We need to create a stronger, fairer housing market - Rachel Maclean

Since 2018 this government has delivered the three highest annual rates of new home building for 30 years.

More than 860,000 households helped to purchase a home since spring 2010, through government backed schemes such as Help to Buy and Right to Buy.

And we’re on track to meet our manifesto target of delivering one million new homes in this Parliament. It’s by expanding delivery overall, we are stimulating the market to deliver more affordable homes through the planning system.

A significant proportion of that new housing supply will be the many thousands of new affordable homes being built across the country.

This includes tens of thousands for social rent, delivered through our £11.5 bn Affordable Homes Programme.

Working together, we’ve made significant strides, notably with the Social Housing Regulation Bill passing into law – that’s an important part of delivering a fitting legacy for all affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

But we know there’s more to do, much more – not just deliver for people of North Kensington, but for the millions living in social housing who deserve better.

We agree that we need to create a stronger, fairer housing market, and that is exactly what the Secretary of State set out recently. That is what we are developing and implementing.

It is a plan to deliver more homes. More opportunities for people to own their home. More homes in the right places. More beautiful and greener homes and neighbourhoods.

That is underpinned by the regeneration and renaissance in the hearts of 20 of our towns and cities through inner city densification and brownfield development.

But, beyond that, we need to get the basics right – ensuring that every home is safe, decent and warm. That must be the first priority for landlords.

The tragic death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale underlined in the starkest terms what is at stake. Why we must raise the bar for existing homes and new homes. Why we must learn the lessons from the past to build better homes for the future.

As we deliver more homes and we continue to aim for our target of 300,000 a year, we do so in the right way – prizing quality as well as quantity – ensuring the safety and dignity of residents.

Starting with getting our existing housing stock up to scratch and improving the lives of those living in it.

To that end, we’ve reduced the number of non-decent homes by 2.5 million since 2010 and will be updating the Decent Homes Standard and applying it to private rented homes for the first time.

All social housing should already meet the Decent Homes Standard. The majority does, but unfortunately there’s still 10 per cent of social homes that don’t meet basic standards of habitability, that rises to a fifth for homes in the private rented sector.

Rachel Maclean MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, was speaking at the National Housing Federation Conference.