Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Ford Excerpts

Wednesday 20th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady will be well aware that we are putting more money into our schools, we are ensuring that we have a welfare system that encourages people into the workplace, and we have put more money into various other elements of care for people across our communities. But the best solution for people to ensure they are able to provide for themselves and their families is for us to have a strong economy and for people to be helped into work, and that is why it was so pleasing that this week yet again the employment level is at a record high in this country.

[Vicky Ford (Chelmsford) (Con)]

Q8. To overcome homelessness we need more homes, and in Chelmsford we are building 1,000 new homes every year, but we also need the infrastructure, so this week Essex County Council is putting in bids for housing infrastructure funding, including for the second train station in Chelmsford. Does my right hon. Friend agree that world-class infrastructure is vital for our future, and will she support our 25-year campaign for Chelmsford’s second train station?

[The Prime Minister]

I welcome the action that Essex County Council has taken in relation to new homes and I welcome its bid to the housing infrastructure fund. We have made that money available in the housing infrastructure fund because we understand the importance of infrastructure for new housing developments. We recognise the need for additional affordable housing in the south-east. Of course the Department for Transport will look very carefully at the bid for the second railway station that my hon. Friend has referred to, but I am pleased to be able to say that we are only able to do this because this is a Government who are putting record levels of money into capital investment in our country.