Over the past few months the Housing and Planning Bill has been steadily making its way through parliament. Although the media has been intermittently following its progress and there have been multiple protests contesting the Bill held in Parliament Square, attention given to it has been diverted of late, primarily due to the May elections.
The legislative process is interesting, if relatively laborious, with the Housing Bill’s outcome having the potential to create some significant reverberation’s throughout the property industry. Below the parliamentary procedures (in brief) and potential outcomes are outlined.
The Bill was introduced to the House of Commons in October 2015, here it received a first and second reading. Following the second reading the Commons, with its Conservative majority, voted to pass it to the House of Lords for consideration.
The House of Lords makes recommended amendments to the Bill. There are 250 Conservative peers, 213 Labour peers, 109 Liberal Democrats and various crossbenchers and non-affiliated peers. Cross party alliances have meant that Ministers (in the House of Commons) were recently handed back suggested amendments to the Bill – 13 in total (which is unusually high). A few of the changes the House of Lords has wished to implement include:
- Local authority power to shape the number and type of Starter Homes within and across developments;
- Raising the threshold for tenants considered to be on a high income to £50,000 in London and £40,000 in the rest of England;
- Lengthening the period for which a buyer would need to live in a Starter Home before he/she could enjoy the full sale proceeds; and
- Inclusion of a ‘neighbourhood right of appeal’ – which would apply in instances in which a council grants permission but the application does not accord with policy in an existing or emerging local development plan.
On Tuesday (03 May) MP’s voted to reject all 13 amendments demanded by the House of Lords. Then, on Wednesday (04 May), peers continued to defy the House of Commons and voted to reinstate a number of the rejected measures. This means that the Bill is now in ‘parliamentary ping-pong’ between the House of Commons and the House of Lords – the Bill will go back and forth between each House until both Houses reach an agreement on the exact wording of the Bill.
The recent bruising shakedown of the Bill by the House of Lords may have some implications in terms of electorate confidence in government ability, however, ultimately the House of Commons retain the power. MP’s are able to vote against suggested amendments under the Parliament Acts (this removed the House of Lords’ power to veto a Bill).
For this reason, it is likely that the Bill will become law. The problem arising for Brandon Lewis (Member of State for Housing and Planning) and the Conservative Party is that this ‘ping-ponging’ causes delays – the government is desperate to get the Bill finalised before the end of the parliamentary session next week, ready for Royal Assent (when a bill becomes law) at the state opening of parliament on 18 May. To hasten the process it may be that certain concessions will have to be made on the Bill by the government.
Failing to finalise the Bill before the end of parliament will mean the delay of the Conservative manifesto commitment to build hundreds of thousands of Starter Homes – something which would be deemed a significant political mishit.