Peter Swallow

I wholeheartedly welcome the Bill and all it will do to support the very Labour promise that everyone should have access to a safe and secure place to call their home. While the Leader of the Opposition apparently believes that if nurses, teaching assistants and tradies cannot afford to live in Bracknell Forest, with its high rents and house prices, they should be forced to move out, I believe the answer is more social and council housing to support people from Bracknell Forest to stay in Bracknell Forest. That is why I support the push by the leader of Bracknell Forest council, Helen Purnell, to make the council a leading force in delivering new council housing. I welcome the measures in the Bill on the disposal of social houses by registered providers, but the Minister will not be surprised to hear that I think we need to go further. Since 2018, housing associations have permanently sold 28,585 social homes to private and other non-social purchasers, with 5,806 sold in 2024-25 alone, the highest annual figure on record. Some 87% of those went at open market value, far beyond the reach of a local authority’s purchasing power. Unlike right to buy, these homes are not being sold to the families living in them—they are being sold out of the sector entirely into private ownership. In my constituency, 154 homes have been sold since 2018, including bungalows and several three and four-bedroom properties, which are the very homes Bracknell Forest families most need. As it stands, the Bill asks housing providers to give local authorities notification of any disposals that they are planning, but the measures are not sufficiently strong. On Third Reading in the other place, the Minister confirmed that the Government are planning a Commons amendment on the notification period, so may I press the Housing Minister for more information on that and on what we can do to strengthen that measure? Will he also consider two further changes to the Bill? First, Homes England should develop a code of responsible disposal practice, with the regulator and the sector more widely, to which housing providers can be held as a condition of holding long-term partner status under the social and affordable homes programme. That is a very simple principle: if they are receiving Government money, they should not be disposing of homes, wherever possible. Secondly, when a social home is disposed of, the Government should do more to ensure that the income is reinvested in replacement social rent homes in the same local authority area. I know my right hon. Friend the Housing Minister shares my concerns about this issue and I am committed to working with him and the Government to ensure the Bill addresses disposals properly. I look forward to constructive conversations with the Minister as the Bill progresses.