Peer pressure

Lord Victor Adebowale of Thornes

Crossbench peer. Chief executive of charity Turning Point, former chief executive of Centrepoint, member of London mayor Ken Livingstone’s housing commission. Supporting People is a concern because there’s a lot of confusion about over how it’s going to roll out, how it’s going to be implemented practically and what local authorities think is required of them. As far as getting affordable housing through planning policies goes, I have no problem with insisting that developers must provide more affordable housing on site. They have a social responsibility. The starter homes initiative does not provide nearly enough resources to tackle the key worker housing crisis but I have another concern with it, too, over the definition of what constitutes a key worker, especially in a city like London. Is it someone for whom the public has more sympathy, or is it someone who is in need of housing – what about office cleaners for example? I have a basic problem with the supply of housing. What we need is the equivalent of the post-war housing boom, and that must be linked to regeneration, with the focus of that regeneration on the individual, not just on what regeneration looks like. Social landlords must be community landlords. There must be a social care aspect to their work. They can’t be landlords alone.

Sir George Young

Conservative MP for North-west Hampshire. Housing and planning minister 1990-1994, serving under both Margaret Thatcher and John Major Remembered for: introducing the rough sleepers initiative and opposing the poll tax. Some of the policies Labour is following now the Conservatives started years ago, such as using private sector accommodation and stock transfers. The Conservatives started the policy of pursuing affordable housing through planning gain but the problem that must be recognised is that it cannot be done through planning gain alone. The amount of resources given to councils and social landlords must increase if we are to tackle the affordable housing problem. But housing is not currently at the top of the agenda; in fact, it’s further down the agenda than it used to be. When I was housing minister I would be castigated by Labour for the amount of homeless people in bed and breakfast hotels. Now there’s little focus on Labour’s failures and weaknesses.

David Curry

Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon. Minister for local government, housing and urban regeneration 1993-1997 under John Major and in William Hague’s shadow cabinet. Remembered for: trying, in 1997, to transfer more than half of Britain’s 4.5 million council homes in 10 years The government will not meet its target on decent homes. The Birmingham stock transfer vote was an enormous blow for the government and I think there’s a real danger that the movement against stock transfers will gather momentum – and there’s no plan B. Arm’s-length management companies have been slow to take off and aren’t a real alternative. Has the government really digested what’s happened on stock transfers? Or is it keeping its fingers crossed and hoping it’ll be alright on the night? Housing policy at the moment is looking marooned half way between high tide and low tide. The starter homes initiative is a drop in the ocean. It’s a sticking plaster and not even a waterproof one at that. As for Frank Field’s bill, is a single mother who’s already got other children to look after really going to be able to bring her unruly child under control? The government is anxious to act and has told us that it will be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, but the problem is that it’s tackling symptoms, not causes.

Lord Tom Sawyer of Darlington

Labour peer. Former Labour Party general secretary and chairman of the Notting Hill Housing Group. I think Lord Falconer was doing a very good job and he would have made a great impact had he been allowed to stay longer. He was just getting into his stride and I think he would have tackled more housing issues. It’s regrettable that we’ve had so many changes of ministers. All the policies are well-intentioned but the real issue is delivery. We need more housing on brownfield sites to tackle the acute housing problems in the South-east. But the big issue is affordable housing. The government has a long way to travel on this. It’s all very well having acts of parliament and calling conferences on key worker housing but the delivery is problematic. Like other public sector areas, housing is often bogged down in tins of treacle and red tape.

John Gummer

Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal. Secretary of state for the environment 1993-1997, serving under John Major Remembered for: protecting greenfield land. The government seems to me to have fundamentally lost its way in trying to grapple with housing. The government has, for example, followed the previous administration’s views on restraining the growth of out-of-town shopping and putting development back into towns. But it has not been prepared to recognise that this sort of drive doesn’t happen by accident, and it hasn’t recognised the difficulty of getting buildings on brownfield sites. Look at what happened with the planned Elephant & Castle redevelopment in Southwark. [Southwark council has refused single regeneration budget cash to the local community forum working on the £1.5bn revamp. The council said this was because the forum failed to share financial information on the project.] By getting involved with local government, central government could have stopped that from happening. Once transport, planning and environment were all under one roof at the Department of the Environment. But over the years this holistic approach has disappeared. Transport was placed on its own and environment got sidelined, which is ludicrous because it’s not just about the countryside, it’s about the urban environment too. The minister who was most enthusiastic about planning – Lord Falconer – has been moved to the Home Office. Now we have a divided and disparate departmental set-up. The prime minister talks about joined-up government but he’s made it disjointed. There is no holistic thought and planning. The starter homes initiative, for example, is a quick-fix solution. We also have to find ways to encourage local authorities to use their planning powers and compulsory purchase powers better and make this easier. And at the end of the day, there must be more public money for social housing.

Gerald Kaufman

Labour MP for Manchester Gorton. Housing minister, 1974, and minister for industry 1975-9, serving under Harold Wilson. Remembered for: his outspoken manner and flamboyant dress sense. When I was housing minister we had massive funding for local authority housebuilding, but that funding was lost under the Tory government. As a result, the supply of public sector rented housing has decreased hugely. The creation of local authority housing has virtually ended and the housing association programme is far lower than the local authority programme used tobe. That's very depressing. This government has been trying its best. For example, the release of capital receipts was an excellent move and the recent regional planning guidance could really be helpful in addressing our housing need. I'm also very pleased that the government has moved towards a very important change in planning guidance whereby it is opposed to any building on greenfield sites. Whichever way you look at our housing problems, it's still a problem of under-supply and high demand – but this is not something which the government can easily remedy.