Oral Questions - Communities and Local Government

26th January 2010

Affordable Housing (London)

Ms Karen Buck (Regent's Park and Kensington, North) (Lab): What recent estimate he has made of the level of demand for affordable housing in London. [312953]

The Minister for Housing (John Healey): The Mayor of London and the London boroughs are required to assess demand for affordable housing in London. The Mayor's own figures show that about 18,200 new affordable homes are needed each year. I regret to say that his current plan proposes to build 5,000 fewer than that each year.

Mr. Nicholas Soames (Mid-Sussex) (Con): Has the Minister had time to see the powerful report from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, which calls for an assessment to be made by the Government of the impact of immigration on affordable housing and other housing, given the great pressure on demand? Has the right hon. Gentleman made such an assessment?

The Minister for Housing, John Healey MP: I recognise and pay tribute to the work that the hon. Gentleman does on these issues, which I know he follows closely. The short answer to his question is no, I have not studied that report. I would be interested to know whether the Lords Committee studied the changes that I made recently to the policy under which councils allocate council and housing association homes, because that makes it clear that migrants are not entitled to be on waiting lists in general, and it has given local authorities more leeway to allocate homes according to local pressures.

Hansard vol 504

No 30

Col 663