Housing (Interim Management Orders) (Prescribed Circumstances) (England) Order 2006

I welcome these orders and regulations, and think that my Liberal Democrat colleagues would do the same. It is some time since we discussed them in the Housing Bill. Indeed, we spent many a long day discussing the issues with the Minister who was taking the previous orders. We went into it in some detail, although not without controversy. There are higher standards for landlords, and I appreciate that some of the matters will be difficult. I understand that it has taken the ODPM—now the DCLG, if I have that right—rather a long time to deal with this; partly, I suppose, because there has been quite detailed consultation. Because I am now a member of the Merits and Statutory Instruments Committee, I know that some notice was taken of issues raised by landlords and others. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that it could not have been expedited rather more speedily. Personally, it has practically been 20 years since I got involved in these issues as a new councillor in Southampton, went out with the environmental health officer to see some of these properties and realised what some of these problems are, particularly for people living in properties with poor repair and management. In parts of Southampton we had young mothers with babies living in this type of accommodation. Children were not learning to walk at the right age; there were all sorts of problems. It was interesting that the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, mentioned the difficulty of getting washbasins everywhere. Having inspected these properties, I think it is pretty vital. People are living cheek by jowl, and hygiene is important. Hotels manage to have washbasins, or some sort of plumbing, in every room. It is not too much to expect. The other problem is not just the people living in them, but problems for other houses in the surrounding area, where gardens, rubbish and disrepair affect everyone living in the neighbourhood. The fact that huge amounts of public money, in the form of housing benefit, have been paid for rather substandard accommodation has appalled me over the years. I raised this issue with Nick Raynsford in another place in 1995. I had high hopes that we would get this all done a lot quicker when he became Minister. Nevertheless, we are here now. I was pleased to visit an area in Newcastle during the local elections, with Liberal Democrat colleagues who are thinking of using these regulations and orders in a particular area. I have one or two questions reflecting what the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, said. What information does the Minister have on the level of interest in these measures from local authorities? What measures will be put in place to monitor progress? The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, has raised issues that people have been concerned about. It is only right that we look at how matters turn out and whether some of our fears are real, and to help spread best practice where we find it, enabling local authorities to deal with problems if someone else has found a good way to remedy them. During the passage of the Bill, I had hoped that the scope of properties subject to these regulations would be rather wider. I argued rather forcibly for that, and was grateful to Shelter for the huge amount of evidence which it provided. The Government can be assured that Shelter will monitor the progress of the licensing of houses in multiple occupation. Even if the Government is not doing its research, others out there will. The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, raised how the orders have been dealt with by what was the ODPM, now the DCLG. We raised this issue on the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee. We investigated how different departments deal with secondary legislation. For someone who has spent most of the past 13 years doing primary legislation in both Houses, it has been quite interesting. I did not think that it would be as interesting as it turned out to be. Perhaps the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, might like to look at that report to see what we said. We will be getting a detailed response from DCLG on what we said on that committee; we have had an interim report. I hope that the new Minister in another place will take heed of what we said and enable the DCLG to improve its performance in this area. As I said at the beginning, however, I welcome these measures and hope that they will bring about the improvements we all want to see in this type of accommodation; not least that we will not be paying lots of money for rather inferior accommodation in the future.