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Conservative leadership runners and riders: what are their views on housing?

As Theresa May confirms she will step down as Conservative leader on 7 June, here is a reminder of what the possible runners and riders in the looming leadership contest think about housing. Illustration by Jonathan Edwards

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Conservative leadership runners and riders: what are their views on housing? #ukhousing

As Conservative politicians jostle for the position of next PM, we take a look at what they think about housing policy #ukhousing

As Theresa May confirms she is standing down as Conservative Party leader on 7 June, here is a reminder of what the possible runners and riders in the looming leadership contest think about housing #ukhousing

This piece was originally published on 5 April

As Theresa May confirms she is standing down as Conservative Party leader on 7 June, here is a reminder of what the possible runners and riders in the looming leadership contest think about housing.


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Jeremy Hunt

Jeremy Hunt

While Mr Hunt has been around in government for a long time, his six years as health secretary mean he has the least direct housing pedigree among the front runners.

His politics are arguably quite hard to pin down, but he was once described as a “metropolitan liberal” by the Financial Times.

Inevitably, he has attracted some controversy as health secretary – the longest period in the role in British political history. During his time with the health brief, he took on the extra responsibility of social care in England, but a long-promised Social Care Green Paper failed to materialise on his watch. Scurrilous types will note that he has some familiarity with the housing market. Last year, he was referred to the MPs’ standards watchdog after he failed to declare the purchase of seven luxury flats in Southampton. He apologised and called the deal an “honest administrative mistake”.

Clear positions on affordable housing policy remain an enigma.

Michael Gove

Michael Gove

Long-standing Inside Housing readers should be well acquainted with the former Times journalist-turned-political provocateur. Currently environment secretary, Mr Gove once held the role of shadow housing minister in 2005.

Back then, he voiced doubts about extending the Right to Buy to housing associations. “Far fewer people live in social housing now than in 1979,” he told Inside Housing. “It’s vitally important, given homelessness and other factors, that we maintain a decent social housing stock.”

However, a decade later, he had changed tack and was lauding a Conservative commitment to extend the controversial policy to housing association tenants.

During a leadership bid last time around, Mr Gove banged the drum for ambitious housebuilding efforts, calling for “hundreds of thousands of homes a year” for both private and social rent – the kind of rhetoric which will be music to the sector’s ears.

Amber Rudd

Amber Rudd

Work and pensions secretary Ms Rudd is an outsider for the top job.

In her current role, she is overseeing an overhaul of Universal Credit, making some moves to appease critics of the controversial welfare reform programme.

The National Housing Federation welcomed, for example, her intervention to challenge the Treasury to halt the freeze on benefits in 2020.

However, just days after her announcement on Universal Credit, she was under fire again over claims that changes to the benefit rules could cost pensioners thousands of pounds a year. In her previous cabinet role as home secretary, she brought in harsher penalties for landlords renting to illegal immigrants.

She was also the energy secretary that put the kybosh on the Green Deal energy efficiency scheme in 2015.

Some see her as an unlikely candidate for leader due to her being a staunch Remainer during the EU referendum campaign.

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson

Mr Johnson is unlikely to be a welcome choice among many in the sector.

The former foreign secretary struck a characteristically controversial tone last October when he said Labour’s focus on building “state-owned housing” was “diametrically opposed to the interests of most families”.
He argued that Labour “hates that instinct” of people owning their own homes. His record on housing as London mayor was certainly mixed.

During his early years, the number of affordable homes being delivered in the capital rose steadily. However in his last year at City Hall, the number of affordable homes built dropped to their lowest point since the early 1990s.

Housing was always high on the agenda, but his inflexible approach to grant led many large housing associations to simply shun his programme.

The huge appetite shown for his successor Sadiq Khan’s programme suggests the ideology was the block – and many in the sector would not welcome that being taken national by his entry into Downing Street.

Dominic Raab

Dominic Raab

The fresh-faced Mr Raab will be familiar to Inside Housing readers, having briefly been housing minister before taking up the role as Brexit secretary last year. His time with the housing brief was short, even by modern standards – he left the post after just six months.

