Housing

Pete Wishart Excerpts

Wednesday 8th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Hilary Benn]

I am here today to talk about housing provision in England and if the hon. Gentleman wants to compare the Labour record with the Conservative record, I will take any time our record over 13 years in government—

[Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way? I can help him out on this.

[Hilary Benn]

Will the hon. Gentleman bear with me? That is help from an unusual quarter.

The record is 2 million more homes, 500,000 of them affordable. I watched with interest the contribution of the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Jake Berry) to Channel 4 News last night, and I would just say to him on social homes—council houses and housing association social homes—that the Labour Government built more social homes in their last three years, which were the most difficult because of the recession, than this Government have managed to build in their first three years in office.

--- Later in debate ---

[Pete Wishart]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Hilary Benn]

Yes, I will give way.

[Pete Wishart]

I know the right hon. Gentleman does not really want to talk about the devolved Governments Labour has run, but does he know how many houses Labour built in the last four years in government in Scotland? Obviously, it is a difficult question, but the answer is six: six houses, and none of them were on the Scottish mainland. Shetland was lucky enough to get six houses from the Labour Executive.

[Hilary Benn]

In Scotland and elsewhere local authorities have responsibility for building houses, but we are here to hold this Government to account, and homelessness—