Angela Rayner’s statement to MPs about planning policyAngela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, is making a statement to MPs on housing and planning.She starts by saying the statement is about her plan “to get Britain building”.ShareKey eventsRayner says in the coming months she will publish a long-term housing strategy.She says Tory MPs may claim that she cannot achieve this. But she will prove them wrong, she says.ShareRayner says she will hold herself accountable. She will report how well ministers are doing in meeting the 13-week target for turning around planning decisions.ShareRayner says the housing reforms are key to the government’s wider growth ambitions.She says planning rules are being changed to promote more renewable energy projects.All local authorities must have a development plan in place, she says.She says she will set clear expectations for universal development plan coverage.ShareRayner says she is looking at right to buy too.She is already reviewing right to buy discounts, and will consider wider right to buy policy too.ShareRayner says she wants developers to commit to matching the government’s pace of reform.She says she wants “a council house revolution”.This is not an add-on, she says. She says schemes with a lot of social housing are more likely to be completed more quickly.She says 70,000 families would be losing out as a result of the previous government’s failure to build enough social housing.ShareRayner says the first places where homes must be build should be on brownfield land.But more green belt land must be released too, she says.She says low-quality grey belt land must be released. A definition is being released today.And where this land is released, 50% of it should be for social housing, she says.ShareRayner says new housing target system will raise number of homes planned from 300,000 per year to 370,000Rayner confirms that local housing targets will be made mandatory.And the method used to calculate local housing need will be changed.Local authorities will have to plan for a total of new homes proportionate to local communities.As a result, the number of new homes planned will rise from 300,000 a year to 370,000 a year.ShareRayner says the government is ambitious. But what she says “won’t be without controversy”, she says.She says 150,000 children live in temporary accommodation.Under 30s are half as likely to own their own home as in the 1990s.Homelessness is at record levels, she says.But the Tories “ducked the difficult decisions”, she says. They put “party before country”.She says the Tories made housing targets advisable, not mandatory, even though this would tank housing supply.And she says the number of new homes is below 200,000.ShareAngela Rayner’s statement to MPs about planning policyAngela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, is making a statement to MPs on housing and planning.She starts by saying the statement is about her plan “to get Britain building”.ShareJonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has confirmed that he has written to the Low Pay Commission asking it to ensure that it takes cost of living factors into account when it sets rates for the national minimum wage and the national living wage. He also confirmed that the government wants to set a single rate for adults (instead of having a higher rate for people aged 21 or over).In a written ministerial statement, Reynolds said:
I have written to Baroness Stroud, the chair of the LPC, to set out an updated remit.
Following the cost of living crisis which has harmed working people in recent months and years, the remit asks the LPC to consider the cost of living for the first time. The remit highlights the need to also consider the impact on business, competitiveness, the labour market and the wider economy.
We are ambitious in developing a path towards a genuine living wage, but we know that this path must be backed by evidence and consistent with delivering inclusive growth for workers and businesses.
As part of the government’s commitment to a genuine living wage that benefits every adult worker, we also pledged to remove discriminatory age bands.
ShareThe Green party has criticised the government for cutting the winter fuel payment when it could have raised money by imposing higher taxes on the wealthy.In a statement, Adrian Ramsay, the co-leader and Green MP, said:
Yesterday, Rachel Reeves engaged in a piece of political theatre to prepare the public for cuts and tax rises on those already struggling – the “tough decisions” Labour says it is being forced to make. Why is it that these “tough decisions” always land on the more vulnerable, and not those with the broadest shoulders?
In November last year, Labour MP Darren Jones said “Pensioners mustn’t be forced to bear the brunt of Tory economic failure.” He was right. In May this year, Keir Starmer asked Rishi Sunak to “rule out taking pensioners’ winter fuel payments off them to help fund his £46bn black hole”. Now the Labour government is doing just that, with a decision that threatens to leave up to two million financially struggling older people cold and at risk this winter.
There are other decisions – obvious decisions – the government could and should make to raise revenue for public investment, starting with a modest tax on the wealth of the very richest in our society. The chancellor rejected this idea out of hand when I asked her to consider it yesterday, but unless this government finds the courage to tax wealth fairly, it will never deliver the real hope and real change the public is craving.
It seems the government is committed to “tough decisions” for some, and business as usual for the wealthiest few.
ShareSeema Malhotra, the immigration and citizenship minister, has announced that the government is extending the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) so that Afghans who were evacuated to the UK when the Taliban took Kabul in August 2021, but who had to leave behind close family members, can now use the scheme to bring those relatives to this country.ShareIn his interview with Times Radio Andrew Dilnot said the government would only save about £1bn in 2025-26 by abandoning the plan to impose a cap on social care costs. (See 11.36am.) He said he hoped the government would soon find an alternative way forward. He said:
This is an area where, working together, we can transform people’s lives and move the experience of needing social care from being one of deep anxiety and distress to being one that works for people …
This is another pretty tragic betrayal of another generation of families who thought that they were going to be looked after properly.
What we have to do now is build a consensus for some action and action quickly. So I think what I’ll be pressing for in the next few months is a rapid move towards working out what we’re going to do, because one thing we’ve definitely learned is if you don’t make plans for this at the beginning of a parliament, you don’t get around to doing it.
Share