Housing Minister John Healey delivers maiden speech to CIH delegates: Full text

John Healey made his maiden speech as Housing Minister to delegates at the Chartered Institute of Housing's annual conference at Harrogate last week.

Here is a full transcript:

"I am delighted to join you today. Thank you for extending your invitation to my predecessor Margaret Beckett, to me.

"You may be pleased that as I've only been in the job for eleven days, I haven't had time to learn the government 'lines to take'.

"I am reminded of what John Hutton told me when he first became a minister. He'd spent the first six months scared of straying beyond the box. But then he realised that as a minister, you can define the box. I've always seen it as part of the job of being a minister to define the box. So if you're sitting close to any CLG civil servants and they look nervous, as they wait to hear what I will say, that's the reason.

"It's good to see the scale of this CIH conference today. It shows your pulling power. And your importance which lies in being the only natural body which represents housing professionals, rather than housing organisations.

"This conference comes at the start of only my second week in this job. On my second day last week I faced an Opposition debate in the House of Commons.

"Now, normally the Conservatives are pretty courteous. In the past, they have sent me a private note of congratulations on my appointment to new jobs in Government. This is the first time they've welcomed my appointment by tabling a public motion of criticism!

"There is a serious point, I know. I am the fourth Housing Minister in two years. I know that's a frustration for the sector. I know also it's a challenge for me.

"In many ways, as a Minister you get used to being thrown in at the deep end.

"On day two of my job as Local Government Minister, I stood before 800 people at the Local Government Association annual conference.

"On day two as a Treasury Minister I found myself leading detailed debate on tax taw in committee of the Finance Bill… day three was an hour and a half in front of the select committee on tax fraud.

"On day one of my first Government post as Adult Skills Minister, I was told I had to do a Commons debate on apprenticeships. I was nervous, but I had a good briefing with officials and I thought it went well. When I emerged from the Chamber, I said to the civil servants 'That was great… I'm really going to enjoy this subject'. They replied 'Actually minister… apprenticeships aren't in your brief'.

"A London cabbie once told me that it took him three years to get 'the knowledge'.

"I don't have that time.

"And I know that building up the necessary housing knowledge is a challenge.

"I know that the only way I can met that challenge is with advice and views from you - the professionals in the housing sector, in local government, in industry, in trade unions. And with the advice and views from officials in the civil service and colleagues in Government.

"I can give you this undertaking.

"I will listen.

"I will take serious concerns seriously.

"I will consider carefully any well argued policy case.

"And I will debate forcefully and sharply the central issues and challenges we face.

"But I will have no time for special pleading and no time for arguments which are self serving, not serving the public.

"One thing I can tell you from my first eleven days is that I've been immediately impressed by how deeply knowledgeable and dedicated housing specialists are, as individuals and as organisations - from Housing Associations to house builders; and from investors to trade unions.

"And I can see already why you're all so strongly committed to what you do.

"Housing has everything.

"Housing is social policy and economic policy.

"Housing is an essential element in supporting people during the downturn and in changing Britain to a low carbon country in the long term.

"Housing can show our commitment public service investment and reform more clearly than almost any other area.

"And, Housing shows our determination to combine help for all, with more help for those who need it most.

"So for policy or delivery professionals housing has everything. And housing is everything.

"Our home matters more to each and every one of us - and our families - than almost anything else.

"It is hard to have a settled life without a decent and secure home in which to live.

"And if someone's home is at risk, or they're without proper housing, their life is often thrown into turmoil.

"Some people stereotype it as run down social housing. They see it as a trap that holds people back.

"Of course, there are problems with some homes, some estates and some neighbourhoods.

"But the truth is that council housing and housing association housing has provided security, strong communities, decent homes, and a start in life that many families would otherwise not have been able to afford.

"The truth is that government help for first time buyers and key public service workers has helped many thousands buy into and stay in their own homes.

"Almost two weeks into the job I have been struck by several things.

"First, the sheer scale of Government's commitment to investment in affordable housing.

