If she will provide further funding to improve council housing.

What progress has been made towards achieving the decent homes standard.

Yes, we will provide further funding for improving council housing. So far the decent homes programme has cut the number of homes failing the decency standard by some 1.4 million and has delivered 720,000 new boilers and central heating systems for council and social housing across the country.

While I recognise the Government's focus on that particular policy and the increased investment, my surgeries are still inundated with residents who want to move to better properties, people desperate for homes, and others who want simple things such as central heating or some repairs. What help or hope can my hon. Friend offer to my constituents?

My hon. Friend raises an important point. We have said that all council and social housing needs to meet the decency standards. It is shocking that we inherited a £19 billion backlog in repairs and maintenance in 1997. We will, by 2010, have invested £40 billion in improving those homes, including putting in modern kitchens and central heating, tackling Fuel Poverty and cutting carbon emissions from those homes.

I appreciate the Minister's comments about council housing and the social rented sector in general. However, part of the commitment made in the decent homes charter was to private sector vulnerable households. I am aware that in Rochdale, for example, 66 per cent. of all private sector vulnerable households are unfit, largely because of thermal comfort issues. In view of the fact that across the north-west last year 303 old people died of hypothermia, what further action will the Department take to deal with private sector vulnerable households?

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. I know that the arm's length management organisation in Rochdale has almost completed its programme and, thanks to the £100 million provided by the Labour Government, will have refurbished and modernised more than 16,000 homes in the area, ensuring that they meet the proper standards for central heating and insulation. The hon. Gentleman is right to say that we need to support private sector homes to ensure that pensioners in particular are not living in cold homes. The warm front programme has already assisted 1.2 million households across the country and we want to go further in helping to warm and insulate more such households.

Of course the Government deserve congratulations for tackling the enormous backlog of repairs and improvements that they inherited in 1997, but could we not go further, with an additional source of funds, and stop the process by which good local authority landlords, who have long provided decent, affordable housing in an accountable framework, are coercing tenants into stock transfers that they do not want, employing consultants and spending many millions of pounds on a process that is utterly wasteful?

We have provided additional funding to councils so that they can refurbish their homes, and it amounts to a 30 per cent. increase per home since 1997. Using that additional funding and their own resources, nearly 100 councils will be able to bring their stock up to the decency standard over the next few years. The additional funding has been provided through the ALMO programme and stock transfers and is a very substantial investment in existing homes, but my hon. Friend will accept that we must make sure that there is investment in building new homes, for which there is also a serious need.

One consequence of the Government's mismanagement of EU migration is the great strain placed on social and private sector housing in some parts of the country. What are the Government going to do about the exploitation of EU migrants by unscrupulous landlords? Also, the poor condition of many houses in multiple occupation is a major problem in places such as Peterborough, where we have 6,500 people on the council waiting list. What are the Government going to do about that?

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman welcomes the measures in the Housing Bill, which give local authorities powers to deal with serious problems with private sector landlords and to require proper licences for HMOs. He should urge his council to use those powers.

Mr. Jackson also mentioned the pressures on social housing and private housing. The Government's response is very clear: we believe that we need to build more homes. The Conservative party have opposed that.