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Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill

As the hon. Lady well knows, the provision of affordable housing has gone down quite a lot under this Government in comparison with their predecessor. One of the reasons for that is that the Government have failed to provide the resources. I would have thought that the hon. Lady, as Chairman of the Select Committee, already knew that. As I argued in Committee—[Interruption.] I will give way in a moment. The right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford) has only just entered the Chamber and I have already said that I will give way to him in a moment. [Interruption.] I said in a moment. As I argued in Committee, the Bill puts the cart before the horse, so our amendment makes the case for delaying any expenditure in conjunction with the introduction of the planning gain supplement until three months after the latest consultation exercises have closed. The Treasury can then hopefully take those responses properly into account. I will now give way to the right hon. Gentleman, who is a former housing and planning Minister and who is firmly on the record as opposing the whole planning gain supplement concept.