Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Stephen Williams and Stephen Mosley

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Williams]

I hear an Opposition Member shout “We introduced the decent homes standard”, and that is perfectly true. We often hear from Opposition Members that when it came to expenditure their priority was decent homes rather than the building of new homes, and that is why we had a problem with social housing stock. This coalition Government are bringing houses up to a decent standard, but also have the largest house building programme in the social sector that we have seen for decades.

[Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is right. One of the main causes of damp in property is condensation. That can be easily be solved by improving ventilation, which is often as simple as opening a window. Some housing authorities give their tenants very good advice. What advice would the Minister give others to ensure that that information gets out there?

[Stephen Williams]

I do not think that it is for Ministers to give advice to individual households—therein trouble often lies—but I will say that it is up to local authorities and housing associations to help their tenants with their budgeting as much as possible, in order to deal with welfare reform and other cost pressures.