"£8.5bn over this spending period. That's nearly twice as much as we spend through the Foreign Office, or through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

"This is a record level, which we've raised, not reduced, during this downturn - when both funding and delivery is more difficult.

"As Steve Benson, your CIH president, said earlier - this is our 'toughest ever delivery climate'.

"Each and every one of you knows this well - or at least you should! But I bet most MPs, journalists, professionals in other sectors and certainly tenants, will have no idea.

"What we do and fund as Government too easily gets lost in the complex of organisations, schemes and funding streams.

"So, I will do more to make housing investment more visible and more comprehensible. And I will expect all of you - agencies, housing associations, local authorities - to do more as well.

"Because this is important to all who hold social and affordable housing important.

"If people don't see the public investment, and if people don't believe it can make a difference for them, they won't support it and they won't support either the taxation or the tough decisions elsewhere needed to fund it.

"Second, I have been struck by what passes for serious political debate in this field is often little more than constant carping about relatively marginal matters - HIPs, garden developments.

"It's not about the scale or nature of housing need, the levels of public investment required, the balance of priorities between homes for rent and homes to buy… It's not even about the rights and a fairer deal for tenants.

"The Opposition's motion for debate made no mention of social housing at all.

"So, I will do more to make housing a much sharper political and public debate.

"Third, I've been struck by the language of housing policy and discussion - which is heavily laden with jargon - like all specialist sectors. But it so often leaves out people.

"What lives with me is not the £30bn plus I've seen us allocate from Treasury for decent homes; or even the figure of around 1.2 million homes which the Department tells me is the latest update on the delivery of decent homes across the country… but Mrs Latham. I visited Mrs Latham in Bolton on Dearne to celebrate the 10,000th decent home in Barnsley. She showed me around. She had new central heating, a new kitchen, a new front door, a new back door and rewiring. She said to me 'I am over the moon, the result is fantastic'.

"What stays with me is not the nearly 50,000 new affordable homes funded by Government and made available last year… but Mr Rizan. I visited him a few months ago as he moved into his new home because Slough Council has the will to build on old garage sites. He told me 'I moved here with my wife and three children, after seven years on the waiting list. We couldn't have asked for a better place to live. The children think this is their dream home'.

"As practitioners you help people like Mrs Latham or Mr Rizan day in, day out. By building homes, supporting vulnerable tenants, agreeing equity share purchases and representing workers on site.

"But our policy debates and our public announcements don't reflect this purpose and the people we are here to serve.

"So, I will always look to combine conferences or policy meetings like this, with visits to frontline housing professionals and the people they are helping.

"I hope I can bring something from my last job as Local Government minister to this new job as Housing Minister.

"I oversaw the Local Area Agreements, in which 19 out of 20 Councils have picked housing as at least one of their top local priorities. My own Authority in Rotherham has housing targets that build from 550 to 1,160 new homes over three years.

"And there's going to be scope for Local Authorities to do more to meet the economic and housing needs in their area - the review of council housing finance; the single conversation with the HCA; the introduction of the new Tenants Services Authority; the £100m budget fund for council building; and the £1bn Jobs Fund for which councils, housing associations, ALMOs should all be first in line with bids.

"These are the principles on which my decisions over the role and relations of local government in housing will be based:

* More flexibility in finances and more openness in the operation of the system
* More control devolved to a more local level
* More responsibility for longer term planning, management of assets, and building or commissioning the homes and support local people need
* More public accountability for the extent to which needs in their area are being met
* More scope to set allocations policies that better reflect local labour markets and local community needs. But don't mistake me, I don't mean evicting people just because they won't look for work.
* More and closer work with housing associations, as the convergence of performance and regulatory regimes strengthen the joint role both have in meeting the same housing needs from the same waiting lists.

"After this speech I'll be launching a new agreement between central and local government on housing jointly with the Local Government Association and the Homes and Communities Agency.

"So while I want to see is councils playing a bigger part in building homes, as the Prime Minister has said too, I also want to see more onus on them to take this wider role and responsibility.

