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Housing Corporation (Delegation) etc. Bill

I agree, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I merely point out that my Labour predecessor was right. People are better off under the Conservatives. That brings me to another aspect of the work of the Housing Corporation that is barely addressed but could be endangered by the provisions of the Bill—that is, the creation of more shared ownership housing in London. I had the great pleasure of welcoming my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) to my constituency last month to look at a shared ownership scheme at Invermead close in Hammersmith, which we hope and expect to be successful. According to the census that I mentioned earlier, shared ownership is just under 1 per cent. of the total housing stock in Hammersmith and Fulham. The Opposition support shared ownership schemes as a way of helping people on to the property ladder in expensive areas such as Hammersmith and Fulham. We need to consider how the Housing Corporation can encourage more shared ownership builds. Increased powers of delegation may help, although I believe that the shared ownership decision should probably be taken at board level. Not all shared ownership schemes are a success. One in my constituency has been a spectacular failure to date. Two weeks ago I chaired a meeting of the residents of Mallard house in the new Imperial Wharf development in Fulham, together with officers of the housing associations. It is a pity that the Housing Corporation was not represented. Imperial Wharf is the largest residential housing development seen in west London for many years, with 2,000-odd homes approved so far. It is a flagship development for new Labour, the council and the Housing Corporation. Ken Livingstone described it as"““a template of what I want to see across London.””" The scheme is half private, half social and is heavily funded by the Housing Corporation, but unfortunately the economics of the scheme do not work for local people. The private housing is extremely expensive. I have some recent property supplements in which homes in Imperial Wharf are advertised at £1.75 million, £1.35 million and so on. Few people can afford that. The social housing was funded by the Housing Corporation under delegated powers that may or may not have been proper. Even local Labour councillors condemn the poor construction and small size of that housing. The biggest criticism of all, which should be of great interest to the Housing Corporation, stems from the price of the 15 per cent. of the units that are shared ownership, pitched at key workers. Those cost between £320,000 and £410,000 and the scheme is reckoned to be Britain’s most expensive so-called affordable housing scheme funded by the Housing Corporation. In rent and mortgage, a typical couple appear to be paying £1,005 a year to live there. In a six-storey block, perhaps—