§ 8. Mr. BentonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many cities he has visited since his appointment.
§ Mr. GummerI have visited 45 towns and cities since my appointment, including Manchester, York, Coventry, Birmingham, Leicester, Cambridge, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Nottingham, Derby, Gloucester, Bristol, Rochester and Peterborough.
§ Mr. BentonI note that the Secretary of State made no reference to Sefton on Merseyside. Is he aware that in my local authority, Sefton metropolitan borough council, the housing waiting list is now more than 8,000 and that in my constituency of Bootle applicants have to wait for about three years before they are first considered for housing? The hon. Members for Southport (Mr. Banks) and for Crosby (Sir M. Thornton) will testify that it takes about seven years in other parts of Sefton before housing applicants are considered for housing.
Will the Secretary of State please admit to the House that this problem does not just pertain to my part of the world and that we face a national housing crisis? Will he recognise the difficulty? Will he tell the House what he proposes to do about it, particularly in the light of yesterday's statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which he announced further cuts in public spending?
§ Mr. GummerTwo of my hon. Friends have visited Sefton. Sefton has one city challenge scheme, which is a good example of local partnership, and I notice that that gives a particular advantage to Bootle. Therefore, a great deal is being done in the hon. Gentleman's part of the world. It remains true to say that we will more than meet our election pledges on building social housing. What is more important perhaps is that we have already announced new means of ensuring opportunities for people who want to move out of local authority housing that has become too large for them in order to leave the space for others who need it. I hope that that scheme will benefit the hon. Gentleman's part of the world. A considerable sum is still going into housing. I am happy to look personally at the particular points that the hon. Gentleman raises about Sefton.
§ Mr. John MarshallMy right hon. Friend was not able to include the London borough of Barnet among those towns and cities that he has visited. Does he accept that he would be welcome to come to Barnet, especially if the standard spending assessment that he announces takes full account of the facts that we educate many children from refugee families and that we have a large elderly population?
§ Mr. GummerAs I have been to a large number of London boroughs and often visit Barnet privately, I am happy to accept my hon. Friend's comment. It is true to say that most Conservative-controlled boroughs in London educate many people from neighbouring Labour boroughs—including the children of some Labour Members who prefer their children not to be educated by a Labour council.
§ Mr. VazIt is a great pity that the Secretary of State's visits to our cities and urban areas have not given him a proper and clear insight into the problems that they face. 1033 Why does he not have the courage to admit that the Government simply do not have a clear, coherent or credible policy for dealing with our cities and urban areas? Why has he failed to defend his Department's budget against the Treasury cuts for local government which were announced yesterday? By how much more is he increasing resources in real terms to our cities as a result of the city pride project? Is that initiative like everything else that he does on the subject—a cheap political gimmick and another municipal gameshow that insults the integrity and intelligence of those who seek to administer local government?
§ Mr. GummerThe hon. Gentleman is a little out of date. He spent a lot of time, when we were discussing the setting up of the single unified budget for the great cities of England, telling us that there would not be the money for it. I am pleased to remind him that the £1.4 billion which I announced last year would be available is available this year. That is what we promised that we would deliver and what we have done. The hon. Gentleman first complains that I did not defend the budget; then when I do defend it, he repeats that I did not. He must get the figures right.
The Government have done more than any previous Government for inner cities in Britain. We should be proud of what is happening in our cities. We are improving them through a series of mechanisms, which the Labour party fought tooth and nail. City challenge has been a great success and we shall continue to fight to improve our cities.
Since taking on the job, I have made the cities a priority and shown that we need to revitalise our cities all over the country. We should do that by dealing with the planning system properly and ensuring that the life of our cities enables people not only to live there but to work, take their leisure and shop there.