Lord Evans of Rainow
Main Page: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
James Wharton
It is important to be clear that, although flooding happens over a short period, recovery is a much longer process. The Government are committed to continuing to support local authorities. We have made available over £200 million of funding and are making available support such as the property level resilience grant, which means that if someone’s property has been affected by flooding, they can claim up to £5,000 for resilience repair works. We will continue to work with local authorities to deliver for those communities and to support them as they recover from this terrible incident.
Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)
8. What recent assessment he has made of trends in the numbers of housing starts and completions.
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Brandon Lewis)
The number of housing starts is up 6% over the last year and the number of completions is up 21%. Both are now at their highest level since 2007.
Graham Evans
Since 2010, there have been more than 4,000 new housing starts in Cheshire West and Chester, including 2,500 in Weaver Vale alone, and the number of housing starts is up 91% compared to 2009. Will my hon. Friend remind the House who was Housing Minister when the figures were so low?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point. As we have discussed on the Floor of the House before, the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey), the shadow Housing Minister, was the Minister who oversaw the lowest level of house building since, I think, about 1923.