jones, this matter was simple. ‘Unless you put the green measures in, [homes] will not be suitable in 20 years’ time,’ she said.

On the right to buy

‘Right to buy is one of the most revolutionary policies in social housing for the last 50 years,’ stated Mr Shapps. ‘Where it falls down is where you don’t build new homes with the cash. If you use that money to build more homes, then it’s a win-win.’

Ms Teather also thought that it was essential for councils to be able to keep receipts from sales. ‘This could make a significant difference,’ she said.
Ms Jones took a very different stance. ‘The Green Party absolutely wouldn’t allow people to buy their council houses,’ she stated. ‘It seems ridiculous at a time when there is such a short supply of housing.’

But Mr Healey was underwhelmed. ‘Changing the right to buy is not going to be the top priority,’ he said. ‘The first plan is to support councils into building again. The rents and receipts from these new build homes will be kept [by councils] in full outside of the HRA accounts system.’

On the private rented sector

Mr Shapps was all for self-regulation of the private rented sector, while Mr Healey argued for more regulation from on high.

‘The Rugg review [of the private rented sector] rightly identified that there are some rogue landlords, but I don’t think simply introducing more legislation is going to be the answer on its own,’ argued Mr Shapps.

‘The government plans to set up yet another register [for private landlords], but there are already far too many registers, and I don’t think the private rented sector has anywhere near exhausted regulating itself.’

Ms Jones jumped in to dismiss this idea. ‘We’ve seen what happens when institutions and companies are left to regulate themselves - it just doesn’t work,’ she said.

‘There is no point in introducing more legislation that is never going to be enforced,’ countered Ms Teather.

‘We’re not going to deliver all the homes we need just by building affordable housing, we’ve got to make the private rented sector more attractive both for people at the bottom end of the income scale and those at the top end of the income scale that don’t want to buy.’

Mr Healey remained firm on the need for government intervention. ‘People are likely to be in private rented housing for longer as we climb out of this recession and look to the future, so regulation has got to play a part,’ he said. ‘It’s as simple as that.’

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