Housing Reform
Debate between Grant Shapps and Hazel Blears
Grant Shapps
My hon. Friend and I share a boundary between St Albans and Hatfield. That area used to be an aerospace site and is now available for quite a lot of house building, but that aside—I make no apology for this—we consider it important that we focus our efforts on building new homes. Every home built supports two jobs, which is important for employment and gross domestic product growth. We are therefore focusing on new homes, not just for first-time buyers but for anybody who wants to buy a new home.
Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)
The Minister and the Secretary of State will be well aware that the people of Pendleton have been waiting many months for the conclusion of their £150 million private finance initiative project, which will result in 800 new homes, 1,200 refurbished homes and hundreds of construction jobs. When will the Minister sort this out? The people of Pendleton need hope for the future, and if he could do it in time for Christmas, it would be extremely good.
Grant Shapps
The right hon. Lady has been a doughty champion for her residents, and it will not be too long before I can deliver further news.
Local Government Financing
Debate between Grant Shapps and Hazel Blears
Grant Shapps
I welcome the hon. Lady’s intervention. She was not here in the last Parliament, but had she been she might have read our green paper, which describes in detail our plans for the RDAs. Labour Members seem to think that when there is a change of Government, policies should just roll on even if they have not worked. The RDAs were a case in point, of policies that cost a lot of money and got us nowhere.
The prospect of paying £70 billion in debt interest is of deep concern, but apparently not on the Opposition Benches, where it is as if the money has not run out, the party is not over and we can just carry on spending imaginary funds. That £70 billion in debt repayments is more money than the council tax, business rates, stamp duty and the inheritance tax collect put together. That is the size of the deficit we are up against. So we need to tighten our belts. Ministers are cutting their pay, and it is also fair to ask local authorities to pay their part towards the £6.2 billion public sector savings required this year.
Hazel Blears
Does the right hon. Gentleman believe that it will help the nation’s finances to cut the future jobs fund and the working neighbourhoods fund and to throw more young people on the dole so that they will not be paying tax and national insurance? Does he really think that that adds up to a credible economic policy?
Grant Shapps
Well, I heard with interest what the right hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen had to say about some of the funds. The truth is that existing commitments are being honoured and a new fund is going to be set up to pull together the many different streams that currently help people get back to work. It seems to me that again Labour Members see any change that did not emanate from Labour during the 13 years in which it was in Government as a problem and are willing to attack it.