"We need the healthy balance of providers - between councils, ALMOs, Large Scale Voluntary (LSV) Transfers, and Housing Associations - and we need all to flourish for healthy competition and for tenants' choice. This will help set the framework for developing such working relationships.

"I'm afraid being an ex-Treasury minister leaves it's mark.

"I'm conscious everything we do and decide in Government is shaped by the economy. And that's true too for housing.

"We're all trying to analyse the dimensions of this recession and anticipate the dynamics of recovery.

"If you look at the 1970s recession, the percentage drop in national output was bigger than the change in unemployment.

"In the 1980s recession, the changes were roughly similar.

"In the 1990s, the percentage rise in unemployment was bigger than the change in GDP, as employers were more ready to shed staff, trade unions were less active, and businesses learned lessons from the past.

"I think this recession is similar to the 1990s - although its causes and the Government response are very different, as are the drivers of the housing market downturn.

"This recession is global and was caused mainly be the credit crunch and catastrophic failure in the financial markets.

"Previous recession have often been domestic, caused by inflationary pressures driving high interest rates to combat them.

"Inflation was 11 per cent at the start of the 1990s recession, it was 3 per cent in November last year.  Interest rates had peaked at 15 per cent and were still at 10 per cent by the end of 1991.

"In contrast, since the start of the current recession, government action has been supported by cuts in interest rates, and the Bank of England base rate remains at the historically low level of just half a per cent.

"Jobs have been lost rapidly - as in the 1990s - and will only be regained more slowly. And of course employment, mortgage availability, securitisation markets, consumer confidence… all have a knock on effect for the housing market.

"Economists speculate about the recession being 'L'-shaped or 'U'-shaped or even 'W'-shaped, with a double dip.

"Personally, I expect a recession in the shape of the Nike 'swoosh', as firms and households take time to rebuild both confidence and balance sheets.

"The other big difference is that in the 1990s the Government simply let the recession run its course and left the upturn to the market. It allowed people to struggle through on their own.

"This time we are taking whatever action is needed to help people stay in their homes and stay in work, and help firms stay in business.

"There's a builder in my constituency in Rotherham who saw last week's debate on the Parliament TV channel. He saw Grant Shapps make a meal of Margaret Beckett's announcement recently that so far two people had their mortgages taken over by housing associations, under the new Mortgage Rescue Scheme. 'Why are you trying to do all this,' he said. 'It's so hard at the moment'.

"He made me think.

"The answer is values. And basic beliefs.

"As a Labour Government, when we see the threat to the livelihoods or wellbeing of ordinary British workers and families, our principles prevent us from leaving people to face such problems on their own.

"We believe we have a duty to all in our country, which drives us to offer real help in tough times.

"We feel most keenly the concerns of the most vulnerable, because while city bankers have grabbed the headlines, it is the vulnerable who will bear the brunt of this downturn.

"We believe in an active state. This doesn't mean the state can and should do everything, or even most things, but we are not ideologically neutral on the role of the public sector. The present economic and housing problems underline the need for active government and responsive public services to protect the poorest, correct flaws in the market and secure the proper role and contribution required from the private sector in our society.

"These values are the basis for our action now, and for the future.

"As we invest and act to improve and build the homes people need in Britain, we know people expect more of us, their government - especially during this downturn. And we will do more.

"As we invest and act to help prevent people losing their homes and help first time buyers with the chance to set a start in the housing market, we know people expect more of us, their government - especially during the downturn. And we will do more.

"As we invest and act to give tenants a greater say in how their homes and neighbourhoods are run, we know people want us, their government and their councils, to make the allocations system seem fairer, to support young people struggling to get a start in work and to help them move more easily when they need to. And we will do more.

"And as we invest and act in Britain to help tackle the catastrophe of global climate change, people look to us, their government, to do more to make their homes greener and cheaper to run. And we will do more.

"This week the Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said: 'I think the UK economy looks the best in Europe at the moment. I think the policies are intelligent'.

"My colleagues in Cabinet saw this as a compliment.

"I see it as the challenge.

"We must make our continuing interventions and investment intelligent for now and imperative for the future."