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 House of Lords debates the Future Homes Commission report 

 

Following a successful report launch, the House of Lords held an hour-long debate on the Future Homes Commission's recently released report - 'Building the Homes and Communities Britain Needs'. The debate was secured by the Labour peer Baroness Whitaker, following briefing from the RIBA. 

All 9 of the participants in the debate - including both the Shadow Communities Minister and the Communities Minister were generous in their praise for the work of the Commission and the RIBA. 

And there was particular agreement amongst speakers on the need to improve the standards of design in new homes and a call for more robust housing standards to ensure that new homes meet the needs and aspirations of consumers.

Supportive comments were made by:

  

• Baroness Maddock: 'We on the Lib Dem Benches find that there is much to support in the report to the Future Homes Commission.' 
• Lord Sawyer: 'My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Whitaker for engaging with this excellent report. We went together to the launch. It is clear, to the point and exactly the kind of thing we need.' 
• Lord Whitty: 'My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Whittaker, the RIBA and the Future Homes Commission for producing such a good report.' 
• Lord McKenzie of Luton - Labour's Shadow Communities Minister in the Lords: 'We welcome this report, which contains a number of innovative proposals to tackle the worst housing crisis in a generation.'
• Baroness Hanham - the Communities and Local Government Minister in the Lords: '…I hope that I have given to the House a sense of the fact that we welcome this report as being aspirational and pragmatic. There is plenty in it for everyone to work on.'

Read| or watch| the debate.

And there will be more Commission activity coming up in the next few weeks, with Sir John Banham, Chair of the Future Homes Commission, attending a roundtable session hosted by the Housing Minister, Mark Prisk MP.