Housing Bill defeat on council house replacements

A total of 275 peers voted for crossbench peer Lord Bob Kerslake’s amendment to the bill today, which seeks to enable councils to retain enough funds from the sale of higher-value council homes to build replacement social housing.

Under the Housing and Planning Bill, councils will be forced to sell off their higher-value, empty council stock to pay for a levy charged by the Treasury. This will be used to pay for discounts of housing association tenants exercising the Right to Buy and a new replacement council home.

Under Lord Kerslake’s amendment, if the local authority can demonstrate there is a need for social housing, the government would enter into an agreement allowing that council to retain enough money to fund the provision of a new social home.

Lord Kerslake told peers he had held constructive discussions on the issue with ministers Baroness Susan Williams and Greg Clark during the week, and had not expected to table his amendment until 5pm yesterday.

But he said he believed another part of government had blocked an amendment from ministers to address this issue.

Baroness Susan Williams, a junior Department for Communities and Local Government minister, said the government is still keen to allow councils to draw up “bespoke” agreements with the government to build homes that are right for their communities. However, Baroness Williams said: “[The amendment] focuses on social housing – this regresses from the discussions we have been having on developing the agreement process to acknowledge the potential desire of many different types of housing.”

A total of 197 peers voted against Lord Kerslake’s amendment. The bill will on Tuesday go to the House of Commons, which could decide to vote against the House of Lords’ amendments.

It follows a series of government defeats over the bill in the House of Lords where the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have a majority.