Clause 16 - Duty of local housing authority to formulate a homelessness strategy
Homes Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Mr. Loughton) is being prophetic if he thinks that the Government have been in power for four years. We still have another three months to go. The figures clearly show, year on year, a decline in output of new social housing in the last four years of the Conservative Government. Of course, he aggregates the figures to provide a better average over four years, but that decline continued.
The hon. Gentleman will know, as will anyone who studies the subject, that investment in housing takes time to produce results. We have low figures at the moment, but we have reversed that trend and current substantial increases in investment will lead to increased output in the years ahead. I do not for a moment resile from the fact that there is a low output of social housing at present. That is the consequence of progressive cuts through the 1990s made by the previous Government, and it will take time to reverse.