Housing
Debate between Angela Smith and Mark Prisk(11 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Prisk
I will go further than that. I will meet the hon. Gentleman. It is my first day in this position and I want to know and understand the issues. My diary secretary may regret that, as I suspect that other Members will try to get in the queue. However, I would like to understand the issue before commenting on it.
Not adopting the top-down approach works in practice. For example, our investment of £4.5 billion in funding new affordable homes over the spending review period levers in £15 billion from the private sector to deliver those properties. That makes a total investment of £19.5 billion in new affordable housing, which will help us deliver 170,000 affordable homes by the end of the Parliament.
The Homes and Communities Agency has now reported that it has exceeded its targets for affordable housing this year, achieving a total of 51,665 affordable homes in England. Contracts have been signed for affordable house building in all parts of the country and across councils of all political colours.
Affordable housing is at the heart of our agenda. We have consciously sought to introduce initiatives to ensure that housing is the most affordable for first-time buyers for a decade. Mortgage payments are the lowest for 15 years as a direct result of our action to tackle Labour’s deficit. In July, Halifax noted that housing was now the most affordable for first-time buyers for a decade. Conservative Members are and should be proud of that record.
As the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington said, of course the challenge for first-time buyers is getting a mortgage. We understand that, and that is why we have launched the NewBuy scheme, which provides guarantees for mortgages of up to 95% loan to value for new build properties. That has already given a helping hand to prospective buyers who were otherwise frozen out of the housing market. The Home Builders Federation has estimated that NewBuy could deliver up to 25,000 additional new homes over three years.
The Government also introduced the Firstbuy scheme. Labour Members claim that we are not doing enough and criticise the initiatives. They need to decide what they actually want. The Firstbuy scheme supports capacity in the house building sector and is assisting almost 10,500 first-time buyers to purchase new build property in England by spring 2013. Interestingly, demand for the Firstbuy scheme has been strong. Official statistics published by the HCA show there had already been 3,000 Firstbuy sales by the end of March 2012, which is good progress.
Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)
I join my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey) in congratulating the Minister on his appointment, but will the Minister confirm the level of cuts applied to the affordable housing budget by the coalition Government?
Mr Prisk
With respect to the hon. Lady, the idea that budgets across the Government are impervious to or not involved with the deficit we have faced—[Interruption.] She has highlighted a point not only about the overall housing budget but about how that money is used. The point I was trying to make is that when dealing with affordable housing, it is not just about every pound we spend but about how we lever in other private sector funds, which is important. It is peculiar that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington applauded that principle a moment ago.
We have reinvigorated the right to buy—supporting social tenants who want to own their own home. That is a policy of which the Government can, and should, be proud. We have reversed Labour’s cuts, and increased the right-to-buy discount cap to £75,000 across England from April. For the first time, every additional home sold under the right-to-buy scheme will be replaced by a new home for affordable rent, with receipts from sales recycled across the cost of replacement. I wish that the cultural opposition of Labour Members to this issue would reflect the reality. The right to buy promotes mixed communities and gives social tenants a financial stake in the well-being of their neighbourhood.
The hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington mentioned the right to buy, and he might now be able to help. My understanding is that the Labour group on the Local Government Association opposed the right-to-buy scheme.
Regional Growth Fund
Debate between Angela Smith and Mark Prisk(12 years, 8 months ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Mr Prisk
There is a very small proportion of funds related to ERDF in round 1, and even fewer in round 2. My point, which the Opposition do not want to accept, is that when the public sector seeks to invest money, it is doing so to unlock the private sector investment. If we do not get that private sector investment, there will be a problem. The Opposition seem to believe that everything that we do should be measured solely and entirely by how much Government spend. Have they not learned from 13 years that it is how we spend the money that is important?
Angela Smith
There is the other issue of the assets that belonged to the RDAs, which could be used to help unlock private sector investment. What will the Government do with those assets? Are we going to have a fire sale, or will we use those assets to invest in infrastructure and private sector growth?
Mr Prisk
It is self-evidently the latter, which is why we established the local stewardship model. It is why in July we offered Members of this House the opportunity to meet Ministers, and why we are repeating that exercise on Thursday. We are determined to ensure that the assets are used for the benefit of the local economy. I hope that the hon. Lady will come to that meeting so that she can understand that.