Even so, the former lawyer managed to spark a furore when he claimed that immigration had pushed up house prices by 25% in the past 25 years.

Listen to a podcast featuring an interview with Mr Raab:

He also rejected suspending the Right to Buy, arguing that people “dream of owning their own home”. He acknowledged, though, that the government must take steps to help councils “replenish the stock of subsidised housing”.

He also boasted as a backbench MP of lobbying against the government's efforts to increase development on the Green Belt.

However, a back catalogue of colourful quotes about feminists and foodbank users are also unlikely to endear him to the social housing sector.

Sajid Javid

Sajid Javid

The former housing and communities secretary is arguably the most well-versed candidate in the social housing sector. In the aftermath of Grenfell, his calm and personable approach was warmly received.

As housing secretary, the former Deutsche Bank high-flyer oversaw the publication of the 2017 Housing White Paper. The paper included moves to release funds to allow councils to build more homes. It also included proposals for a new rent standard for the social housing sector post
2020 and a dropping of the 20% threshold for Starter Homes.

Mr Javid has also not been afraid to call out house builders on land banking.
In 2016, he said: “Making the housing market work for everyone is not just an economic imperative. It’s also a question of basic humanity.”

He believes in investment to build, having called for an ambitious programme of borrowing to invest in new housing at the 2017 Budget, before being ignored by the Treasury.

He also set in train the process for the Social Housing Green Paper, which he promised would be a “wide-ranging, top to bottom review” of the issues facing the social housing sector and be the “most substantial report of its kind for a generation”.

Other potential candidates

David Davis, a former Brexit secretary who has lost two Conservative leadership contests, has been outspoken on issues affecting the sector. Last October he called for the scrapping of the Help to Buy, arguing it was increasing the cost of new homes by 15%. He also demanded more money to be pumped into Universal Credit.

Matt Hancock is regarded as a protégé of George Osborne and a smooth media performer. As skills and enterprise minister, Mr Hancock spoke up for the plight of homeless people. All eyes will be on the health secretary this month as he prepares to unveil the long-awaited Social Care Green Paper.

Penny Mordaunt, the current secretary of international development and minister for women and equalities, has the least impressive CV compared with her rivals. However, she does have some previous with the sector after spending a year as minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, where she covered local growth.

Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons who lost out to Ms May in the last Conservative leadership contest, is largely an unknown package in regard to housing. A glimpse of her voting record shows that she has voted along party lines on controversial issues: including the bedroom tax and phasing out secure lifetime tenancies.

Read more about Brexit

 

Brexit and the social housing sector: the key risks As the tortuous process of exiting the European Union approaches its denouement, the country remains in a state of uncertainty about what exactly is going to happen. Peter Apps recaps the key risks to the social housing sector

Downturn: why is L&Q cutting its surplus in half and what does it mean for the sector After L&Q revealed it is likely to cut its surplus by £158m this year, Peter Apps asks what this means for the financial model which has defined the housing association sector since 2010

What housing associations are doing to stress-test for Brexit With the UK’s departure from the EU looming, Luke Barratt looks at what housing associations have been doing to prepare

Regulator writes to housing associations with no-deal Brexit warning The regulator has issued a warning to housing associations over the threat of a no-deal Brexit, outlining key risk areas including shortages of crucial materials, a housing market crash and difficulties accessing ‘business-critical’ data

Sector draws up contingency plans for no-deal Brexit The country’s largest housing associations are putting in place contingency plans to protect the future of their organisations

How would the sector cope with a no-deal Brexit? As uncertainty around Brexit mounts and a no-deal looms, Inside Housing asks what it could mean for the housing sector

Current grant system won’t work in a falling market The government needs to think again about grant to prevent housing association development from collapsing in a falling market, writes Matthew Bailes.

S&P would downgrade half its rated housing associations after no-deal Brexit The credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has said it will downgrade associations it rates if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal

 

Click here for all our Brexit news to date

 

More episodes of The Housing Podcast

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What would a no deal Brexit mean for housing?

