Budget Resolutions

Andrew Western Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Western (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

This Budget was a huge disappointment. Nothing the Chancellor said last week changes the reality facing my constituents in Stretford and Urmston. Their taxes are still rising, their weekly shop is still more expensive, and their mortgages remain sky-high. This is the price of 14 years of economic failure: the highest tax burden in 70 years, and the only Parliament on record in which living standards have fallen. It comes just weeks after we learned that the Prime Minister, who promised us growth, has in fact led us into recession.

Thankfully, the Leader of the Opposition set out an alternative in his response to the Budget that grasped a fundamental truth: the only path to growing our economy is to get Britain building again, and that starts with building the homes that we need. Despite that, there was next to nothing in the Budget to reverse stalling house building, nothing to tackle the affordability crisis, and nothing to help renters.

The sad truth is that none of that is a surprise. Why would we expect planning reform to stimulate economic growth from a party that ditched house building targets to satisfy Tory Back Benchers, with an estimated £20 billion of economic activity lost as a result? Why would we expect support for renters from a party that still has not banned no-fault evictions some five years on from first promising to do so? Why would we expect the action that we need on homelessness, when the Government have allowed it to soar on their watch, with more than 142,000 children now living in temporary accommodation? If we needed a reminder of what happens when we strip local government of funding, fail to build social housing and let poverty spiral, we got it last week with the tragic news that 55 children died between 2019 and 2023 with temporary accommodation cited as a contributory factor to their death.

The moral case for tackling our housing crisis is clear, but given the theme of today’s debate I will talk about the economic case, which is also overwhelming. As Policy Exchange has said, our chronic shortage of housing is a key reason for our stagnant economic growth. Supply not meeting demand has generated problem after problem for our economy, with weaker spending power for the average family, who have seen an increase in the amount of their income going on housing costs. Supply not meeting demand is the cause of all of this: an unbalanced lending environment in which bank credit is sucked into high mortgages and away from more productive areas of our economy, and the vast costs of homelessness and unaffordable housing, both to the state and to the people affected, who are denied the support that they need to unleash their potential. All of that is before we get on to the economic distortion caused by our broken housing market, with 80% of household wealth belonging to older generations, while the younger generations see their earnings disappear into sky-high rents and elevated mortgage rates, directly linked to the decisions made by this Tory Government.

This Budget failed to grasp the nettle on housing. Why was there next to nothing on our antiquated planning rules, which allow the minority who enjoy the security of a home of their own to deny that same right to the many thousands stuck on housing waiting lists? Why was there nothing on reform of the green belt, which in my constituency includes a former oil site—far from green and pleasant land? Why under our current planning system are the needs of Tory Back Benchers, the artificially constructed green belt and other factors considered more sacred by the Government than the precious principle that each generation should do better than the last?

Labour has a different set of priorities. Our commitment to reform planning rules, reintroduce house building targets, build on the parts of the green belt that are in fact far from green, and restore social housing as part of our efforts to build 1.5 million homes will be key drivers in our mission to achieve the fastest growth in the G7. Just think what that ambition will mean for our economy. According to Oxford Economics, for every 100,000 new homes built, more than 400,000 jobs will be created and tax revenue could rise by as much as £2.3 billion a year.

But ambition was in short supply in this Budget. It was another opportunity wasted by this Government, but thankfully their opportunities are running out. It is time for change. It is time to build the homes we need. It is time to build for growth. It is time for a Labour Government.