Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Double Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd November 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It was this Government that for the first time in the NHS’s history ensured that it had a long-term workforce plan, providing it with record funding so that we could eliminate long waits but also ensuring that it has the money that it needs to train record numbers of doctors and nurses while radically reforming how they work to improve productivity. That is because, the only way we will get everyone the treatment they need is to make sure that the NHS has the fantastic staff it needs, and it is this Government that have put that in place. The right hon. and learned Gentleman talks about records. This is something that no Government have done in the past, and it is something that I am proud we have done. Labour’s record on this issue is clear. It was a “disastrous failure” of workforce planning. Those were not my words. That was the verdict of the Labour-chaired Health Select Committee. It was Labour that did not train the consultants that we need now, that take 13, 14 or 15 years to train. It is this Government that are for the first time making sure that every family will finally have the doctors and nurses that they need.

[Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) (Con)]

Q3.   Access to housing that local people can afford is the biggest challenge we face in Cornwall. While we need to build more houses, we need to ensure that they are available and affordable to local people and meet the needs of our rural and coastal communities. Local knowledge, particularly from elected representatives, is an important part of ensuring that we achieve this, yet the Leader of the Opposition has made it clear that his intention is to ignore or override the views of local people in decisions on planning matters. Can the Prime Minister assure me and the people of Cornwall that, under his Government, the views of local communities will play a part in the planning process?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for his excellent campaigning on behalf of his constituents. I agree with him that housing must meet the needs of local communities. Our affordable homes programme is delivering hundreds of thousands of homes across the country. Crucially, on this side of the House we believe that local communities must be consulted, in contrast to Labour’s plan for top-down housing targets, concreting over the green belt and destroying our precious countryside.