Member

Today, I hope that the Minister will be able to give me and the Committee confidence that the amendment is not necessary and that Ministers have, in any case, the powers under the 2008 Act to ask the regulator to bring forward guidance of this kind. There are things we can do: for example, creating long-term certainty about the social housing rent settlement and, where Section 106 is concerned, extending the stamp duty social landlord relief to all regulated affordable housing, including under Section 106 which does not have public grant. All this would help us to increase the numbers of homes that are built and that are available for social rent at below-market rents. This is key to us meeting presently unmet need. I commend these ideas and I hope that the Minister will be able to respond positively, as she was kind enough to do at Second Reading. I beg to move Amendment 51.