§ 10. Mr. Dubsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many council houses or flats will be started in London in 1984; and what was the comparable figure for 1978–79.
§ Sir George YoungDuring 1978–79, 11,500 local authority dwellings were reported as started within Greater London. My Department has made no estimate for 1984.
§ Mr. DubsIs the Minister aware that nobody will be taken in by that answer? Is he further aware that the dramatic decline in house building since the Government took office means that thousands of people who are increasingly desperate for a decent home cannot afford to buy and are badly housed or homeless as a direct result of the Government's policies?
§ Sir George YoungCouncil starts in London fell by more than half from 1975 to 1979. Although they continued to fall until 1981, they have risen since then by 70 per cent.
§ Mr. LyellIf the hon. Member for Battersea (Mr. Dubs) wishes to rejuvenate the inner cities, would he not do better, rather than concentrating so much on council housing, to encourage those many London councils which own thousands of empty houses to sell them to people who will do them up themselves and thereby bring back into the inner city the capable people which the Bishop of Liverpool regretted had left?
§ Sir George YoungMy hon. and learned Friend makes a valid point. About 10,000 local authority dwellings in 875 London have been empty for over a year. If they were brought into use they would have a direct application to the problems raised, quite rightly, by the hon. Member for Battersea (Mr. Dubs).
§ Mr. PikeCan the Minister state what share of the new starts in the council housing sector in London is for general housing needs and what share is for sheltered housing accommodation?
§ Sir George YoungNot without notice.
§ Mr. MarlowWill my hon. Friend start to dismantle the near monopoly that councils have in rented housing by passing over some of the rented accommodation in London on the winding-up of the GLC either to housing associations or, alternatively, to public companies specially licensed to take on that responsibility?
§ Sir George YoungMy hon. Friend will be interested to know that at Thamesmead we have a proposal, along exactly the lines that he has mentioned, to transfer the large estate there to a non-public sector company which will not only run the housing but, I hope, bring to a satisfactory conclusion the development that has begun.
§ 11. Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the latest figures for house building starts in the public sector; and what was the comparable figure for 1979.
§ Mr. GowAbout 10,700 public sector dwellings were started in England during the first quarter of this year and 12,900 in the same period of 1979.
§ Mr. SkinnerAre not those figures scandalous? Do they not show that, despite the fact that we have an aging population of more than 9 million pensioners, many of them crying out for ground floor accommodation, the Government are more concerned with reducing grants to local authorities to stop them building? We have 500,000 building workers on the dole. We have millions of bricks lying in stockpiles. We have elderly people who would like accommodation in bungalows or ground floor flats. Why do the Government not show some compassion and get on with some house building for those elderly people?
§ Mr. GowI am happy to be able to tell the House that in each of the past four years there has been an increase in the number of housing starts. We are making available more than £3.25 billion in this financial year for investment in the public sector.
§ Mr. HeddleDoes my hon. Friend recall that the former political agent of the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) exercised his right to buy his council house? Does he not agree that one way of providing homes for those who rightly demand the right to rent would be if the Labour party dropped its mongrel dogmatic objections to the shorthold provisions of the Housing Act 1980?
§ Mr. SkinnerAnd now he is on strike.
§ Mr. GowI agree with my hon. Friend. It is not only the former agent of the hon. Member for Bolsover who has bought his former council home—
§ Mr. SkinnerWho was it?
§ Mr. SkinnerNo. The hon. Gentleman is wrong again.
§ Mr. GowI am also glad to say that a growing number of miners have bought their homes from the National Coal 876 Board. Since my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister arrived in Downing street some 1.4 million extra people have become owner-occupiers.
§ Mr. HaynesIs the Minister not ashamed of the figures he gave to the House? If he is not, he should be. When will he remove the shackles from local authorities so that they can get on with the job that they were elected to do, that is, to provide proper housing? The Conservative party promised to do that at the 1979 and 1983 general elections. When will the Government provide housing for the elderly and those in need, instead of providing jobs for estate agents?
§ Mr. GowA local public sector provision of £3.25 billion does not put shackles on a housing programme. The hon. Gentleman should pay tribute to the Government's record on improvement grants. We provided about £900 million during the last financial year, which is 10 times as much as that given by the previous Labour Government.
§ Mr. John FraserWill the Minister confirm that the latest Department of Environment figures show a further drop in house building stocks of 13 per cent. compared with a year ago? Will he further confirm that, despite the drop in house building in the public sector, his Department is preparing a contingency plan for a freeze on all housing capital construction programmes, to begin in July or August, because of the level of local authority spending, mainly on improvement and repair grants, undertaken last year and this year on the advice of his Department? Will he put a stop to these plans for a moratorium on council house spending later this year and fight for the homeless instead of the Treasury?