Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Monday 22nd January 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Jake Berry)]

As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, these growth deals are extremely complicated. That is why I have agreed to meet the backers of the Ayrshire growth deal to talk about how, for our part, the UK Government can take an exciting deal forward.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

T9. Does my hon. Friend agree that the ability to buy a home at an affordable price is vital to developing and enhancing social mobility and to realising the Government’s goals on aspiration and opportunity? Does he also agree that we must massively increase house building and speed up the process right across the country?

[The Minister for Housing (Dominic Raab)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We delivered 217,000 new homes last year, which is 50% more than the last year of the last Labour Government. We want to get that level up to 300,000. We have planning reform, release of public sector land and targeted funding to achieve that, which is crucial for key workers, the next generation and those on low and middle incomes.