Housing and Planning Bill

My Lords, I support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best. I will also speak to Amendment 81...

Does the noble Lord agree that with complexity also comes error? Some of us who, when at the othe...

The noble Lord makes a very powerful point. With any new system—or indeed with very mature system...

My Lords, I support Amendment 75A, to which my noble friend Lord Stoneham has added his name, and...

My noble friend has raised an extremely important point relating to market value assessment. I wo...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Best, referred to an authority—I did not know whether it was a myt...

My Lords, this group of amendments, as we have heard, concerns the payment of rental income to th...

My Lords, this this group of amendments primarily concerns the treatment of administrative costs ...

Why on earth should we be pleased that the Government will allow local authorities a reasonable p...

I am grateful for the Minister’s assurance on covering the costs. I would have thought, therefore...

As my noble friend Lady Hollis has said, can the Minister when she responds say why it is reasona...

I thank noble Lords for their questions. As I have said, the Government are committed to helping ...

Yes, I know that is the position, but can the Minister tell us why it is not full costs? That is ...

There are many things to be taken into consideration and, as I have said, we will discuss with lo...

Okay. We are clearly not going to get an answer from the Government Front Bench on that. I think ...

I will have to take that away and write to the noble Lord.

I thank the noble Baroness for what she said about taking serious note of the possibility that in...

I want to follow up my noble friend’s well-spotted point that I had not picked up on. Clause 84(5...

I have already given the answer to the noble Lord. I will write to him.

I am sorry but this is a subsection of Clause 84 and we do not know what it means and what the im...

We fully intend to reimburse local authorities for reasonable costs and need to establish which c...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have joined in the debate. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ker...

Moved by

Lord Beecham

80: Clause 81, page 35, line 27, leave out paragraph (c)

My Lords, this group deals with the supply of information by HMRC in respect of the income of ten...

My Lords, I am very worried about this amendment and wish to speak briefly to it. I foresee some ...

My Lords, my name is attached to Amendment 80A, but I fully subscribe to the points that have bee...

My Lords, I am sure that all noble Lords will be pleased that this is a smaller group than those ...

Directly.

I hope I will give further comfort to the noble Lord.

The HMRC data-sharing powers allow a ...

How does the possibility of a private organisation being involved fit with the requirements of th...

My understanding, my Lords, is that it will be private data to a public body.

If Capita were appointed by the local authority, could it in any circumstances learn of the incom...

It could, but it could not share it. Anyone who holds data on another person is obviously restric...

Just to clarify this a step further: would a young lad or young lass in the office have access to...

My Lords, I do not know whether the name would be available. I can certainly provide—

They would know the property.

They might know the address of the property. I do not know whether data protection rules would al...

My Lords, Serco, Capita or Liberata, the companies that I was citing earlier, are currently admin...

The noble Baroness will accept that if someone is in receipt of housing benefit, this will not ap...

My Lords, tenants on housing benefit may have that benefit administered by Capita, Serco or Liber...

As well as those not in the benefits system anyway.

Yes, it cannot work.

My Lords, I am not sure that I entirely follow the noble Baroness, but that may be my deficiency ...

My noble friend is talking about people who are not in the benefits system at all, and yet their ...

My Lords, I do not know how their information could possibly be scrutinised by a private employer...

Perhaps I may interrupt the Minister in order to ask the Bill team or someone to check on the app...

I most certainly will do that, and I now know what the 2005 Act is; I defer to the noble Lord’s k...

My Lords, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Moved by

Lord Bassam of Brighton

82AA: After Clause 89, insert the following new Clau...

My Lords, these amendments would require the Secretary of State to give consideration to the issu...

My Lords, two amendments in the group are proposed by my noble friend Lord Bassam of Brighton. As...

My Lords, I also support my noble friend’s amendments. Like him and many others in this House, I ...

My noble friend in the first part of her contribution reminded me of the work done by Lewisham Co...

My Lords, unlike my noble friends Lady Hollis of Heigham and Lord Bassam of Brighton I have not b...

My noble friend reminds me of Lady Porter and her activities in Westminster some years ago. Am I ...

My Lords, Lady Porter—sorry, Dame Shirley Porter—was a bit before my time but I certainly do not ...

Is it the Government’s intention that these blocks of five-year secure tenancies can just carry o...

My Lords, that is absolutely correct. If a child was at school, clearly the situation would not h...

What is the purpose of these five-year tenancies if it is the Government’s intention that local a...

My noble friend is right: the answer is both to build more housing and to check, at review interv...

Will the Minister assure me, and the Committee, that no family with children at local schools wil...

The guidance will be absolutely clear on children of school age. We can think of every permutatio...

When will this guidance be produced?

My Lords, that is a very good question. The timeline of the guidance will all be before us by the...

I am reassured by some of what the Minister has said, but to be able to test the Government on th...

