James Naish MP: speeches

Speeches

• 10 Sept 2026 · Social Housing Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Bill and the Government’s commitment to a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing. I will use my time to speak on behalf of the villages in my Rushcliffe constituency, and to draw the House’s attention to the work of the Labour Rural Research Group. Affordable housing is too often discussed as if it is purely an urban and metropolitan problem—it is not, as we have just heard. In villages in my constituency and across rural Britain, families are being priced out of the places they grew up, young people are leaving because they cannot find a home, and the social housing stock that once anchored our rural communities is shrinking, not growing. The LRRG’s March 2026 report, on rural poverty in England, sets that out starkly. In 2024-25, just 17,506 affordable homes were delivered in rural local authorities, compared with 47,256 in urban ones. Rural delivery fell by 2% on the year before, while urban delivery rose. In a significant number of rural councils, only 4% of homes are affordable for someone on an average local income, compared with 10% of homes in urban authorities. That is why I welcome the fact that the Bill already exempts properties in designated rural areas from the right to buy. That principle reflects exactly what the LRRG called for in its report: recognition that rural housing is structurally different and policy needs to treat it accordingly. However, I will press the Minister to go further in three specific areas. First, on the disposal of rural social housing stock, we would particularly welcome a local replacement guarantee, so that rural communities are not subsidising urban housing waiting lists at the expense of their own when stock is disposed of. Secondly, rural exception sites deliver important housing opportunities in rural areas, but LRRG has called for them to be placed on a statutory footing, alongside the Bill’s right to buy reforms, and for the policy to be strengthened and simplified, so that planning authorities can accelerate delivery. Thirdly, on measurement and targets, as it stands we do not properly track rural affordable housing delivery as a distinct category. The LRRG has called for a dedicated rural affordable housing delivery target, with separate monitoring by tenure type. Without that data, we cannot know whether the policies are working for rural communities.

• 10 Sept 2026 · Social Housing Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  The Bill rightly prioritises the building of social rented homes. Back in 2003, however, Rushcliffe borough council transferred all its council housing stock away and has built none since, yet it has praised itself repeatedly for being debt free, despite being much poorer asset wise as a result of that decision. Does the Minister agree that, if the Bill is to succeed, we cannot treat stock transfer as virtuous and that we have to get to the point where housing revenue accounts are not treated and talked about as being traditional debt for local authorities?

• 10 Sept 2026 · Social Housing Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  There are several areas in which we make further interventions to support our rural communities. The Bill is a good and necessary step. It protects social housing stock, gives greater security to survivors of domestic abuse and reduces unnecessary bureaucracy for providers. However, if we are serious about a decade of renewal that reaches every postcode, rural Britain cannot be an afterthought. I hope that the Minister will look closely at the LRRG’s recommendations as the Bill progresses, so that rural communities are not left behind.

• 1 Sept 2026 · West Bank: Illegal Settlements · Hansard source

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  The UK told the Security Council on 29 June that more than 6,000 settlement housing units had already been approved this year, alongside the declaration on 24 June of a further 465 dunams of Palestinian land as state land, in violation of international law. The situation has only deteriorated since. Does the Foreign Secretary accept that this pace of expansion shows that current UK measures are failing to change Israeli Government behaviour, and that a trade ban is now the necessary next step?