I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham) and to the Minister for allowing me to speak briefly in the debate. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for raising this important subject, which affects a number of his constituents. He has rightly highlighted the disturbing implications for them of the manifest failure of schemes, and the way in which they were put into effect, that were supposed to resolve the problems in their homes.

Some wider issues of public concern ought to be addressed, and I hope that the Minister will attend to them, if not now at least in the near future. First, my hon. Friend the Member for Itchen made a reasonable case for the need for some kind of independent verification and inspection of the quality and validity of the work. Those involved in the process, whether PRC Homes or Michael Dyson Associates, all had a vested interest in the way in which the work was carried out. There seems to have been no proper mechanism to ensure independent scrutiny and inspection.

Secondly, there is the issue of public money. The works carried out to the defective homes under the relevant legislation involved the use of public money, and my hon. Friend has said that more public money is being spent on legal aid to try to enforce remedial works because of the failure of initial work. It is unsatisfactory for public money to be brought into use for a second time by a different route to enforce repair work that would not have been necessary if the original remedial action had been carried out properly.

Thirdly, there is the wider issue of the remedies that are available to home owners. The Minister will be aware of growing concern that the systems, supposedly designed to reassure those who buy new homes, that are operated through the National House-Building Council and other bodies have sometimes not proved entirely satisfactory. PRC Homes, a subsidiary of the NHBC, seems to have failed to provide a speedy and adequate response to the rightful concerns and grievances of home owners. I hope that the Minister will address those matters and ensure justice at long last for my hon. Friend's constituents, and that he will also address the wider issues.