Housing

Robert Neill Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

Warms words are one thing—we can agree that public sector and brownfield land needs to be built out—but we have heard many warm words over the past five years, and not much has been done. In fact, in my previous position as shadow Housing Minister, I asked the Government what figures they had available on their aim to build 100,000 new homes on public sector land, and answer came there none. They said they were not recording those numbers.

[Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her new post. I had the pleasure of debating against her during the general election campaign. When she was shadow Housing Minister, she was right that rent controls would not work in practice, and her leader was wrong. May I take it that her appointment means that Labour will once and for all abandon this misguided policy, which would drive up rents and choke off investment in the sector?

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)]

I welcome the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds) to the Dispatch Box. I had noticed that she had changed jobs, and let me say from the outset that she is absolutely right to raise this issue of huge importance to our country: making sure that people can get a home of their own. It is entirely right that this should be one of the first of our debates. However, in the light of the experience of the past few weeks and the tone that the interim leader of her party took, I was surprised that the hon. Lady was not a bit more rueful about her party’s contribution to the record that this Government are tackling. She herself has admitted in the past that when Labour was in office it built too few homes, so I was surprised at her response to the intervention by my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake). Many Members have made that point, including the former Chairman of the Select Committee, the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), who was here in the Chamber but who has gone; he said that the Government that he supported did not build enough homes. So I would have expected a bit more humility from the beginning of the hon. Lady’s remarks.

[Robert Neill]

I welcome my right hon. Friend to his post. I know from my own experience that he will be an excellent, top-class Secretary of State.

Is it not extraordinary that the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds) said just now that she was proud of the Labour party’s record, when under Labour waiting lists went up from 1 million to 1.8 million and the number of social homes available for rent declined by 420,000?

[Greg Clark]

What is more extraordinary is that the hon. Lady was frank enough to say that she was not proud of that record and that Labour should have built more homes, yet immediately after the election, which might be a time for candour and reflection given that she is supporting one of the candidates for the leadership who wants to change things, she has changed position and become wholly defensive.