What would the consequences be the UK's housing sector if Britain left the EU without a deal? The Housing Podcast team is joined by Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, John Perry, policy advisor at the Chartered Institute of Housing and property journalist Rhiannon Curry to ask what it would all mean.

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Is Sadiq Khan delivering on housing?

After an attack in this week's Evening Standard, The Housing Podcast team catches up with deputy mayor James Murray and Conservative housing spokesperson Andrew Boff to assess London mayor Sadiq Khan's record on housing.

The true cost of homelessness

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Rating the Social Housing Green Paper

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This week, the Housing Podcast looks back at this story, which began with a throwaway line in George Osborne's Autumn Statement in 2015.

Edited by Luke Barratt.

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A brief history of council housing

In this week’s episode of The Housing Podcast we speak to John Boughton, social historian and author of Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing, about the five phases of local authority housing – starting in the East End of London in 1900.

Was Dispatches fair to housing associations?

The Housing Podcast team is joined by Tom Murtha to discuss the controversial Dispatches documentary on housing associations titled Getting Rich From the Housing Crisis.
Tom appeared on the programme, but felt it misrepresented his views. The team also hears views from Brian Robson of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Curo boss Victor da Cunha about the documentary. Edited by Peter Apps.

Listen or download here:

Who has been the best housing minister since 2010?

The Housing Podcast team get together to rank all of the housing ministers of the modern Tory era, from Shapps to Raab. There's a lot of them. Edited by Luke Barratt.

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Should the Freedom of Information Act be extended to housing associations?

Rob Beiley, a partner at Trowers and Hamlins, and Maurice Frankel from the Campaign for Freedom of Information debate whether the Freedom of Information Act should be extended to cover housing associations. Edited by Luke Barratt.

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The Hackitt Review

This week, Dame Judith Hackitt released the findings of her building regulations review, commissioned by the government in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire last June.

Featuring an interview with Dame Judith, the team takes a look at what was in the report – and why some people were less than impressed. Edited by Luke Barratt.

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The rise and partial fall of the Right to Buy extension

Inside Housing's editor-in-chief Emma Maier joins the Housing Podcast team to look back at the rise and partial fall of plans to extend Right to Buy discounts to 1.3 million housing association tenants, first announced by David Cameron in 2015. Edited by Luke Barratt.

Listen or download here:

 

 

Is immigration the cause of the housing crisis?

The Housing Podcast team is joined by Jonathan Portes, the former chief economist at the Cabinet Office, to discuss housing minister Dominic Raab’s claim that immigration has pushed up house prices.

The episode also features an interview with senior staff at Arhag, a specialist housing association which supports new migrants. Edited by Luke Barratt.

Listen or download here:

 

Right to Buy or Wrong to Buy?

London Labour assembly member Tom Copley takes on Conservative councillor John Moss to debate one of housing's most divisive policies: the Right to Buy. Edited by Luke Barratt.

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Building regulations: the paper trail

Inside Housing presents ‘the paper trail’. We go over building regulation changes covering decades to see how so many tower blocks around the country ended up with dangerous cladding.

We ask: was the cladding on Grenfell Tower legal? How did the regulations change to allow combustible materials? And what warnings were missed along the way? Edited by Luke Barratt.

Listen or download here:

 

Never Again campaign

Never Again campaign

Inside Housing has launched a campaign to improve fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire

Never Again: campaign asks

Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.

LANDLORDS

  • Take immediate action to check cladding and external panels on tower blocks and take prompt, appropriate action to remedy any problems
  • Update risk assessments using an appropriate, qualified expert.
  • Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out
  • Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents

GOVERNMENT

  • Provide urgent advice on the installation and upkeep of external insulation
  • Update and clarify building regulations immediately – with a commitment to update if additional learning emerges at a later date from the Grenfell inquiry
  • Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)

We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.

The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.

 

READ MORE ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN HERE

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