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Affordable Housing

My hon. Friend is right. I shall say more in a moment about the need for more properly affordable social and shared ownership housing. On the overall level of house building that is needed, we believe, given the growing number of households with people living alone and an ageing population, that we should be building at least 200,000 new homes a year. The Select Committee said in its report that we should go further. Conservative Members have continued to refuse to say how many new homes they think should be built. Indeed, the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman), when challenged, has repeatedly denied herself the opportunity to say whether she agrees with or supports the 200,000 new homes that we suggest, although she has said:"““We need to build more houses, but not on the scale that Barker recommended.””" I know that the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) is never coy, and I am sure that he would love to take this opportunity to join the consensus in the House and tell us how many homes he thinks are needed for the next generation and how many he thinks we should be building a year.