Oral Answers to Questions

David Taylor Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We have delivered more in the first year of a Labour Government than the SNP has delivered in 20 years. Let me give the right hon. Gentleman one example. We said that we would deliver 2 million extra appointments for the NHS in England, and we have delivered 4 million. What a contrast with the SNP Government. They have been in charge for about 20 years, and Scotland’s doctors have said in the past week that the Scottish NHS is

“dying before our very eyes”.

The SNP should be ashamed. Its own Public Health Minister admits that the SNP’s failure is “costing lives”. Scotland needs a new direction so that we can bring waiting lists down in Scotland, just as we have done in England.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

Q6. Hemel Hempstead is a new town that was built by a Labour Government after the second world war and provided decent housing to families like mine, yet 80 years on, the No. 1 issue in my case work is a shortage of housing. I therefore welcome this Government’s commitment to build thousands of new homes. In my constituency, we are looking at a Hemel Garden Communities scheme that could provide 11,000 new homes. Does the Prime Minister agree that this development needs to be a mix of genuinely affordable houses to buy and council houses to rent, and that it must be accompanied by the right health, education and road infrastructure?

[The Prime Minister]

I totally agree with my hon. Friend. Projects such as this are essential to building the 1.5 million homes we need, while at the same time creating vibrant and strong communities. In keeping with the Attlee legacy, we are supporting 47 locally-led garden communities to deliver tens of thousands more homes, and of course delivering the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.