Andrew Lewin

A number of colleagues have spoken of their great respect for the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George). I have personal thanks to give to him, because many years ago—before Brexit, before coalition Governments and long before I had any grey hair—my first work experience in Parliament was in his office. He is a man who is committed to doing his best to tackle the housing crisis, and I have huge admiration for him. I want to talk about the macro challenge of the housing crisis, which is the real issue that faces us today, but I will start by addressing the point made by the hon. Member about his ambition of having affordable housing secured in perpetuity. I want to reflect on the reforms that this Labour Government have made to right to buy, because they are so important. We are making changes that mean that any new social home built will have a 35-year exemption whereby right to buy cannot be exercised, and the discounts available to people who are seeking right to buy have been significantly reduced. That, by the way, reverses a decision made in 2012 under the coalition Government when those discounts were significantly increased. As I said, I seek to talk to the big picture. I want us to build homes at scale and to have the greatest possible emphasis on building social and affordable housing. I am sorry that this may upset the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett), but I will start with how we got into this problem and talk a little about the collapse in social housing under the coalition Government. This is not party political point scoring; these are facts. In 2010-11—the last year of the last Labour Government—the number of social homes completed was 39,000. That is a combination of council homes and housing association homes—homes for social rent. In 2015-16—the last year of the coalition Government—the number completed was 6,500. That collapse in social housing occurred when the hon. Member’s party were in government. I understand that many Liberal Democrat Members played no part in that Government, but we must recognise that the leader of their party, the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey), sat at the Cabinet table at that time. It was not just under the coalition Government; it continued through the Conservative-majority Governments that followed. By the time we get to 2021, the net loss of social homes in this country from 2012 was 280,000. As a society, we were not just failing to build social housing but losing it year on year. That is why we have a national crisis and that is why this subject is rightly debated so frequently and intensely in the House of Commons.