Oral Answers to Questions

Pat Glass Excerpts

Tuesday 6th November 2012 Commons Chamber

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked—

[Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)]

1. What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on fiscal incentives to encourage the construction of affordable housing.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

The Chancellor is at the G20 meeting in Mexico, so I have been asked to reply.

On 6 September, the Government announced an ambitious package to boost housing supply, including an additional 15,000 new homes for affordable rent and bringing 5,000 empty homes back into use. We will also help a further 16,500 first-time buyers get back on the housing ladder through Firstbuy. The package includes a £10 billion debt guarantee, which will enable housing associations to benefit from the Government’s hard-earned fiscal credibility.

[Pat Glass]

I thank the Minister for that answer, but we have lost 120,000 construction jobs since 2010 and we are building 100,000 fewer affordable homes than even this Government tell us we need each year. When the Minister reflects on the choices he had before him, does he still believe that slashing the affordable housing grant by 60% at the same time as giving a massive tax cut to millionaires was the right thing to do?

[Danny Alexander]

In fact, the decision we made to move to a new affordable rent model to get more homes for the money available to us—the auction was over-subscribed, with 170,000 properties in the affordable sector being built under that model—was a good use of very limited resources, and a much more efficient use of them than the previous Government achieved.