Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Natalie Elphicke Excerpts

Wednesday 15th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Natalie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Belfast South (Claire Hanna), who highlighted the importance of childcare.

I congratulate the Chancellor on today’s Budget supporting families and businesses with the cost of living and growth. I would like to highlight three measures that will have a particular impact for my constituents in Dover and Deal. The first is the fuel duty freeze and the continuing energy support: many people rely on their cars to get around, and the recent fuel and energy prices have been worrying for very many people. The second is the expansion of free childcare for young children. Thirdly, I welcome the focus on older workers, skills and jobs support.

In Dover and Deal since 2020, average wages have risen, unemployment has fallen and youth unemployment has fallen. Thousands more people are employed in my constituency than when Labour left office in 2010. The measures taken by Conservative Governments have created more jobs and money in Dover and Deal. In addition, Dover’s £63 million levelling-up funding will create a new creative and digital skills campus and investment in port and road infrastructure. I want to see our whole area growing and thriving, so the further jobs and skills support set out in the Budget is welcome. The support for older workers is important because discrimination against older workers is very real—I will move a ten-minute rule motion next week to tackle that very issue. I want to work very closely with Ministers to ensure that the ambitions set out in this Budget are matched by increased employment for older workers.

There is one area on which I hoped there would be more in this Budget: housing and house building. I draw attention in that regard to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, in relation to my unpaid directorship of the Housing and Finance Institute. Under the Conservatives, house building has been booming recently, with more than 200,000 homes delivered last year. In Dover and Deal, Conservative-led Dover District Council has delivered an impressive programme of building its own council homes for affordable and social renting and shared ownership.

Although locally Dover and Deal Conservatives are delivering affordable homes, broader economic conditions have led to a slowdown in house building that appears to be severe. The Home Builders Federation has said that it looks like the worst period for house building since the financial crash. The OBR forecast on the housing market has worsened since November, with house prices down 10% and property transactions down 20%. That matters for today’s Budget because house building contributes £15 billion to £17 billion for each 100,000 homes built. New homes also support approximately £8 billion in additional infrastructure investment, which means roads, schools, GP surgeries and environmental improvements.

The financial impact of a downturn in house building is significant. I had hoped, and still hope, to see more from the Chancellor about supporting that important sector, because it is not just in relation to economic activity or GDP that house building matters. Not building enough homes creates more strain on existing housing stock, meaning higher prices for renting and for buying. Higher rents are worse value for money, and the poorest households end up footing the bill for higher rents that they simply cannot afford. That is not fair, and it needs to be addressed.

As Members of this House will be aware, there are more than 100,000 people in our country who do not have a home of their own, who are in temporary accommodation or homeless. That is why I have been working with colleagues at the Housing and Finance Institute on a plan called Operation Homemaker, to build 100,000 homes over a year and a half to house the homeless and those in temporary accommodation. The HFI’s plan calls for a discounted rate of Public Works Loan Board funding for councils so that they can bring forward social housing, as Dover is doing. As we said in the Homemaker report,

“Long term and discounted PWLB can reduce or even eliminate the need for subsidy for listening term affordable rented housing.”

I am pleased that the Chancellor has listened and made new discounted funding available to councils that want to do more. I also welcome his commitment to reforms in relation to the unlocking of pension funds for investment, which is another key part of the Homemaker plan. I hope he will ensure that as those measures are implemented, they support the massive appetite for pensions fund investment in long-term, affordable and other housing. I am pleased that we have secured positive engagement with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the Homemaker programme, as well as meeting the Prime Minister to discuss it, but I should like the Chancellor to meet me so that we can see what more can be done with the funding envelopes he has set out today to get those houses on the ground for the people in our country who need them most.

Having grown up in a council house, I know from personal experience the importance of stable housing, and how good housing can and does change lives. It is good for the country’s balance sheet as well, because investing in stable, secure housing saves money for the taxpayer. It eliminates the £1.6 billion spent on insecure temporary accommodation—and there are a staggering 125,000 children in temporary accommodation—and reduces the massive housing benefit bill. It also adds to GDP. Good, stable, affordable housing supports the mission, stated today, of getting people into work and helping them to stay in work.

I thank the Chancellor and the whole Treasury team again for their work on this Budget. I hope that, together, we will be able to keep Britain building, especially with a new national mission to house the homeless and build the affordable homes that our country needs.