Economic Regeneration (Barnsley)
Debate between Angela Smith and Mark Prisk
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Mark Prisk)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Barnsley Central (Dan Jarvis) on securing this debate. I do not know whether this is his first Adjournment debate, given that he is a relatively new Member of the House—the second most recent if my calculations are right—but some of the language was a little flowery, and there was a strong desire to have a go at the Conservative Government. There seemed to be a moment of frozen time between 1997 and last year, but we will pass that by.
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that Barnsley should share in the sustainable, long-term growth that is the overriding priority of this Government for the whole country. We want to forge a new model of growth based on rebalancing the economy both geographically and in terms of sectors. We want to promote and encourage innovation and boost exports, which is a real key to enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to prosper, and not just rely on consumption fuelled by public debt.
The hon. Gentleman rightly highlighted the proud industrial heritage of Barnsley. He was right that it is working hard to continue its transition from the traditional coal mining and glass making industries to new industries such as the low-carbon, creative and digital industries. As he rightly highlighted, Barnsley’s potential has been shown by the decision of ASOS to move parts of its operation to Grimethorpe. I believe that it already employs some 500 people and is set to increase that to 1,000, making it Barnsley’s biggest employer. I am happy to put it on the record that that investment is evidence of the council, the business community and the economic development partners working together locally to make the best use of the area’s assets to bring in the long-term jobs that are important for the people of Barnsley.
As you will know, Madam Deputy Speaker, Barnsley is well positioned to benefit from the growth potential of both the Leeds and Sheffield city regions. That is why we agreed that, sitting where it does, and considering the travel-to-work market areas in which it sits, it should be a full member of both local enterprise partnerships. That underscores the principle behind the partnerships. We have introduced them so that they are founded on real, functional economic areas that actually reflect where businesses trade and people work. Through LEPs, we are encouraging business and civic leaders to come together to provide strong leadership at local level. After all, it will be those local leaders who really understand the barriers that are holding back growth in their area. Our policy is deliberately designed to empower them to set the agenda and work together to both drive sustainable growth and create private sector jobs.
In the past few months I have visited 18 local enterprise partnerships, including both the Sheffield and Leeds ones. I have to say, I have been immensely impressed by the ambition and capability of the boards and their members.
Angela Smith
Barnsley is responsible for the production of more than 90% of clay pipes in this country, which, as the Minister knows, is an energy-intensive industry. The Government have a role to play in ensuring that we keep those jobs in the UK and in Barnsley, and create more of them in that really important, environmentally friendly industry. Will the Minister acknowledge that he and his Department have a role to play in ensuring that such industries can stay in the UK and are not made uncompetitive by Government policy on carbon floor pricing?
Sheffield Forgemasters
Debate between Angela Smith and Mark Prisk
Mr Prisk
I am just about to come to that. I believe that the critical issue here is affordability. We have had to deal with very difficult circumstances, not least the fact that on taking office, it became clear that the structural deficit is £12 billion more than we were led to believe by former Labour Ministers. If apologies are due, in my personal opinion they should come from the former Labour Ministers who were in this Chamber and failed to be straight with the British people about the size of the deficit. That is the critical issue.
Of course, the ideal outcome would be for the project to proceed with private sector finance, and I very much hope that in the longer term, that will still happen. However, I must make it clear that, given the scale of the budget deficit that the country faces, we considered the issue from the point of view of unaffordability.
Angela Smith
I respect the way in which the Minister is trying to respond to the debate tonight, but is not the £500,000 that Mr Cook donated to the Conservative party, along with the £54,000-worth of plane flights for the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), the real reason for the cancellation?
Mr Prisk
No. Let me make this very clear: in the letter that Mr Cook wrote, he mentioned a number of things. I have the letter with me. [Interruption.] I will answer the question fully. As the hon. Member for Sheffield South East correctly says, Mr Cook states, right at the top of the letter, that he is a donor to the Conservative party. He goes on to say that he is a senior industrialist in Sheffield with two casting plants in that city. [Hon. Members: “Oh!”] If the Labour party will listen for a moment, the point about that is that it tells me that we are talking about somebody who has some interest in and knowledge of the industry. He goes on to say that he may consider whether or not there is an issue of legality.
When I receive something of that nature, as a Minister, I do not give a monkey’s whether the person is a donor to the Conservative party, the Labour party, or any other party. What I am primarily concerned with is making sure that the matter is dealt with equally. With all representations—whether a person donates to the Labour party through the trade union movement, to the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats or any other party—my view is that they should go to the officials; they must decide on the issue of legality.