It is also a disincentive for people to invest in their homes, which they do now. They not only l...

My Lords, I have seen many different types of social housing, some of which is incredibly well lo...

They may be immaculate for five years or seven years and then when you go round the estates you c...

My Lords, I just cannot agree with that point. I believe that people who have bought their own ho...

But the stats are available to the Minister. This is not the progression of a personal view. We k...

The point I was making is that I can tell a house that has been bought because generally these ar...

The Minister said before, in reply to an intervention, that the reduced usage of rooms would be a...

My Lords, we will be coming to that, if the noble Lord will bear with me. I have some news for th...

I am sorry, my Lords, that is absolutely idiotic. The guidance will be published at the time at w...

My Lords, we will see the guidance before it is implemented but I am just saying that it will be ...

My Lords, I am grateful that it is going to be published.

I am grateful that the noble Lord is grateful. I do not believe that providing social housing on ...

My Lords—

I am not going to give way. If the noble Baroness wants to come back later, she can, after I have...

What amendment is the Minister speaking to? I do not think we have got to these amendments yet. T...

I think there is a typo. We are on the wrong clause.

Can I check if I am yet again speaking to amendments that we have not got to? Amendment 82GAE is ...

Will the Minister be really clear about guidelines? This is about regulations and guidelines. I a...

My Lords, to help noble Lords with this Amendment 82GAE, we are going to speak to it in its place...

My Lords, it was grouped with Amendment 82AA. It would be helpful if the House were advised earli...

This has never been in previous lists. We just noticed it now. When the Minister stared speaking ...

It clearly is a mistake and I really apologise if my noble friend has waited all this time.

I was trying to say to my noble friend that I had come into the Chamber. I do not particularly wi...

If it helps the Minister, I have a Whips sheet from Thursday and the grouping of that amendment i...

Would noble Lords like to hear it tonight or on Thursday? I am not going to waste any more time o...

What I am trying to get at is that if the regulations have to come to your Lordships’ House under...

I will endeavour to do just that.

I think that I should probably be withdrawing my amendment. I can see that the noble Baroness is ...

Before my noble friend withdraws his amendment, the Minister has not replied to my question about...

I should like to help my noble friend here, because I think he has misread my amendment. The revi...

Moved by

Viscount Younger of Leckie

82BZA: Schedule 4, page 115, leave out line 3 and...

My Lords, at this somewhat late hour and after another long day in Committee, I am pleased that I...

Moved by

Viscount Younger of Leckie

82BZB: Schedule 4, page 115, line 5, at end inser...

My Lords, I am opposing the proposition that Clause 113 should stand part of the Bill. Clause 113...

My Lords, I speak in support of this group, and specifically speak to my own amendment 82BA. It i...

My Lords, quarter to 11 is not the right time to have this serious debate about the role of socia...

Does the noble Lord not agree that if this is the change that is happening—I say we should be aim...

As we have heard, the local authority can renew the tenancy at the end of five years if it wants ...

My Lords, the noble Lord has described very well the competing pressures on social housing and I ...

As we have heard in earlier debates, every house that is being sold by a local housing associatio...

My Lords, I have an amendment in this group. It follows immediately after the amendment from the ...

My Lords, I support the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, and the general trend ...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, referred to a conversation. The conversation mea...

Noble Lords will be glad to hear that I am not going to enter a debate on land value taxation. I ...

My Lords, I shall speak in support of Amendments 82G and 82GA in my name, as well as Amendment 82...

My Lords, I rise briefly to support the thrust of this group of amendments. The provision to limi...

My Lords, I rise briefly as the hour is late. Notwithstanding the speeches from other noble Lords...

I thank all noble Lords for their amendments. Before I turn to them, it may be helpful if I say a...

I am preoccupied by the review; let me explain why. You could have in an authority a councillor w...

The noble Lord is right, which is why we will be producing detailed guidance. Also, other people ...

I apologise for intervening at this very late hour, but nowhere have we had an explanation of why...

I am just about to come on to some reasons.

Councils are already able to use flexible tenan...

Could the Minister write to me on the point about Schedule 7—I know she referred to it—particular...

I am sorry. The noble Baroness asked about the intention behind the provisions that govern a tena...

Can the noble Baroness comment further on the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, when h...

As I said, our aim is to make sure that people have access to social housing. We do not want to s...

Moved by

Lord Beecham

82GAA: Schedule 7, page 131, line 24, at end insert—

“(3A...

My Lords, this amendment relates to Schedule 7 to the Bill, which refers to what is to happen in ...

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for this group of amendments, which deal with the review that local...

What is to stop a local authority terminating the tenancy and then moving the tenant—because it h...

It would not say much for the behaviour of the local authority, which has a responsibility. I wou...

At this time, I am not disposed to prolong the agony. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Moved by

Lord Beecham

82GAE: After Clause 114, insert the following new Clause—