PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
INVESTMENT IN BUILDING NEW HOMES AND THE HOUSING BENEFIT BILL (17 June 2015)

That this House notes with concern that there has been a dramatic reduction in the supply of housing, particularly social housing at social rents, since 2010; further notes that plans to extend the right to buy scheme to housing association tenants in England will further reduce the number of social homes available and threaten the financial viability of many housing associations; believes that building more homes will lower the costs of housing overall for everyone, help to cut the soaring housing benefit bill, enabling the transition from benefits to bricks, and ensure that thousands of families in desperate need of a home and living in unacceptable conditions are housed adequately; and calls on the Government to set a target of increasing the supply of housing to 250,000 new homes per year, including within this overall target a commitment to deliver a significant proportion of affordable and new social rented homes provided by local authorities and housing associations, to take urgent action to ensure effective regulation in the private rented sector to make private renting more affordable, secure and stable and to reform welfare policy to reverse the widening disparity created by cuts in housing benefit between rents and the benefit received.

Sponsored by:
Alex Cunningham (Labour)