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Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 9 February 2005.

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Photo of John Prescott John Prescott Deputy Prime Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Local Government and the Regions, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee 11:30, 9 February 2005

Yes, those people certainly will be included. In fact, one of the great difficulties of the previous Administration's policy on rural housing was that they limited it in certain circumstances where they believed that there was a housing crisis. The houses were supposed to be available to people in the local area. The trouble was that the younger people usually did not have the money to buy the houses, which usually went to people who lived in the area who used them for holiday lets. That is not acceptable. The opportunity extends to rural areas, but I go further and call on all local authorities to do the same. Indeed, to be fair, my mate the Mayor of London has just discovered an awful lot of plots of land that he can build on. Local authorities and Government agencies could go round looking for those plots of land and take this opportunity to build good, high-quality houses—by the way, the £60,000 house is up to the highest standards, saving energy and water—and give a real opportunity to people in rural areas.