Joe Powell

My hon. Friend is right. It is welcome that the Building Safety Regulator will be getting 100 new staff, and that Andy Roe has come in to chair it. I am sure the Minister can give more detail. We also need to see faster progress on remediating buildings in London. The new London remediation board, co-chaired by the Greater London Authority and central Government, is really important for that too. The reason this is important for growth is because it is sucking time and capital out of the system to build the new homes that she talks about. I agree that the statistics on new starts have to be turned around. Everyone in this city, including the key workers who will not always access social housing allocations—the teachers, nurses and police officers—need different housing options, including different affordable housing products. Those are the people we are increasingly pushing out of central London, and out of London altogether, which is a huge challenge for our city. Housing and transport go hand in hand, and both are fundamental to delivering growth. Without modern, reliable public transport, we cannot unlock the new homes that London needs, or drive the business growth that will power our city’s future. For too long, the Conservatives held back Transport for London with short-term and inadequate funding that prevented it from planning for the future. That is why I really welcome this Government’s commitment to a long-term funding deal. Sustainable investment of £2.2 billion over, I think, four years will deliver things like new trains on the Piccadilly line and the docklands light railway—the Bakerloo line, too, I hope—as well as new signalling on 40% of the tube network and a new tram fleet. As I mentioned to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), the TfL supply chain is critical across the country, supporting high-quality jobs everywhere, but we must go further. It was pleasing that in the spending review the Chancellor recognised, for example, the potential growth and housing benefits of the DLR Thamesmead extension, and committed to working with TfL to explore all options for its delivery. I ask the Minister to keep up the momentum on that project and look into alternative financing that might be able to come in and get it moving as soon as possible. I am sure hon. Members will talk about other vital projects such as the west London orbital.