Speaker’s Statement

For three years, since I was elected, I have been campaigning to improve health facilities in my community. I am pleased to see significant investment in Leicestershire, with £14 million for a community diagnostic centre in Hinckley and, as part of a £20 billion programme, hospital improvements at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and the Glenfield Hospital. But I am looking for a hat-trick of health in Hinckley—I am looking for a day case unit. The money is already there but it is tied up in red tape. I have raised this issue with the Health Secretary. Will the Prime Minister look to see what he can do, and would he like to come to open the unit next year in Hinckley?

I am delighted that since its opening last month the Hinckley CDC has already delivered more than 300 additional tests to the local community. My hon. Friend will know that it is for the local health authorities to determine how to allocate the NHS budget in their area, but I have no doubt that he will continue to make the case to them for a day case unit in his community.

I call the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Speaker, may I join your tribute to John and wish him all the best on behalf of the House? I also join the Prime Minister in his comments about the holocaust memorial. I would also like to wish Muslims across the country a happy Eid.

Last week, the Labour party lost Margaret McDonagh, our first female general secretary and a trailblazer in every sense of the word. Margaret provided guidance, leadership and loyal friendship to so many in the Labour movement. It was not long after I started in this job that Margaret was at my door, and I will be forever grateful for the advice and support she gave me. We will all miss her terribly.

The Prime Minister’s party spent thousands of pounds on adverts attacking plans to build 300,000 new homes a year. At the same time, his Housing Minister says that it is Tory party policy to build 300,000 new homes a year. So is the Prime Minister for building 300,000 new homes a year or against it?

I remind the right hon. and learned Gentleman of our record since being in office: 2.2 million additional homes; housing starts double the number we inherited from the Labour party; more homes meeting the decent homes standard; housing supply up 10% in the last year for which we have figures; and, also in the last year for which we have figures, we saw a 20-year high in the number of first-time buyers. That is a Conservative Government delivering for this country.

It was not a difficult question. Can he point to a single person, in housing, construction or anywhere, who thinks that he will actually hit his target of 300,000 new homes a year? Anyone?

The record is that in the last three years we have delivered almost record numbers of new home building in every one of those years. He talks about targets, so let us be clear: I promised to put local people in control of new housing and I delivered on that policy within weeks of becoming Prime Minister. But I am confused by the right hon. and learned Gentleman, because first the shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy), said “communities should have control”, but then he said that we should bring targets back and disempower local people. I want to give him some advice: I do not think it is local people that are the problem—it’s the Labour party’s policy.

Presumably, if he could have identified a single person who thought he would hit his target, he would have told us. There you have the problem: one minute he says he is for building new houses, but the next he is campaigning against them. The truth is that far from delivering, since he crumbled to his Back Benchers and scrapped mandatory targets, house building has collapsed. He knows it, they know it and every expert is telling them that. Why does he not just admit it? He is not going to get anywhere near his target, is he?

The right hon. and learned Gentleman now claims that he supports house building, especially on the green belt, but unfortunately—

Yes.

It’s good that he agrees that he does believe that now, but unfortunately for him, the shadow Deputy Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), the shadow Minister for Women, the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds), the shadow Health Minister, the hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), the shadow Justice Minister, the hon. Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed), the shadow Minister for Defence, the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey), the shadow Business Minister, the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (Jonathan Reynolds), the shadow Minister for Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for Hove (Peter Kyle), and the shadow Minister for Scotland, the hon. Member for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray) are all united against more house building in their areas. I have to say to them that they do not have to worry too much, because he has never actually kept a promise he has made.

You can tell from his answer, Mr Speaker,—his non-answer—and his body language that he has actually given up. His failure is not just shattering the dream of those who desperately want to own their own home; it is also hitting those who already have a mortgage. Because of the Government’s economic chaos, mortgage holders will be £2,900 a year poorer. How can the Government ever look the British people in the eye again and claim to be the party of home ownership?

I do not think he has noticed that his shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Wigan, does not actually agree with his new policy of concreting over the green belt. She has been campaigning against development in her own constituency. She said she wanted to “prevent urban sprawl” and

“provide…green space for local people.”

I think that is quite sensible, but it is classic Labour—saying one thing here and doing another thing elsewhere. You simply cannot trust a word they say.

At least he is not claiming they are the party of home ownership any more, because we are. He’s given up. The Prime Minister says he is “100% on it”, but his definition of “100% on it” is to gently ask the banks to do the right thing. His softly, softly approach, refusing to put mandatory measures in place, risks leaving a million households without support. How many will have to lose their homes before he will stand up for the people his party have pushed into economic misery?