Clause 11 - Use of capital receipts
Local Government Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
No. If the hon. Gentleman thinks it through, he will realise that, if the values of housing units have gone up, that gives rise to precisely the problem that hon. Members representing those high-pressure areas of the country face every day. Fire fighters, to take a topical case, teachers or social workers, who are effectively paid on national salary scales, do not stand a chance of being able to buy a property. Therefore, people in other parts of the country that do not suffer the same house price pressures who could expect to get on the housing
ladder and buy a property are forced to look to the social housing sector. The need for additional social housing goes much further up the income scale in parts of the south-east that are suffering from high house-price pressures than in other parts of the country. There is a real need in such areas to ensure not simply that people are decently housed, but, increasingly, that the public services, which the Government talk about and talk about, can be delivered.
I assure the hon. Gentleman that if he comes to Surrey, or even to the constituency of the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton, he will find that it is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to recruit the appropriate people to staff those services, because they cannot afford to live in the area if they have to buy market housing.