Housing

Simon Danczuk Excerpts

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

It does not take a genius to recognise that investing in construction at a time of economic difficulty can have a positive impact. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills said in June:

“The experience of the 1930s tells us, however, that it is possible to build, and grow, out of deep economic crisis without abandoning deficit reduction.”

Even in the Government, there are people who believe that house building is a key part of getting the economy going. Even the Prime Minister said last November:

“We will restart the housing market and get Britain building again.”

The only problem is that the Prime Minister did not tell us when he would restart that housing market.

House building is in decline. The Government have used up all the house building credits bequeathed to them by the previous Labour Government, and now that they are having to rely on their own policies, house building is falling. Affordable housing starts have declined by 68% over the past year. Overall house building has decreased by 10%. That shows that the Government have failed. They have not used house building to stimulate our economy, which is part of the reason why Downing Street has taken us into a double-dip recession.

In many ways, Downing Street has failed to listen to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills—it could have used construction to drive the economy forward. Having said that, the Secretary of State has also been part of the problem, ably accompanied by the new Minister for Housing and the BIS team: they have pushed us towards a bank lending crisis. The new Minister for Housing, when part of the BIS team, introduced Project Merlin, which failed. They then tried a loan guarantee scheme. That failed. They then tried funding for lending. That has failed. Two and half years into their time in government, the banks still are not lending.

It is the same story in housing—NewBuy, Firstbuy, the new homes bonus and the Growing Places fund; the list goes on—but what we do not have is a co-ordinated effort to get people taking up mortgages and to get houses constructed for them to move into. In practically every aspect of housing policy, there has been failure.

There are people in Rochdale crying out for social housing and for jobs. If the Government had got their housing and lending policies right, we could have had the construction jobs and the homes in places such as Rochdale. Sadly, we have neither. If that is not bad enough, the Government are dismantling the housing safety net that helps many people. More people are becoming homeless. It costs more to help people who are homeless than it would to stimulate the housing economy and support the housing charities that support homeless people.

My hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Yvonne Fovargue) mentioned the bedroom tax. People on housing benefit will have to pay a supplement to stay in their home or they will have to move out. One important point regarding the bedroom tax, which I do not believe the Government have considered, relates to community cohesion. Rochdale is a case in point, although this will apply to many towns and cities across the country. The bedroom tax will mean that many people who have lived on council estates for many years, and brought their children up on those estates, have to move out. Owing to the demographic changes in places such as Rochdale, it is inevitable that a perception will build up that members of one community are being forced out of their home for the benefit of those from another community. I ask the Minister to address that issue of community cohesion, because it will cause real problems and there is the possibility of its being exploited by the far right.

I ask the Minister to take a sober view of housing policy and urge him to use housing and house building as key drivers to create jobs and re-establish the economy that we desperately need in Britain.