Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Foster of Bath and Jack Dromey

Monday 3rd June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Foster]

I am delighted to congratulate people in Kettering and the neighbouring area on that. I hope that the new homes bonus is providing an additional incentive, and we have of course recently brought on stream the £10 billion loan guarantee scheme, which will help to provide funding for further such homes.

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

The all-party Treasury Select Committee, the Governor of the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have all expressed concern that the Government’s policies will not build the homes our country needs. With the comprehensive spending review but three weeks away, the shadow Chancellor persuasively argued this morning that the Government should reject the economic illiteracy of austerity, which is pushing up the costs of failure through additional borrowing and soaring housing benefit bills. Does the Housing Minister agree that the time has come to invest in badly needed social and affordable homes to rent or buy, creating jobs and apprenticeships, bringing down the costs of failure and getting our economy moving?

[Mr Foster]

I think that the whole House will have been somewhat amused by the cheek of the hon. Gentleman, given that under his party’s Administration we saw a reduction of 421,000 in the number of affordable homes. This Government have introduced measures to reverse that trend, and we hope to announce further measures in the near future.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Foster of Bath and Jack Dromey

Monday 12th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Foster]

My hon. Friend must also look at the figures. We do not yet know what will be available, but £600 million has been allocated. There will still be questions about what will happen to house building in the period after the current spending review, and we are looking at that at the moment. Clearly, we want to have more houses, and more affordable homes. That is what we are already delivering, and we want to deliver more.

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State knows that millions are locked out of home ownership, that families are struggling to pay ever higher levels of rent in the private rented sector and that council waiting lists are lengthening by the day. Why will he not support the investment of the 4G windfall in a programme that the National Housing Federation has said would result in 100,000 homes being built and more than 500,000 jobs being created? Does he not agree with the director general of the CBI, John Cridland, who has said that that is exactly what the economy needs?

[Mr Foster]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has done more than anyone in this House to get house building going, with the additional money that was announced on 6 September, which will result in a further 10,000 affordable homes and bring a further 5,000 empty homes back into use, and with measures involving £200 million to get more privately rented accommodation, additional support for homeless people and so on. My Secretary of State can stand up and be proud of what he has achieved, unlike the Labour Government, who failed people in regard to house building during their 13 years in power.