Oral Answers to Questions

Meg Hillier Excerpts

Monday 8th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking to increase the building of affordable homes.

[Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)]

13. What steps he is taking to increase the building of affordable homes.

[The Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)]

Almost 200,000 affordable homes have been delivered since 2010. A further £23 billion of investment will deliver 165,000 affordable homes between 2015 and 2018. This will be the fastest rate of affordable house building for the past 20 years.

[Brandon Lewis]

I respectfully point out to the hon. Gentleman that we actually inherited the lowest level of house building since the 1920s from the previous Government. In fact, as I have just said, we are about to get the fastest rate of building in the past 20 years. Just to be specific, in his home area of Greater Manchester alone, 5,724 new affordable homes will be delivered as a result of this Government’s investment in this period’s affordable homes programme.

[Meg Hillier]

The Minister has been keen to bombard us with statistics and to blame anybody but this Government, but it is they who have set affordable rents at 80% of private sector rents. In areas such as Hackney, that means that such rents are not affordable to the average, ordinary working person, while it also puts pressure on the housing benefit bill. When will the Government rethink this crazy and unfair policy?

[Brandon Lewis]

To an extent, I am having to apologise for the previous Labour Administration’s failure to deliver the sufficient number of council houses that we need. It is good to see that, under this Government, building is getting going again.