Kris Hopkins
Main Page: Kris Hopkins (Conservative - Keighley)(10 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Kris Hopkins)
May I first offer my condolences to the family of Paul Goggins? When I was appointed to this position, he very kindly welcomed me. He was generous in the way that he approached many Members across the House, and he was passionate about housing too. I put on record my condolences to his family and friends.
This is a valuable and important debate. Like the Secretary of State, I congratulate the Opposition on securing their second debate on housing since 2010. The Leader of the Opposition says that housing is an important part of their agenda, but to have secured only two Opposition day debates in that time does not demonstrate the passion that his party claims it has for housing. The debate gives us an opportunity to remind the House and the country of the mess left by the previous Labour Government, and of the Opposition’s preference for old, top-down diktats by which they tell the country what to do, and tell councils and local people what they should be doing and where they should be living.
Stephen McPartland
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. Does he agree that the right to grow policy, which Labour launched in my Stevenage constituency without telling me in advance, is already in tatters? Stevenage borough council’s published draft local plan makes no reference whatever to the need for additional housing in North Hertfordshire district council. There have been no representations made between the offices of the two different authorities, and North Hertfordshire is currently doing its local plan.
Kris Hopkins
If it is the case that those representations have not been made, my hon. Friend may want to write to the Prime Minister. If that was my local council and my neighbouring council was going to raid my green belt and green spaces to facilitate housing in a neighbouring council, I would imagine that, like my hon. Friend, I would be extremely unhappy.
Despite the Opposition’s claims, it was under the previous Administration that house building fell to its lowest peacetime rate since the 1920s, with only 107,000 homes completed in 2010. They imposed regional targets on local communities as part of their top-down regime. Their approach is that Whitehall and Labour know better. The complete failure to invest between 1997 and 2010 resulted, as has been said, in some 427,000 fewer social houses. Under this Government, come 2015 there will be more social housing—something that Members recognise—and we can be extremely proud of that. In contrast to Labour’s record, we have given people local control of neighbourhood planning, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) has just said. I encourage local authorities that have not completed their local plan to get on with it, to engage with their local communities and give power to local individuals to shape their community, and to remove red tape.
Alec Shelbrooke
Does my hon. Friend agree that all the Government’s progress in this Parliament in allowing local people to engage with local authorities on planning would be completely undermined by a Labour Government who would go back to the Stalinist tactic of land seizure and building wherever they want?
Kris Hopkins
It is clear, as an hon. Member said earlier, that localism is just paper thin for Labour. The number of first-time buyers is at a five-year high. Help to Buy has made a significant contribution, helping hard-working families to buy their own home; promoting quality and choice in the rented sector by bringing in private incentives and not just using expensive taxpayer subsidies; and helping small and medium-sized builders to get back on their feet—more than 1,000 registered builders are now supporting the Help to Buy equity scheme.
Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)
On public subsidies, is the Minister happy that for every £4 that goes in housing benefit, only £1 is spent building homes? Surely, it would be better to reverse that and build homes at affordable rents that people can live in.
Kris Hopkins
If we did not have a £180 billion deficit, we might be in a better position to offer more public subsidy, but we do not have that opportunity because the last Government nearly bankrupted the country.
Kris Hopkins
No, I will not take any more interventions.
One of the common themes of this debate was that, as the hon. Member for Blyth Valley (Mr Campbell) recognised, Labour did not deliver enough housing while in power. My hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey) is a huge supporter of housing growth, and I know from my conversations with him that he is committed to ensuring that local communities shape their own housing. I look forward to further debates about large-scale housing, which I know he greatly supports. On land banking, he said that confiscating land was not the way forward and that if Labour’s policy was implemented, it would result in fewer houses being built.
The hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Austin Mitchell) said many things and recognised that Labour did not deliver enough houses, but he also referred to his garden shed. My hon. Friend the Member for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke) talked about local plans and a strong local voice, and I know that he is a powerful voice in his community. The right hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Sir Andrew Stunell) talked about localism and the increasing number of social houses. He also pointed out that Labour delivered 50% of its desire to get rid of boom and bust—it got rid of the boom bit. [Laughter.] I am sorry for stealing the line. [Interruption.]
Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)
Order. The House should listen to the Minister.
Kris Hopkins
The Chairman of the Select Committee also recognised that Labour did not deliver enough houses when in government.
On this issue, as on many, Labour has a problem with credibility. It was the party that allowed access to mortgages six, seven, eight times individuals’ salaries. It was a totally unsustainable path that contributed to the banking crisis that led to the deepest recession since the 1920s. Even in the boom years, it failed to deliver the required housing. The total build dropped to the lowest number in 100 years. It promoted eco-towns—10 in total—but not one appeared. New Labour at its finest: all spin and absolutely no delivery.
Not only did Labour fail to deliver the houses promised, having nearly bankrupted the country, but it took the livelihoods of 250,000 construction workers and destroyed thousands of businesses by its actions. It talks about a cost-of-living crisis, but how many families did it break by its actions? How many meals did it take off the table by its actions? How many summer holidays were lost? How many more homeless people were created by its actions? Yet it never apologises. It always blames somebody else. It is the “Not me, guv!” party. In 2007, the number of housing completions reached 176,000. By 2010, that had dropped to 107,000—a drop of 70,000 houses in three years. That is what it achieved. That is what Labour did for housing in this country and that is why we are still putting things right.
As Housing Minister, I have had the privilege of meeting mothers from Peckham who have secured a shared ownership home; a right-to-buy couple from Swindon who have now got their own home; a young couple who have a house as a consequence of Help to Buy; builders in Sheffield building houses yet again; and businesses and brick factories in Stoke, working flat out. We know that houses are important to the economy, which is why we are determined to deliver more of them.
Question put.