New Housing Supply

Debate between Simon Clarke and Helen Morgan

Monday 5th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Simon Clarke (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Con)]

It has been a genuine pleasure to be part of this evening’s debate, and I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) in his absence on securing it. I pay particular tribute to the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Andrew Western) for what I thought was an exemplary speech, in which I really could not find anything to disagree with. I say that with deep admiration.

We must confront the stark reality that we are facing a severe shortfall in housing because of the policy choices of successive Governments, a dearth of political leadership at both local and national level, and a lack of honesty with the public about the consequences every time a Member of this House, a local councillor or a local campaign group celebrates blocking new homes. The Centre for Cities estimates that our shortfall is as great as 4.3 million homes. That crisis is stunting our economic growth, leaving young people without the space to start a family, and trapping renters in unsafe accommodation. At our aimed-for build rate of 300,000 homes a year, it would take us some 50 years to put that right, and we are not getting anywhere near that build rate.

Of course, historically we did much better. Home ownership was a moral mission for the Macmillan Government, and it may not have escaped the attention of Conservative Members that his achievements underpinned his huge election victory in 1959, in the way that Mrs Thatcher won huge support through her right-to-buy policy. The contrast with the 1960s could hardly be more stark: in that decade, we built 3.6 million homes, more than we have built in total since the turn of the century. We have created a supply and demand feedback loop of the worst possible kind.

I am afraid that I must take issue with the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) when she says that the planning system is not the problem. I am afraid that it is: that system is fundamentally broken. It is what is driving the fact that someone buying their first home now faces paying nine times their income for it. In the 1980s, the figure was just three times the average salary.

[Helen Morgan]

I would just like to clarify: it is not the only problem. We give planning permission for all these houses, but we do not build them. We need to address the build-out problem as well as the planning issue.

Delivery of Public Services

Debate between Simon Clarke and Helen Morgan

Tuesday 28th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

In the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, nearly 18,000 women are waiting for a breast scan that is overdue, largely because of a shortage of individuals who can perform those scans. Five full-time equivalent posts have been left vacant. Does the Minister agree that something needs to be done to tackle these workforce issues so that we do not fail to deliver key services and increase the risk of avoidable death?

[Mr Clarke]

I want to reassure the hon. Lady and her constituents that we completely agree that there is a need to ensure that those sorts of scans happen as speedily as possible. That is why the total budget of the Department of Health and Social Care in 2024-25—that is to say, at the end of this Parliament—will stand at £188 billion a year. That is a truly colossal sum of money and it equips the NHS to bear down on precisely these backlogs in a way that will help women in her constituency.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Clarke and Helen Morgan

Tuesday 17th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

T10. It is not only households that are impacted by the cost of living emergency; businesses in North Shropshire are facing unimaginable and unmanageable increases in their fuel bills and other input costs, and this has been compounded by the national insurance tax rise imposed by this Government and paid by employers. Does the Chancellor agree that the increase in national insurance for employers should be scrapped to keep our small businesses in business?

[Mr Simon Clarke]

We are absolutely determined to reduce the burden of tax facing both businesses and individuals. We have already heard during the course of these exchanges about the action we have taken, for example, on the employment allowance and on business rates, which is precisely designed to help businesses succeed in what is obviously a challenging environment.