HC Deb 10 June 1981 vol 6 cc388-9
2. Mr. Cryer

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the number of public sector house building starts for the first four months of 1981.

The Minister for Housing and Construction (Mr. John Stanley)

On a seasonally adjusted basis, 8,800 in England.

Mr. Cryer

Is that not a miserable figure compared with over 100,000 houses built in Great Britain in the last full year of the Labour Government? Does not that spell misery for hundreds of thousands of people on waiting lists throughout the country and also for the 300,000 building workers who are on the dole and waiting for a job? Why cannot the Tory Government abandon their vicious, repressive polices and set the building workers to work to build the houses for which people are anxiously waiting?

Mr. Stanley

As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, the presentation of the housing programme in terms of starts is highly misleading because for at least four years there has been a significant switch from new build to improvement, which took place under the previous Government as well as under this Government. The hon. Member should be aware that 77,000 local authority dwellings were improved last year, which was the highest number of local authority dwellings to be improved since 1973.

Mr. John Townend

Does my hon. Friend agree that in some areas, generally Labour-controlled, there was massive building of council houses and restriction on the lease of land for private houses, resulting in more than 50 per cent. of the housing stock being council houses? Does he not agree that, in such circumstances, that percentage is adequate?

Mr. Stanley

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who is entirely right. One of the major under-used assets in housing is vacant land which is in local authority ownership. My right hon. Friends are doing valuable work through the land registration exercise, which already shows that there are hundreds of acres up and down the country which could be made available if local authorities were willing to sell them.

Mrs. Ann Taylor

Does not the Minister regret the fact that housing starts in the public sector are so low? Is it not an appalling state of affairs that housing starts last year were the worst since 1925 and, judging by the figures this year, will be only half of last year's figures? What does the Minister intend to do to give some hope to the thousands of people on council waiting lists? Has he abdicated all responsibility for public sector housing?

Mr. Stanley

I do not regret responding to the local authority associations, which were unanimous in wishing local authorities to have total discretion in how they used their housing allocations. The discretion has been greatly welcomed by local authorities. As I said to the hon. Member for Keighley (Mr. Cryer), over the past four years there has been a gradual switch from new building to improvement. For example, in 1977–78, the proportion of local authority expenditure going to improvement was 17 per cent., in 1978–79 it was 22 per cent., in 1979–80, 29 per cent. and in 1980–81, 31 per cent. It has gone up in four successive years.