Capital Projects: Spending
Debate between Baroness Swinburne and Lord Tyrie
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
Bear with me on the length of my reply to this one, because I think it deserves it. On the contrary, we have already announced and begun to implement many of these projects, including 12 investment zones across the United Kingdom, the rollout of levelling-up partnerships, a further £161 million directly to mayoral combined authorities for 32 regeneration projects in city regions, 30 projects across the UK which will receive funds from the community ownership fund, grants for 16 regeneration projects, and two new trail-blazer devolution deals with direct money going to mayors of the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. Most recently, the Prime Minister has unveiled a further 55 towns that will benefit from a long-term £1.1 billion levelling-up investment. This pace and ambition demonstrate that, whatever the mechanics of government, we are delivering, and will deliver, on our levelling-up priorities.
Lord Tyrie (Non-Afl)
Does the Minister not agree that although these financial controls are reasonable at a time of great financial stringency, none the less it is crucial that the Government meet their housing targets, bearing in mind how short of housing the country is and how important it is to economic performance as a whole? In which case, does she think that we really must try to get to a greater continuity on housing policy, and that having 15 Housing Ministers in 13 years is not a good start?
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
I thank the noble Lord for his question. I reiterate that housebuilding is a priority for this Government and we remain committed to delivery—for example, the £11.5 billion affordable homes programme I mentioned earlier. The Government are on track to meet their manifesto commitment to deliver 1 million homes over this Parliament, and, since 2010, over 2.2 million additional homes have been delivered in England, and the three highest annual rates of housing supply in 30 years have all come since 2018.