Michelle Scrogham

I welcome the hon. Member’s intervention. This Government have brought in the powers to increase taxes to tackle that issue. In my area, Liberal Democrat-run Westmorland and Furness council has benefited from that tax by several hundred million pounds. What worries me, though, is that the council has not actually tackled the heart of the problem. Nearly 8,000 households in my constituency are waiting for affordable houses, and there are 3,500 long-term empty homes. If the Liberal Democrats really wanted to get serious about fixing the situation, we have given them the tools to do so, yet Liberal Democrat-run Westmorland and Furness council has failed to do that. My area has the fifth highest number of long-term empty homes in England. We have given councils the tools, so I would suggest that the Liberal Democrats talk to their colleagues and perhaps press for some changes. We are taking action to ensure that local authorities have the regulatory and financial powers to deliver on these commitments. We are reforming the national planning policy framework, restoring mandatory housing targets for local authorities and addressing concerns that the planning permission application process is too lengthy, complex and time consuming. The Government are devolving powers over spending on house building to regional mayors and combined authorities, so that they have greater power to address regional house shortages. We are enabling councils to retain 100% of the receipts from right-to-buy sales and allowing them to channel the money directly back into house building—something I am incredibly passionate about. By reducing barriers, we are getting Britain building again. Although I respect the intentions behind the Bill, I do not believe that it provides the scale of reform necessary to meet the building challenge faced by this country, and nor can I ignore the irony of taking lectures from a party that had five years in government to address many of these issues and failed to do so. For those reasons, I cannot support the Bill. Instead, I back this Government’s programme to deliver the social and affordable homes that Britain needs.