John Healey interview
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24/07/2009 2:14 pm
What would you ask the housing minister given the chance?
Inside Housing is interviewing John Healey next week and we want to know what answers you’d like from him.
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24/07/2009 3:26 pm
Part of the Labour package post-war was the concept of the right to housing. This was understood as a decent quality affordable home.
For the past 25 years housing has been treated as a commodity.
Does New Labour have any future plans to return to enabling a right to housing that it's political parent once held as a foudation stone of social justice?
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25/07/2009 7:48 pm
Does the summer recess mean you are odds on to become the longest serving Housing Minister ?
Slightly more seriously:-
Given the savings it makes for the public purse why does the government not increase the SP budget and re-apply the ringfence?
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25/07/2009 7:48 pm
Does the summer recess mean you are odds on to become the longest serving Housing Minister ?
Slightly more seriously:-
Given the savings it makes for the public purse why does the government not increase the SP budget and re-apply the ringfence?
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Posts: 104
28/07/2009 0:29 am
Question:
As you know, Prescott slashed the Right To Buy (RTB) discount to just £16K in London, down from a full 65% discount at it's peak. This move was prompted by militant types and other Sparts within the Labour party who hate the concept of home ownership. This has inevitably to one thing; the end of RTB.
Given the massive drop in council's capital receipts from RTB, and the damage this loss is causing to their balance sheets, and in light of the proposed abolition of the HRA enabling councils to keep the entirety of their own RTB receipts, will you now restore the full 65% discount on RTB sales in order to kick start this stalled engine of local wealth creation?
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28/07/2009 10:25 am
To many social homes have been lost, and many of those sold under right to buy are now part of the growing property portfolios of private landlords, being rented back to Council's at inflated rents.
In the interest of putting social need ahead of personal greed, will you bring an end to the Right to Buy and replace it with a Discount Compensation Scheme through which a proportion of lifetime rent paid can be given as a property purchase grant for use in the purchase of a private sector property? This would ensure that no further family social housing units were lost, preserving the ability of local authorities to house those in greatest need.
Will you also look into banning the ability of a Leaseholder owning more than one leasehold property. It is a travesty that in London particularly, homes developed with the benefit of social housing grant have been hoovered up by speculators who are effectively profiteering through government grant, whilst the families originally intended to benefit from the grant are left paying market rents.
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28/07/2009 1:43 pm
Given the shortage of housing generally, and of affordable housing, why aren’t county councils and other public sector landowners being forced to release land at nil or low cost so that it can be developed with a high proportion of affordable housing? Or at least required to consult with local councils about forthcoming land disposals?
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Posts: 104
30/07/2009 0:28 am
As a follow up with regard to the Chris Webb comment I seriously don't think any Government would contemplate restricting what property an individual can own or the amount of same. Such a system existed in the Soviet Union and this fact needs no further comment.
Nevetheless it is fair to point out the curse of the absentee RTB leaseholder who rents their property back to the council for a tidy profit, thereby creating further "deprivation" and mono-tenure occupation on our housing estates.
As part of the resurrection of RTB, would the Minister consider making all future RTB leases granted contain a "no sub-let" clause so that leases could only be sold on to residential leaseholders in perpetuity? Such a move would assist in creating stable mixed communties of residential working homeowners on housing estates and resist the opportunity for speculators to profit from an asset built with State assistance.
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04/09/2009 4:28 pm
Has there been an outcome of the interview yet, or did I miss it?
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Inside Housing staff post
04/09/2009 4:38 pm
There has. He didn't cover right to buy, but he did say he wants his spell as housing minister to last a little bit longer than his predecessors'. If you paste the link below into your browser it'll take you to the full interview:
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/story.aspx?storycode=6505763
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