The gloves are off - Shapps in the blue corner

Published by Jane Gething-Lewis for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government

The Conservative Shadow Housing Minister is itching to get to grips with the country's affordable housing crisis, promising to replace Labour's 'top down' approach with a devolved system placing power in the hands of communities through councils and RSLs.

Given the Tory party's housing brief by David Cameron in 2007, Shapps has already 'survived' four Labour housing ministers. In a frank and forthright interview he takes the Government to task over all aspects of its housing policy, from the recent Housing Pledge 'scam' and the 'eco-con' of eco-towns to the 'incredibly slow progress' of the Tenant Services Authority.

As Jon Land finds out, the gloves are well and truly off.

What is your key message to social housing professionals ahead of this year’s National Housing Federation conference?

The simple message is that there are tough times ahead. It doesn’t matter who’s going to win the next election, things are going to be tight. The main difference between the two main parties, however, is that we’re being upfront about making cuts in public spending – unlike Gordon Brown.

Are you confident that social landlords are well placed to survive the current economic downturn?

I think that social landlords can be part of the solution to the economic downturn and in many ways are very well placed to help thanks to their guaranteed income. Due to the size of the housing waiting list they will also have no shortage of customers! I think they’re very well placed and will have an important role to play in the next couple of years.

Do you think the Government’s recent Housing Pledge and investment in affordable housing will be the ‘shot in the arm’ the housing sector needs?

I think the housing sector has fallen for a scam. What the Housing Pledge did was downgrade the Government’s previous house building pledges and revised the number of homes that are actually going to be built. The Government has announced £1.5 billion of investment but that money is coming from some really quite important – and successful – schemes, such as Growth Point and My Choice Homebuy. It’ a total scam and I’m amazed that people working in the housing sector have fallen for it.

Is the Conservative Party supportive of plans to encourage local authorities to start building council housing again? Do you welcome John Healey’s decision to ‘dismantle’ the Housing Revenue Account?

In a word, yes.
I do welcome John Healey’s announcement but I think it has come 12 years too late. The HRA has been penalising local authorities for too long.

What will happen to the Government’s eco-towns programme if the Conservative Party wins the next general election?

We want all housing to be environmentally friendly and we don’t need a gimmicky programme to make it happen. When you actually look at the detail you realise, once again, that all is not what it seems. The Government has set a target for all new homes to be ‘zero carbon’ by 2016 but has said all eco-town homes only have to meet level 4 of the sustainability code. So in actual fact the homes built in eco-towns will be among the least environmentally friendly when they are finally built. It’s an eco-con.

Are you happy with the progress of the Tenant Services Authority and the Homes and Communities Agency? What sort of future do the two housing agencies have under a Conservative Government?

The TSA has made incredibly slow progress, if the truth be known. They’ve made a great deal about consulting with 27,000 tenants and drawing up their draft regulations but in what way they see that as a valuable exercise I have no idea. To be honest, I’m not impressed at all. I just don’t think the way the TSA has gone about things is the best way to spend public money and certainly not during a recession.

The HCA could be a part of a future delivery vehicle. The potential is there, but I don’t think it’s got it right at the moment. You need to see some major benefits from an organisation that has a £4.5 million monthly wage bill! When I speak to Bob Kerslake I hear the right noises about the need to address our housing supply problems but I don’t see an awful lot of action. I think the fundamental problem is that it’s a very top down solution and I would love to see councils, for instance, given more autonomy in this area and deliver local housing solutions. To give you one example of my concerns , I was talking to a head of housing the other day who has just received a 179-page application document from the HCA. 179 pages! Now I understand we are dealing with public money here and paper work does have to be filled in, but seriously can’t we just get on and build some houses!?

To answer the second question, I really don’t think we’re going to need two agencies.

If you become the next Housing Minister in 2010 what will be your number one priority?

Build more homes. The simple fact is that this Government has not built anywhere near enough houses over the last 12 years which is why we’re in the mess we’re in at the moment. According to official figures we are currently building around 24,000 homes less each year under the current Government than we ever did under John Major or Margaret Thatcher. We need to get rid of the top down approach, we need to get rid of the bureaucracy and we need to get rid of the quangos at national and regional level.