Alison McGovern
Main Page: Alison McGovern (Labour - Birkenhead)
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend makes a very reasonable point. Derbyshire has benefited from £600,000 of empty homes funding, and I am sure that that will make quite a difference to her constituency. The substantive point is that this not only gets housing back into stock but means that streets and communities are not blighted. It is a win-win for just about everybody.
Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)
But what about the 300 empty homes in Wirral since the advent of the bedroom tax, including a block in my constituency that now looks set to be demolished without any plan for a replacement? This threatens dereliction in parts of Wirral. Is the bedroom tax not causing empty homes and risking antisocial behaviour, and is it not a false economy, never mind bringing empty homes back into use?
Mr Pickles
The hon. Lady exaggerates. The spare room subsidy is a reasonable and effective way we can ensure housing for people who need it where there is a shortage of housing. It is absolute nonsense for Labour Members to complain about empty homes: on their watch, we lost 420,000 houses in this country, and that is a disgrace.