Housing and Planning Bill — Decline Second Reading — 2 Nov 2015 at 21:50

The majority of MPs voted to require those on high incomes living in social housing to pay market rents; to enable right to buy style discounts for housing association tenants to be funded; to enable the Secretary of State to require local councils to sell expensive properties, perhaps using the revenue to fund new housing, and for other proposed changes to the law on housing and planning.

MPs were considering the Housing and Planning Bill[1][2]

The Bill contains provisions:

  • to require tenants in social housing on higher incomes (over £40,000 in London and over £30,000 outside London) to pay market rate, or near market rate, rents.
  • enabling central Government to make grants to housing associations to compensate them for selling properties to tenants at a discount (extending the Right to Buy scheme to Housing Associations on a voluntary basis).
  • enabling the Secretary of State to require local councils sell their high value properties when they become vacant and enabling the Secretary of State to allow councils to use some of the revenue to provide replacement housing.
  • introducing a statutory framework for the delivery of starter homes - properties sold to qualifying first time buyers at a 20% discount on market values.
  • to phase out of tenancies for life.
  • requiring local authorities to meet demand for custom-built and self-built homes.
  • providing greater powers for local authorities to identify and tackle rogue landlords.
  • to increase regulation over who can hold a licence for a property in multiple occupation.
  • to change planning laws with an aim of speeding up house building.
  • aimed at making compulsory purchase clearer, fairer and faster.

The motion being debated was :

  • That the Bill be now read a Second time.

This motion, if agreed by the majority of MPs, would have enabled the Bill to continue on is path to becoming law.

The amendment rejected in this vote sought to replace the motion with:

  • That
  • this House, whilst affirming its support for helping more people, particularly young people, to own their own homes and welcoming measures in the Bill that restrict the operation of rogue private landlords and letting agents, declines to give a Second Reading to the Housing and Planning Bill because the Bill will not help most people struggling to buy their own home, will mean a severe loss of affordable homes for local communities across England, will centralise significant powers in the hands of the Secretary of State and deprive councils of the capacity to meet the housing needs of their communities and local people of a proper say in the planning process, and will weaken the obligation of private developers to contribute towards affordable homes for local people.

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con305 (+2 tell) 0093.0%
DUP0 1012.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 1050.0%
Lab0 203 (+2 tell)088.7%
LDem0 80100.0%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 1033.3%
Total:305 218089.9%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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