Cost of Living

Debate between Caroline Flint and Andy Slaughter

Tuesday 14th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Flint]

What we are clear about is that the rail companies must prove themselves when it comes to their franchises being renewed. On my local line—the east coast line—the operator has done a remarkable job. Unlike some of the other operators, it has paid premium payments back into the Government’s coffers to spend on other things. However, we must ensure that each rail company is fit for purpose, and where a company is not doing the job and we need to take action, we can make a decision on a case-by-case basis at the time.

On housing, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central will set out in his speech later today, the Government are not just failing to tackle the housing crisis; their policies are making it worse. House building is at its lowest level since the 1920s, annual housing starts are down and housing completions were lower in both years of this Government than in Labour’s last year in power. As a result, more and more people are locked out of home ownership, stuck on local authority waiting lists or forced to live in the private rented sector. Whereas this Government sit back and do nothing, Labour would act now to change the private rented sector so that it works for all—landlords and tenants.

[Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

In my constituency, both house prices and private rents went up last year by 8%, which is eight times the rate at which wages rose. It costs £650,000 to buy the average property in my constituency and £800 a week to rent a three-bedroom house, yet the Tory response is to sell off council homes when they become vacant and to put families into bed-and-breakfast accommodation, at a cost of £1 million a year.

[Caroline Flint]

My hon. Friend makes some important points. I seem to recall that we were told that the Government’s housing policies would not lead to an increase in private rents, but the opposite has happened. I, too, saw the headline—I think it was in the Evening Standard a few weeks ago—about private rents in London rising eight times more than wages.

If this was our Queen’s Speech, we would have had a housing Bill in it and we would be taking action to encourage landlords to offer families longer tenancies, so that they have security and stability. We would introduce a register of landlords and empower local authorities to strike off rogue elements, and we would end the rip-off fees and charges imposed by letting agents. However, this Queen’s Speech offers nothing to address those concerns. It is a no-answers Queen’s Speech from a tired, failing and increasingly fractious Government.

This Government promised change, but nothing is changing for hard-working Britons. Our country faces big challenges, but this Government and this Queen’s Speech are not equal to the task. The Queen’s Speech fails to provide a reboot for flatline Britain; it fails to address the rising cost of living; and it fails to listen to hard-working people. The big question that those people are asking of Government is: how can they afford to secure a roof over their head, heat their home, feed their family and get to work? However, this Queen’s Speech has no answers for them. The promise is that we will get there in the end, but like so much with this Government, it is wearing thin. Even the Government’s own independent Office for Budget Responsibility is saying that British people will be worse off in 2015 than in 2010.

I do not relish the rising levels of young people out of work, or the months turning into years among the adult jobless. I regret that our economy remains in the doldrums. None of us has all the answers, but our amendment shows that there are ways to help people through these harsh times. At no cost to the Government, we could cap train fares, put the over-75s on the cheapest energy tariff and stop private landlords ripping their tenants off. Labour’s amendment is about what is fair, what is reasonable and what is just, and I commend it to the House.

Local Government Finance

Debate between Caroline Flint and Andy Slaughter

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Flint]

Unlike the Secretary of State’s hon. Friends, we put money into the Supporting People grant to support local initiatives. Now councils face cuts in their Supporting People funding, and have no alternatives to the decisions that they are having to make.

[Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

I will talk about the myths of Hammersmith and Fulham later if I have the opportunity, but for now may I correct my right hon. Friend by pointing out that £2.9 million is the saving for the three boroughs next year—£500,000 from Hammersmith and Fulham—out of £27 million in total savings? The sum the Secretary of State said the three councils would save when he launched the initiative last October was £100 million. That is the sort of voodoo economics we are dealing with here.

[Caroline Flint]

My hon. Friend always enlightens us as to the true nature of what is happening in Hammersmith and Fulham. Only in the last week we have heard about a building that houses some 30 charities, from which many of the charities are being evicted. I heard only the other day that Hammersmith and Fulham council is so in touch with the big society that refugees from Afghanistan who were seeking support were directed to an Afghan society that happened to be an Afghan hound society. That shows how in touch those people are with the concerns of their residents, and the extent of their knowledge of the charitable and voluntary sector.