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Affordable Housing

May I begin by thanking the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Paul Holmes) for his speech? When the right hon. Tony Benn stood down as Member for that constituency, many of us felt that something would be missing from the House, but I am delighted that the spirit of Bennism is alive and well in Chesterfield. As the hon. Gentleman was speaking, I was looking at the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws), the standard-bearer of economic liberalism in his party, and saw a frown pass across his features—I can quite understand why. I thank the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey) for the masterly way in which she summed up the views of her Select Committee. She chairs it with grace, and the degree of work that she has put into the subject and the attention she gives it reflect her lifelong commitment to dealing with questions of local government and housing. Conservative Members do not share all her analysis or all her prescriptions, but we are grateful to her and her Committee for their work. The high standard of the hon. Lady’s speech was reflected in almost all the contributions on both sides of the House. The hon. Members for North Swindon (Mr. Wills), for Regent's Park and Kensington, North (Ms Buck) and for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden), the right hon. Member for Oxford, East (Mr. Smith) and the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) each drew attention in their remarks to the problems faced by their constituents. They did so with eloquence and passion. No less eloquence and passion was displayed by my hon. Friends the Members for Ludlow (Mr. Dunne) and for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Hands), who also pointed out the vital importance of increasing housing supply, in particular to deal with the needs of the vulnerable. Sometimes, Labour Members have allowed their Olympian objectivity to lapse and have sought to caricature the Conservative party as restrictionist on housing supply. Any fair-minded observer who had heard the contributions made by my hon. Friends would be in no doubt that we are the party of increasing housing supply and helping the vulnerable.